1. Content Analysis Research Methods

2. Learning Objectives  Define qualitative data  Outline the process of content analysis  Carry out content analysis  Evaluate content analysis as a process and discuss how it could be improved

3. What is qualitative data? Qualitative is non-numerical and uses words to give a full description of what people think or feel.

4. Content Analysis  Systematic technique of analysing qualitative data by turning it into quantitative data

5. Stages of Content Analysis 1. Gathering of data – could be newspapers, websites, TV programmes, song lyrics etc… 2. Producing Transcripts – convert sources into written material 3. Create categories – what are you looking for? (i.e. certain behaviours) 4. Pilot study – used to test categories 5. Carry out analysis – count how many incidences there are in each category 6. Totals –number of frequencies in each category are totalled up and compared

6. Your Task  Testing the hypothesis that men refer to appearance more than women  What categories will you have? – i.e. certain words  Create a table  Tally the number of examples which fall into each category for men and women  Total up the frequencies of your categories  Do the results support the hypothesis? MenWomen Good-lookingIIIIII

7. Evaluation  Why might content analysis be a good method?  What problems might there be with content analysis?  How can these be improved?

8. Past Exam Q  A researcher used content analysis to investigate how the behaviour of young children changed when they started day care.  He identified a group of nine-month-old children who were about to start day care. He asked the mother of each child to keep a diary recording her child’s behaviour everyday for two weeks before and for two weeks after the child started day care.  5 (a) Explain how the researcher could have used content analysis to analyse what the mothers had written in their diaries.

9. Mark Scheme  Content analysis is a way of analysing data such as text using coding units such as themes. In this case mothers were asked to write down how their child behaved. The researchers would follow these steps:  Create a checklist/categories  Relevant example(s) of behaviours e.g aggression, crying  Read through the diaries/mothers’ writing/reports  Counting behaviours or tallying  Compare before and after day care

10. Homework – For next week  Complete the glossary at the back of you research methods booklets  Complete any missed sections – ensure you are up-to- date!