9' The qualitative process

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9. The qualitative process
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Different qualities

• Purpose to understand meaning, taking a deep
  interpretative approach to text (discourse,
  pictures, art, graffiti, etc.)
• 1) Pictures of event
• 2) Pictures of mind
• 3) Discursive actions

Edwards p.272. Discourse and Cognition 1997, Sage.
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Pictures of events

• Ethnography and oral histories
• Stories and descriptions are collected as a route
  to the things that are their topicto matters and
  events beyond the talk. It is also part of
  common sense practices, in ordinary talk, texts,
  courtrooms, classrooms, and scientific
  publications, that discourse about events is
  produced as, and taken to be a way of telling and
  finding out about those events...

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Pictures of mind

• Cognitive and narrative psychology and cognitive
  anthropology
• Takes one step back from events themselves, and
  takes a psychological interest in the speaker.
  It treats peoples discourse as how they see
  things... whether as representatives of groups or
  cultures, or as individuals.

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Discursive actions

• Discourse analysis (DA), Conversation analysis
  (CA), Sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK)
• Focuses on discourse itself, as a performative
  domain of social action. Both the two previous
  perspectives (pictures of events and mind) are
  considered here (worked up, managed, topicalized,
  implied and so on), rather than simply available,
  in the discourse. Treats understanding and
  events themselves as participants concerns--the
  stuff the talk works up and deals with.

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Qual. analysis schema
LEVELS
Synthesis integrating the data into one
explanatory framework
Delineating the deep structure
3. Developing and testing propositions to
construct and explanatory framework 2.
Repackaging and aggregating the data 1.
Summarising and packaging the data
Testing hypotheses and reducing the bulk of the
data for the analysis of trends in it
Cross-checking tentative findings. Matrix
analysis of major themes in data
Searching for relationships in the data writing
analytical memos Finding out where the emphases
and gaps in the data are
Identifying themes and trends in the data overall
Coding of data Writing analytical notes on
linkages to various frameworks of interpretation
Trying out coding categories to find a set that
fits
Reconstruction of interview tapes as written
notes Synopses of individual interviews
Creating a text to work on
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A worked example

• This is an example where Students were asked 2
  simple questions about the research methods
  lectures they were given and a qualitative
  analysis undertaken. The stages are outlined on
  the following slides with explanations as to what
  the researcher was doing.

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A simple qualitative analysis

• 1. What is the single most important thing that
  you have learned so far?
• 2. What is the single most important question
  you still feel is not answered?

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The data typed into Excel
Note this is the raw data that participants
returned with some coding (using excel to enter
the data allows you use basic categories or
coding automatically)
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Comments on the data

• Short answers
• Abbreviated somewhat by me (to make typing up of
  200 responses easier)
• Categorised/coded partly as entered into excel
  (excel repeats codes)
• Responses anonymised (not always clear who said
  whatissues about validity?)

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1. summarising and packaging the data

• To some extent this was done entering the data
  into excel, with codes being generated as I dealt
  with the data.
• Problems with this, I only have full accounts on
  the actual sheets, I dont have a typewritten
  version
• Coding of data
• Writing analytical notes on linkages to various
  frameworks of interpretation

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From data to text (after Holliday 2001)
b) thematic data
c) text of data
a) raw data
Extracts from data and discussion with thematic
headings as basis for argument
Further removal from reality
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2. Repackaging and aggregating the data

• Options line by line coding (keeps very close to
  the data less room for individual and more
  subjective interpretation) or focused coding
  where certain recurrent early codings seem to be
  the important ones (can lead more subjective
  interpretationsmore open-ended).

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Line by line coding and writing memos
Response
Coding
Very general, suggests needs more work and
private effort
Very focused on concrete/general issues or
possibly due to uncertainty but wanting to say
something
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Developing categories or themes in response to
question 1

• Breadth involves appreciation of variety and
  range of research methods e.g. deeper
  statistics or range of methods and topics
• Practical and Practical/computer concern with
  general or specific details e.g. regression,
  stats or Statistica
• Process emphasis of how-to? Understanding e.g.
  learnt importance of applying different methods

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Themes continued (Q1)

• Relational Concerned with how one body of
  knowledge relates to another eg understanding
  the benefits of quan and qual
• Specific lectures Identifies specific lectures
  e.g. Advertising lectures or Metaphor lecture
  confusing

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More...

