DATA PREPARATION & ANALYSIS

Prof. Dr. Ainul Jaria Maidin

 QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS

Aim of qualitative Research: To ascertain opinions, attitudes,

behavior, likes or dislikes
Purpose: To ascertain how people feel, what they think about
a certain phenomenon or why they behave in a certain way
Main forms: field observation, content analysis, group
studies, and in-depth interview
Method of data collection: in the form of notes or other
textural materials words, descriptions or narratives
Purpose of data analysis in quantitative studies: to extract
meaning from what the researcher has studied, what and how
something happens or exists
Qualitative studies: Data are not converted into numerical
format
 QUANTITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS

Main forms: Questionnaire or interview

The data from questionnaire or interview have to be reduced
(often called data reduction), summarized and rearranged.
The transformation of raw data into information requires:
The data to be edited and coded
Why has to be transformed?
To transfer into a computer (insert into a computer file or into
what is usually called data file or data set) or any other medium
of storing
 EDITING & CODING

Editing: The process of checking and adjusting the data for

omissions, legibility and consistency
Purpose: To ensure that data are accurate, complete,
consistent with the intent of the question and other
information in the survey and are arranged in such a way as to
simplify coding and tabulation

Coding: The method of assigning numbers (or other symbols such

as letters or words) to answers so that the responses can be
grouped into a limited number of classes or categories
Code: The number or symbol assigned to an answer
Example: Male and Female Coded as M and F
Male and Female Coded as 1 and 2
 EDITING

Look for answers that are incomplete, misunderstood, do

Correcting Mistakes not seem to be correct due to some error etc.

Removing Wherever feasible, follow up with the respondent, get the

Inconsistencies correct data while editing

Handling Blank Assign the midpoint in the scale point as a value

Responses Ignore the item during analysis

Dealing with Dont Ignore if they are few; but put legitimate answers under
Know Responses separate reply if DK are too many

Doing the editing the same day as data collection

Field Editing Check technical omissions, readable and clarity of answers

1. Editing job performed by centralized staff

In-House Editing 2. Editing by one or more persons when the data had been
collected/completed (not simultaneous with field editing)
 CODING

Pre-Coding & Pre-coding: A situation where numerical coding is conducted

Post Coding when the questionnaire or interview schedule itself is being
prepared

Post-Coding: A situation where coding is conducted after the

questionnaire has been administered and the questions answered,
or often the interview schedule and responses recorded from all
possible respondents Preferable than pre-coding
Coding Open- In open-ended questions, people often say the same thing but in
Ended different words or their responses are similar
Questions

What to do?
Create a well-defined limited number of categories and group all
similar responses into such categories
 CODING RULES

Appropriateness
The entire data collected should be so classified as to provide the
best possible categories in order to test hypotheses and determine
the possible factors behind variables

Exhaustiveness
Coding categories should be exhaustive in the sense that all
such responses as may be useful for research purposes should
have separate code categories

Mutual Exclusivity
Researcher must ensure that there is no overlap between the
categories so that the subject or response can be placed in only
one category
 CODEBOOK CONSTRUCTION

Codebook/coding scheme
Codebook: Specifies all the items included in the data
collection instrument (such as interview schedule) and other
necessary information.
It is a kind of inventory used by the researcher as a guide to
make data entry less prone to error and more efficient.
Contain question number, variable name, description for the
response option and indicate and location of the variables
code on the entry medium
Example: See the next slide
 A Codebook for a Study of Domestic Violence

Item Variable Variable Label Value Labels Position

Name
1 Identification number IDENT Identification 1
number
2 Offenders name NAME Offenders name 2

3 Offenders year of BIRTH Year of birth (actual year) 3

birth
4 How many prior arrest PRIORS Number prior arrest (actual number) 4
for domestic violence
5 Offenders gender GENDER Offenders gender 1 = male 5
2 = female
6 Offenders relationship RELATION Relation to victim 1= married 6
with victim 2 = cohabiting
3 = separated
4 = divorced
5 = dating
6 = other
0 = not applicable
8 = dont know
9 = no answer
 DATA ENTRY

Classical method:
Using
using sheets of
computer
paper

Post-
Pre-coding
coding

Use of
software
Statistical software
to
transfer
 DATA ANALYSIS

Data Analysis: The process of examining, summarizing, and

drawing conclusions from the information contained in the
raw data
Main Objective: To ascertain whether hypotheses or
research questions, framed earlier in the research design, have
been verified and, in general, what are the findings of results
based on the data
Methods: Involves a mix of common sense and a fairly good
knowledge of statistical methods and the way they can be
used in research data analysis
Mainly used statistical packages:
SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences)
SAS (Statistical Analysis System