Auerbach Carl F. - Qualitative data: an introduction to coding and analysis

QUALITATIVE DATA

QUALITATIVE STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY

This series showcases the power and possibility of qualitative work in psychology. Books feature detailed and vivid accounts of qualitative psychology research using a variety of methods, including participant observation and fieldwork, discursive and textual analyses, and critical cultural history. They probe vital issues of theory, implementation, interpretation, representation, and ethics that qualitative workers confront. The series mission is to enlarge and refine the repertoire of qualitative approaches to psychology.

GENERAL EDITORS
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Glenda M. Russell

Inner City Kids: Adolescents Confront Life and Violence in an Urban Community
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From Subjects to Subjectivities: A Handbook of Interpretive and
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Situating Sadness: Women and Depression in Social Context
Edited by Janet M. Stoppard and Linda M. McMullen

Living Outside Mental Illness: Qualitative Studies of Recovery in Schizophrenia
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Qualitative Data: An Introduction to Coding and Analysis
Carl F. Auerbach and Louise B. Silverstein

QUALITATIVE DATA

An Introduction to Coding and Analysis

CARL F. AUERBACH AND
LOUISE B. SILVERSTEIN

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London

2003 by New York University
All rights reserved
www.nyupress.org

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Auerbach, Carl F.
Qualitative data : an introduction to coding and analysis / Carl F.
Auerbach and Louise B. Silverstein.
p. cm. (Qualitative studies in psychology)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-8147-0694-0 (cloth) ISBN 0-8147-0695-9 (paper)
1. PsychologyResearchMethodology. 2. Qualitative research.
I. Silverstein, Louise B. II. Title. III. Series.
BF76.5.A95 2003
150.723dc21 2003001046

New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Preface

The aim of this book is to teach you how to do qualitative research. It will take you through the qualitative research process, beginning with examining the basic philosophy of qualitative research and ending with planning and carrying out a qualitative research study.

This book is part of a movement in the social sciences that is attempting to expand traditional research design and methodology. Traditional research in the social sciences has been characterized by the following principles: formulating hypotheses and testing them statistically, developing scales and questionnaires, attempting to control for extraneous variables by using control groups, and striving to generalize from one sample to an entire population.

Historically, this type of research was accepted as the only correct version of the scientific method. More recently, however, a growing number of social scientists have been reevaluating their approach to empirical research. These researchers have begun to focus on subjective experience, diversity, and historical context. Quantitative research, with its emphasis on operationalizing variables, statistical analysis, and generalizability, is not always well suited to illuminating these concerns. As a result, researchers and theorists are developing alternative, nonquantitative scientific methods, namely qualitative research.

Throughout this book we will illustrate the research process with examples from our own research. We are co-directing a large-scale study of mens development as fathers, the Yeshiva University Fatherhood Project. We will draw our examples from our published papers on Haitian and Promise Keeper fathers. Qualitative research cannot be done without making mistakes, so we will discuss our mistakes, oversights, and failures as well as our successes. You may notice throughout this book that the qualitative researcher is referred to alternately with the pronoun he and she. Some years ago, before feminism changed stylistic conventions, the pronoun he would have been used exclusively, falsely implying that the typical researcher was male. In this book we use she and he in alternate chapters, to indicate that qualitative research, like all research, can be undertaken by both women and men.

The book is organized into five parts. , Getting into Qualitative Research, examines the basic philosophy of qualitative research and contrasts it with traditional quantitative research.

, Planning Your First Research Study, takes you through the procedures for planning a qualitative research study and contrasts them with the corresponding procedures for planning a quantitative research study.

, Analyzing Your First Research Study, deals with the process of analyzing qualitative data, a process called coding. We will describe a six-step procedure that goes from confronting a massive set of verbal transcripts to developing a theory relevant to your research project. This procedure is the core of the book.

, Designing and Analyzing Your Next Research Study, helps you to take the next step once you have completed your first study. Here we show you how to design and analyze research to further develop your initial study.

, Final Thoughts, is the most personal part of the book. We share with you what qualitative research has meant to us, and the direction our own qualitative research is taking.

Finally, the book has three appendixes. In we provide the text of two research articles as models so that you can see how your research can be organized into a publishable article.

Good luck in your study of qualitative research. If you have any thoughts or questions as you are reading the book, please feel free to contact us out our Website: http://members.aol.com/lbsilverst/fathers/index.html . Just as we want to hear the voices of our research participants, we want to hear your voices. Please let us know which parts of the book have been helpful, and which parts need more explication. We look forward to hearing from you.

Acknowledgments

Writing this book would have been impossible without the assistance of many people. We are grateful to our colleagues at Yeshiva University, Dr. Larry Siegel, Dr. Abraham Givner, and Dr. Irma Hilton for their administrative and personal support of this project in good times and bad. Dr. Barbara Melamed was an early supporter of the Yeshiva Fatherhood Project, as it was moving from idea to reality. We are grateful to Carls teaching assistants, Dr. Edith Shiro-Gelrud and Mr. Harold Hamilton, for bearing with us while we developed the course material. We received invaluable editorial assistance from Jennifer Hammer at NYU Press, who saw the book through from an initial conversation to the final product, and helped us find the appropriate tone for the book. Dr. Jeanne Marecek and Dr. Michelle Fine paved the way for our making contact with NYU Press, and were the best of readersequal parts supportive and challenging. Dr. David Klein read our first book proposal and helped us get it into shape.