Sampling and Units of

Analysis
Making the Basic Decisions for
a Content Analysis Project
 Basic Considerations
 Content analysis requires sufficient data
 desired content may be scattered thinly
 analysis may require large volume of data
 Absence is as important as presence
 need to compare presence with absence
 need to understand context of presence
 Finding the right balance
 how much data the research requires
 what is feasible for one person to do
 When and Why to Sample

 each unit of data source is fairly small

 data source extends over a long time

 data source contains way too much

 you are interested in particular aspects

 you need material from multiple sources

 When Not to Sample
 you have only a limited amount of data
 the data source is complete in itself
 you need the entire set to make the case
 there is sufficient internal variability
 the data set is unique or has special properties
 you will do primarily qualitative analysis
 it is feasible to include the entire set
Two Content Analysis Strategies
 Traditional procedure (hypothesis testing)
 develop codes on a sample
 throw out that sample
 apply fixed codes to the rest of the data
 Contemporary approach (exploratory)
 start with small sample for familiarity
 expand gradually but use all the material
 develop codes and analysis iteratively
 Usually need to begin with exploratory
 Usually not testing a clear hypothesis
Get Started with a Test Sample
 purpose is to become familiar with data
 find out what is POSSIBLE
 what content does it contain?
 what questions could you answer with it?
 how can you extract relevant content?
 how much effort does it take?
 to plan a feasible research project
 start with a few cases of the text data
 Sampling Unit vs. Unit of Analysis
 Sample the form the data source provides
 Unit of Analysis can be smaller
 sampling texts, using sentence or paragraph
 sampling films, using scenes
 sampling events, using phases, relations, etc.
 sampling interactions, using exchanges
 Unit of analysis CONTAINS what you want
 Unit of analysis defines N or denominator
 Determining Units of Analysis
 Level of the phenomenon of interest
 how does it appear in the material?
 what context is needed to interpret it?
 Are there already natural units to the data
 does it come in small pieces already?
 are there clear internal divisions?
 are larger units appropriate to the task?
 Will the volume of data be appropriate
 will you have enough “cases” to analyze?
 can you manage that much coding?
 Multiple and Nested Units
 Counting incidence
 can count every incident and sum for unit
 can count presence/absence in larger unit
 Flexible units such as time periods
 code in individual data units
 can combine units later to clarify patterns
 Comparison between sets of data
 code units for two or more sets of data
 combine data by set for analysis
 Unit of Analysis vs Coding Unit
 Unit of Analysis
 what you code WITHIN
 what you compare in the analysis
 you can combine but not divide units later
 Coding Units
 what you actually code for each unit of analysis
 level at which something is described
 you can combine but not divide codes later
 Scale of these two determines coding time
 Three Basic Principles
 Make units only as small as necessary
 for the type of coding you will do
 for the type of analysis you will do
 Code everything you need for every case
 code characteristics of the units as context
 code at the level you can see in the data
 You can combine later but you cannot divide
 Units of analysis can be combined easily
 Codes can also be combined easily
 Dividing requires going back and starting over