A ‘code’ is the most relevant term or a phrase of certain words that is assigned to a sentence and paragraph with
a purpose to give salient and evocative attributes to the whole information to make qualitative data analysis
easier. Qualitative data includes interview transcripts, journals, documents, audios, video, photographs,
participants’ observation and so forth.
a purpose to give salient and evocative attributes to the whole information to make qualitative data analysis
easier. Qualitative data includes interview transcripts, journals, documents, audios, video, photographs,
participants’ observation and so forth.
Below is an excerpt taken from an interview that was conducted to scrutinise subcultures prevailing among
teenage girls.
teenage girls.
Excerpt
|
Descriptive Coding
|
“Although body concerns and weight management have been main concerns for going in for sport activities, I love this as I learn new skills (1). It increases my self-esteem and improves fitness (2). I also develop new social networks.”
|
Conventional ideals of
beauty |
However, you can also assign several codes to data. Here is an instance of multiple codes to data that
was collected in an interview in which a participant girl described a reason for showing interest in
sports participation.
In the examples presented so far, each unit was assigned a unique code. This became possible because data description was short, but in the case of large data, you will assign similar codes several times. This is natural because you will notice repetitive actions or consistencies in human behaviour. However, this action is deliberate too because you have to analyse repetitive actions or patterns of participants.
was collected in an interview in which a participant girl described a reason for showing interest in
sports participation.
Excerpt
|
Descriptive Coding
|
“Although body concerns and weight management have been
main concerns for going in for sport activities, I love this as I learn new skills (1). It increases my self-esteem and improves fitness (2). I also develop new social networks.” |
|
In the examples presented so far, each unit was assigned a unique code. This became possible because data description was short, but in the case of large data, you will assign similar codes several times. This is natural because you will notice repetitive actions or consistencies in human behaviour. However, this action is deliberate too because you have to analyse repetitive actions or patterns of participants.
You have to be a bit cautious when it comes to understanding patterns for coding. Participants always
share their perspectives, thinking, opinions and feelings in their own ways, therefore their responses
may vary. When you will find patterns in the coded data to categorise, you have to group them on the
basis of similarities, dissimilarities, correspondence, causation, sequence and frequency.
share their perspectives, thinking, opinions and feelings in their own ways, therefore their responses
may vary. When you will find patterns in the coded data to categorise, you have to group them on the
basis of similarities, dissimilarities, correspondence, causation, sequence and frequency.
For instance, if you asked your participants “how do they bring the internet in their use?”, you received
following responses:
following responses:
- Online courses
- English Speaking course
- Computer programming
- Chatting
- Writing
You will categorise the coded data as follows:
Online courses:
- English speaking course
- Computer programming
Activities;
- Chatting
- Writing
Types of coding
Magnitude coding - Magnitude coding consists of symbolic or alphanumeric codes or subcodes to indicate the frequency of a particular characteristic or variable.
Structural coding - This type of coding is a question-based coding that helps you analyse data for further categorisation. This may include questions like:
What do people feel about a particular event?
What are their assumptions?
How do they react in a particular situation?
What strategies do they use?
Descriptive coding - This coding involves assigning a phrase to summarise a sentence or paragraph. Phrases for coding are picked from the language used in data.
In vivo coding - In vivo coding involves picking up those words or phrases that are remarkably used by interviewees.
Holistic coding - Holistic coding involves assigning a single code to a large part of data to provide a sense of overall content.
Hypothesis coding - Hypotheses coding involves your instinct or assumptions of what might occur in data before the data has been analysed.
Pattern coding - It involves recording and examination of patterns that are important to describe a phenomenon to find the answers to research questions.
Once you have applied coding to your data, the next step is theorising it. You have to explain how and why by describing the causes to provide insight into your study.