• Humour Aimed at being funny e.g. Can I bring
  food to the lecture? (or possibly someone with
  eating disorder!) and in response to Q2 Does my
  purple shirt clash with my bronze chinos?
  meaning? Not concerned about evaluation? Or
  comfortable with the class so nothing to say?
  Problem with short feedback and no opportunity
  for feedback

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More...

• Reflexive concerned with issues of
  self-realisation e.g. keep reading until makes
  sense or ask tutor or stats need to be worked
  on to fully understand
• Philosophical concerned with thoughtful
  questions beyond normal topics e.g. are we any
  wiser about peoples thoughts?

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3. Developing and testing propositionsto
construct an explanatory framework

• Working on simplifying the number of
  themes/categories and seeking inter-relationships
  between them
• Meaning constructed and checked by looking at
  different responses in same theme and cross
  checking meaning
• Looking to develop a deep account

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Arriving at and using themes (after Holliday 2001)
See how far the headings help to make sense of
the data
Look at the overall character of the corpus of
data
Determine the character of each division
Hunches, focuses, areas of significance, that
arose during data collection
Search for natural divisions in the data
Find headings that suit these division
Use the headings to help organise the writing
Patterns that arise During the data analysis
Developing sense of argument
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Balancing researcher and subject (after Holliday
2001)
Researchers hunches, Agendas, theories, Preoccupa
tions, biography
What the researcher Sees/finds to
be Important/significant
A story to relate
Subject/ Topic
Sincere and faithful to the life, attitudes,
struggles, relationships, Confrontations,
aspirations of the participants
The written Study
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Modelling the concerns of the student
Issues of Application Processes, Relational
Issues of course knowledge Practical, Concrete,
Processes, Breadth Specific lectures
Asides Humour
Philosophy
Reflections Thinking about performance
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An example of psychic energy

• Background psychic energy often used to
  describe the actions/processes of psychics,
  healers etc.
• Aim to explore meanings of energy
• Participants Jenny and Jill psychic counsellors
  Phil a psychic who reads auras and Anna, a Reiki
  practitioner.

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On energy

• Methods Interviews lasting up to 2 hrs each,
  fully transcribed, each transcript treated with
  thematic analysis, each transcript re-analysed
  for discussion of energy.
• Accounts of energy thematically analysed and
  presented according to different aspects of
  energy.

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Energy as physical

• This force is not immaterial. It may be a
  substance, an agent, emitting radiations having
  wave lengths which do no affect our retina... In
  the absence of light rays this force can
  concentrate itself, materialize, even assume a
  certain resemblance to a human body, act like our
  organs, knock violently on a table, touch us.
  (in Alvarado, 1993, p.282)

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Energy as ambiguous

• Energy is the perfect organising concept because
  it is both all-encompassing and ambiguous. Like
  the spirit world itself, energy is everywhere
  and yet difficult to see. Its elusive,
  mysterious quality lends itself to metaphysical
  speculation. Each of us has experienced energy
  in palpably physical forms sound, vibrations,
  heat, gravity. By bridging scientific and
  spiritual approaches to the world, energy offers
• a way to bring everything together in a grand
  synthesis. Ultimately, everything is energy,
  channels often say. Because energy is
  everything, it is also nothing very specific,
  which makes it a perfect vehicle for creating
  shared meaning among spiritual individualists.
  The chief lesson of the channelling class was
  that these omnipresent energies are texts we can
  learn to read, texts that ultimately offer clues
  to the self. By reading them we assimilate new
  identities, becoming wiser and more powerful in
  the process. Jim, who has an expedition guide
  had struggled through the most hostile terrain on
  earth, felt that his new-found gift had greatly
  increased his ability to gather the messages
  dancing around him. Theres a lot more energy
  out there than we think, and its all
  information, he said. We can pick our way
  through it to find our own wisdom. Brown (1997)
  p90

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The discourse How is energy involved?

• Reiki actually works through, what is known as
  Universal Life Energy Force. There is energy all
  around everybody, yknow, all the energy that is
  round us, even in crystals, its the energy that
  is actually within the crystals that attunes to
  you and works on your vibrations.... Now when
  you are actually giving Reiki to anyone, you are
  used as a channel for the Universal Life Energy
  Force, it comes through your hands to the person.
  So, if you imagine electricity, you put the
  socket in and it comes along the cables to light
  up the fire or whatever it is, so that is the
  best way of explaining. (Anna)

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Energy is...

