Dr. Sukal
Data Analysis Plan
Understanding the state of mental health among the African Americans
Examine the perspective that African American have in regard to mental health
Research Questions
How do African American elieve they would cope if faced with mental illness?
What support do African American need to improve their mental health?
How do the African American describe their mental health to be?
What are African American `beliefs on mental sicknesses?
Variables
Illness coherences
Cure/control
Cure/control
Illness coherences
Percent and graphs
Analysis
Percent and graphs
Mean
mean
Codes and categories
The main codes identified in the transcribed document are illness coherences and cure control. These are effective codes since they will efficiently allow us to get relevant data for our research. Our main aim is to study the perspective that African Americans have in regard to mental health. Through this, we are as well expected to identify ways to support or improve this mental health. Thus our analysis mainly majors on identifying the illness coherence which brings out the women’s beliefs or perspectives on mental health as well as methods of supporting them.
Hand-coding experience
Coding is a method of indexing and categorizing the text so as to develop a framework of thematic perspective about it. It involves determining a passage in the text as well as other data items, searching as well as determining concepts and determining relations between them. Thus coding does not just involve labeling, it links data to the research idea. The codes allow researchers to organize data in order to examine as well as evaluate them in a structured manner through evaluating relationships between codes (St John, & Johnson, n.d). In this evaluation, we will major in my experiences with choosing QDA software for coding.
For my coding analysis, I made use of QDA software for my coding. Based on my experience using the software, I believe that QDA has a major impact on qualitative research. Since the results of our study are text-based, it tends to be hard for a researcher to break down as well as code information as well as sort through the findings in an effective way. QDA software enables the researchers to code the text-based data in an electronic way. This allows data to be manipulated efficiently. This as well allowed me to conduct a thorough examination of their research. In addition, it allowed me to look at data in an analytical manner. The software had the ability to sort data in groups as well as queries that aid in assessing research data in various ways. The analytical data that was compiled using the software was more accessible in comparison to manipulating the data by hand.
Using the software it was easy to control my data which made it easy to organize data in comparison to cut and paste style. Since we had all the data in one file, the program’s searching tools assisted us in making it easy to find that which the need and to make comparisons between categories. It as well allowed us to record as well as trace back the analytical decision through logging them in the program while coding. Through this software, one can record as well as trace back the analytical decision by logging them in the program as they code. The control assists one to be more reliable as a researcher to learn from the successes and mistakes and to be clear as well as transparent on the analytical decisions in group work. Through this software, one is still the boss. The interpretative work was conducted by me as the researcher, therefore it relies on my brain as well as interpretation skills, and the program enhances one’s life though it does not interpret for me as the researcher.
However, by using this program. It took me too much time. It took me lots of time to learn the program’s features as well as to understand how it would be of benefit to me. This was as well too much expensive for me since I had to hire a tutor for these services. It as well involved too many computers. At times I tend to find it more effective and efficient to use paper. One can easily do this by printing a list of categories, quotations as well as analytical interpretation memos as well as creating outside the computer.
One may as well consider using word or excel. This basically involves coding data in the word comments feature and then extracting the comments in a table for theme analysis. The word table has the capacity of being transferred to excel for data manipulation. It allowed one to have several coders that can integrate the comments from all the documents into a single one prior to extracting the comments for analysis. Every comment has an identity