Monday, October 21, 2013

Saldana Ch. 3

The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers, Ch. 3
First Cycle Coding Methods

The first cycle of coding is the initial coding of data. Saldana identifies seven types of first cycle coding: grammatical, elemental, affective, literary, and language. Each of these types has several particular coding methods associated with it. The second cycle of coding is characterized as more analytic, and it includes classifying, prioritizing, integrating, synthesizing, abstracting, conceptualizing, and theory building.
Choosing the right type of coding is dependent on several factors, and the choice should be guided by your research question, your paradigmatic and methodological choices, and exploratory work with your data set. Saldana suggests a generic coding method for figuring out the right type of coding for your data, begging with attribute coding and followed by structural/holistic coding, descriptive coding, and in vivo, initial, or value coding.

Grammatical Methods
Attribute coding: Used for nearly all studies, attribute coding goes before the text and lists all relevant attributes to the data set, including qualitative and quantitative properties.
Magnitude coding: This adds an alphanumeric measure of intensity to another coding scheme
Subcoding: Creates a secondary code to accompany a primary coding system. The subcode is hierarchically below the status of the primary code.
Simultaneous coding: Utilizes a second code of equal standing or importance to the primary code, at the same time on the same texts

Elemental Methods
Structural coding: Codes related to questions asked during interviews/recurrent topics from participants; especially useful with large numbers of participant responses following a similar structure
Descriptive coding: Creates codes related to the topic of qualitative data. This is different from codes referring to the content.
In vivo coding: Uses the language of the data to code instead of labels chosen by the researcher
Process coding: Codes through use of gerunds—what the language is doing conceptually or what an observed participant is physically doing
Initial coding: Open-ended approach that breaks data down into parts and compares them; iterative

Affective Methods
Emotion coding: Labels emotions experienced or recalled by participants
Values coding: Codes values, attitudes, and beliefs expressed in participant responses
Versus coding: Codes for binaries, dialectics, and rivalries
Evaluation coding: Used to evaluate programs, evaluation coding makes value judgments (non-quantitative) and attempts to describe, compare, and predict success from a program

Literary and Language Methods
Dramaturgical coding: The application of dramatic elements to qualitative data (not just Burke’s pentad), drawing from Goffman and impression management
Motif coding: Uses index codes for classifying folk tales, myths, and legends; the motif is the smallest unique unit in the story
Narrative coding: Open form of coding whatever the researcher considers a narrative; done from a literary perspective
Verbal exchange coding: Aims at finding a generic form of conversation. Codes precise transcripts of conversations as phatic communication, ordinary conversation, skilled conversation, personal narratives, and dialogue.

Exploratory Methods
Holistic coding: Looks for themes and issues by taking in qualitative data as a whole rather than analyze line-by-line.
Provisional coding: The creation of a set of codes before analyzing the data based on existing knowledge of the texts
Hypothesis coding: Coding done with a predetermined set of codes aimed at testing a particular hypothesis

Procedural Methods
Protocol coding: Protocol coding occurs when all coding is done by a rigid, preset system rather than an open or iterative process
Outline of Cultural Materials (OCM) coding: Coding that follows the OCM, a topical index for anthropologists and archaeologists
Domain and taxonomic coding: An ethnographic type of coding, domain and taxonomic coding looks for cultural knowledge; it separates processes into steps, looks for cultural categories, and identifies semantic relationships (strict inclusion, spatial, cause-effect, rationale, location for action, function, means-end, sequence, and attribution).
Causation coding: Looks for causal beliefs in qualitative data; notes dimensions of causality, including internal/external, stable/unstable, global/specific, personal/universal, and controllable/uncontrollable

Themeing the Data

A theme is a phrase or sentence that identifies what a unit of data is about or means. Creating themes means finding groupings of implicit ideas among the coded data. 

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