• I think I probably did see auras around
  everything, but its around people that you
  remember the most, because people interest me, so
  I tend to remember, but I can see them around
  trees and flowers, and buildings. I used to see
  energy in tears and things, and I didnt know
  what it was, and then I discovered it was to do
  with what we call leylines . I used to see
  these things as a child for example, and I wasnt
  sure what they were, but now I think theyre
  leylines taking the energy out. phil

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Energy as a process

• ....once youve had your attunements that youre
  given with your Reiki Master it comes through
  you, through your hands and you can actually feel
  your hands switch on. They literally switch on,
  you can actually be somewhere and the person
  whos really low and needs a treatment, and you
  can be sitting there and your hands can switch
  on, because that persons body has started to
  respond to your Reiki energy. Your Reiki energy
  has realised that somebody is there and it
  switches on and that person is drawing the energy
  from you. (Anna)

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Energy and time perception

• sometimes Im watching for the time to go and
  sometimes, the time, the readings, just go so
  well that the time passes very quickly. Do you
  understand what I mean? So what Im trying to
  say to you it must be the certain energy. Like
  sometimes I can work in a pub or a house, and I
  could work there all night I could work there to
  4 or 5 oclock in the morning because the energy
  is there and I feel so pleased and with the
  energy being high its giving me a boost as well.
  (Jenny)

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Properties of energy

• It affects different people in different ways.
  Sometimes your hands go very hot, as I said,
  sometimes they go cold, depends upon what type of
  energy the person requires, sometimes your hands
  are really tingling. You get a really tingling
  sensation. Its quite difficult to explain,
  really. But more often than not it is like a
  tingling/throbbing sensation. (Anna)

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Writing the report

• Introduction introduces background to study area
  about 60 of this section. Overview of
  methodology to inform and reflect
• Method Number of participants, ages, gender,
  ethical issues, other relevant info.

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Writing the report

• Analysis rather than results account of how
  quotes were selected e.g. exhaustive coding of
  categories initially obtained from prior research
  literature or generation of themes through
  repeated reading of key sections and discussion
  with colleagues.
• Quotes embedded in narrative, with interpretation
  and justification, summarise theme

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Writing the report

• Discussion Findings should be related to
  material presented in the introduction. Are they
  supporting or not?
• Reflexive section in discussion or at end of
  analysis section. Discusses the position of the
  researcher in relation to the analysis,
  interpretation and possible omissions in the
  study for remedy in future.

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Writing up on energy
These visual representations of energy are not
limited to the practitioners according to Anna,
these are also occasionally experienced by Reiki
clients. Some people just go to sleep, a lot of
people see loads of colours, some see different
pictures. Some find themselves transported
somewhere completely different. It affects
different people in different ways. And its
the same with the therapies, I mean, you actually
are channeling... (Anna) Jenny sometimes
percieves energy through mental pictures or
representations. Anyway when Im going into
houses and that, I can feel by just going into a
house whether its going to be a good house or a
bad house yknow, what the energies are going to
be like. I, like a lot of psychic mediums,
get pictures, say for instance, that your father
had passed away I get a picture of your father
in my head. Jenny Jill explains that this can
also be mediated through physical representations
or sensations interestingly both Jenny and Jill
showed a certain antipathy to this kind of
mediumship and they considered it to be of lower
value than mental mediumship. You can say to
somebody like you can get a pain in your leg or
knee and you can say to that person did your
mother suffer with her legs?,
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Summarising

• 1. an unseen (unless you are psychic) but
  everpresent dynamic which is responsible for life
  and animation in all its forms (animism).
• 2. autonomous and self-regulating (a client will
  receive as much as is necessary)
• 3. detected by becoming attuned to it (this is
  probably responsible for the notions of
  vibrations or frequencies). This attunement
  was once a natural state of affairs but modern
  culture has distanced us from recognising its
  presence.
• 4. felt as heat, cold, pain, prickling or
  vaguely like electrical sensations. It can also
  be seen influencing systems in the environment
  which rely on electricity.
• 5. is quite frequently personified and equated
  with entities. Energies are often derived from
  higher entities (including God) and sometimes the
  term is used in such a way as to confuse the two
  concepts. Possibly greater acquaintance with
  energy changes this assumption of otherness.
• 6. at its most physical is attached to place and
  can be seen as focusing or dissipating in certain
  locations
• 7. polarised, usually expressed in terms of
  basic schemas such as the up down schema (where
  good is up and bad is down).
• 8. described visually as like light in its
  higher forms and web-like in its lower forms.
• 9. gathered, can be retained or dissipated.