Qualitative Data Analysis

Qualitative data analysis is one of the methods used for qualitative research. Qualitative research is a method of inquiry used in many academic disciplines like social sciences, marketing research and other contexts. It gathers a detailed understanding of human behaviors and the reasons and factors which govern these behaviors. Many qualitative studies collect audio and video and transcribe it into a written form for closer study. This method of data analysis includes cleaning, transforming and concluding data.

 

Qualitative Data Analysis

What are the phases of data analysis?

Data analysis is a process, within which we can distinguish several phases. They include:

• Data cleaning

• Initial data analysis; it assesses the data quality.

• Main data analysis; it answers the original research question.

• Final data analysis; it gives necessary additional analysis and report.

Data cleaning is employed for making the article errors free. It can be done during the stage of data entry.

The main distinctive character between initial data analysis phase and main data analysis phase is that in initial data study, any analysis answering the original research question is avoided.

 Qualitative Data Analysis:

Does quality of sample matters?

Any article passed through the initial data analysis phase faces four questions and quality of sample is one of them. No one would bother reading analysis if it is not excellent enough. So quality of data should be checked a early as possible. It can be get done by using various ways, including frequency counts, descriptive statistics, normality, associations and correlations.

Qualitative Data Analysis

Final stage of qualitative data analysis:

During the final stage, some most important changes are made. All the data collected from data analysis are combined, documented, proofread and corrections are made if necessary. In simple it is finalized in a concluded form after making ideal changes. Variables are transformed and made categorical. Possible transformations of variables are as follows:

• Square root transformation; if distribution differs from normal, moderately.

• Long term transformation; if distribution differs substantially from normal.

• Inverse transformation; if distribution differs severely from normal.

• Try making them categorical; if the distribution differs severely from normal, and no transformations work.

Using above techniques, you can excellently do qualitative data analysis.