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DATA SC IENCE

Your Guide to Qualitative and

Quantitative Data Analysis
Methods
BY M A NU B H ATI A - SEP TEM B ER 5 , 2 0 1 8 - 7 M INS R EA D

What is the first thing that comes to mind when we see data? The first
instinct is to find patterns, connections, and relationships. We look at the
data to find meaning in it.

Similarly, in research, once data is collected, the next step is to get

insights from it. For example, if a clothing brand is trying to identify the
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latest trends among young women, the brand will first reach out to young
women and ask them questions relevant to the research objective. After
collecting this information, the brand will analyze that data to identify
patterns — for example, it may discover that most young women would
like to see more variety of jeans.

Data analysis is how researchers go from a mass of data to meaningful

insights. There are many different data analysis methods, depending on
the type of research. Here are a few methods you can use to analyze
quantitative and qualitative data.

It’s difficult to analyze bad data. Make sure you’re collecting high-quality
data with our blog “4 Data Collection Techniques: Which One’s Right for
You?”.

Analyzing Quantitative Data

Data Preparation

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The first stage of analyzing data is data preparation, where the aim is to
convert raw data into something meaningful and readable. It includes
four steps:

Step 1: Data Validation

The purpose of data validation is to find out, as far as possible, whether

the data collection was done as per the pre-set standards and without
any bias. It is a four-step process, which includes…

Fraud, to infer whether each respondent was actually interviewed or

not.

Screening, to make sure that respondents were chosen as per the

research criteria.

Procedure, to check whether the data collection procedure was duly

followed.

Completeness, to ensure that the interviewer asked the respondent

all the questions, rather than just a few required ones.

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To do this, researchers would need to pick a random sample of

completed surveys and validate the collected data. (Note that this can be
time-consuming for surveys with lots of responses.) For example,
imagine a survey with 200 respondents split into 2 cities. The researcher
can pick a sample of 20 random respondents from each city. After this,
the researcher can reach out to them through email or phone and check
their responses to a certain set of questions.

Check out 18 data validations that will prevent bad data from slipping into
your data set in the first place.

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Step 2: Data Editing

Typically, large data sets include errors. For example, respondents may
fill fields incorrectly or skip them accidentally. To make sure that there are
no such errors, the researcher should conduct basic data checks, check
for outliers, and edit the raw research data to identify and clear out any
data points that may hamper the accuracy of the results.

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For example, an error could be fields that were left empty by

respondents. While editing the data, it is important to make sure to
remove or fill all the empty fields. (Here are 4 methods to deal with
missing data.)

Step 3: Data Coding

This is one of the most important steps in data preparation. It refers to

grouping and assigning values to responses from the survey.

For example, if a researcher has interviewed 1,000 people and now

wants to find the average age of the respondents, the researcher will
create age buckets and categorize the age of each of the respondent as
per these codes. (For example, respondents between 13-15 years old
would have their age coded as 0, 16-18 as 1, 18-20 as 2, etc.)

Then during analysis, the researcher can deal with simplified age
brackets, rather than a massive range of individual ages.

Quantitative Data Analysis Methods

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After these steps, the data is ready for analysis. The two most commonly
used quantitative data analysis methods are descriptive statistics and
inferential statistics.

Descriptive Statistics

Typically descriptive statistics (also known as descriptive analysis) is the

first level of analysis. It helps researchers summarize the data and find
patterns. A few commonly used descriptive statistics are:

Mean: numerical average of a set of values.

Median: midpoint of a set of numerical values.

Mode: most common value among a set of values.

Percentage: used to express how a value or group of respondents

within the data relates to a larger group of respondents.

Frequency: the number of times a value is found.

Range: the highest and lowest value in a set of values.

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Descriptive statistics provide absolute numbers. However, they do not

explain the rationale or reasoning behind those numbers. Before applying
descriptive statistics, it’s important to think about which one is best suited
for your research question and what you want to show. For example, a
percentage is a good way to show the gender distribution of respondents.

Descriptive statistics are most helpful when the research is limited to the
sample and does not need to be generalized to a larger population. For
example, if you are comparing the percentage of children vaccinated in
two different villages, then descriptive statistics is enough.

Since descriptive analysis is mostly used for analyzing single variable, it

is often called univariate analysis.

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Analyzing Qualitative Data

Qualitative data analysis works a little differently from quantitative data,
primarily because qualitative data is made up of words, observations,
images, and even symbols. Deriving absolute meaning from such data is
nearly impossible; hence, it is mostly used for exploratory research.

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While in quantitative research there is a clear distinction between the

data preparation and data analysis stage, analysis for qualitative
research often begins as soon as the data is available.

Data Preparation and Basic Data Analysis

Analysis and preparation happen in parallel and include the following
steps:

1. Getting familiar with the data: Since most qualitative data is just
words, the researcher should start by reading the data several times
to get familiar with it and start looking for basic observations or
patterns. This also includes transcribing the data.

2. Revisiting research objectives: Here, the researcher revisits the

research objective and identifies the questions that can be answered
through the collected data.

3. Developing a framework: Also known as coding or indexing, here

the researcher identifies broad ideas, concepts, behaviors, or
phrases and assigns codes to them. For example, coding age,
gender, socio-economic status, and even concepts such as the

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positive or negative response to a question. Coding is helpful in

structuring and labeling the data.

4. Identifying patterns and connections: Once the data is coded, the

research can start identifying themes, looking for the most common
responses to questions, identifying data or patterns that can answer
research questions, and finding areas that can be explored further.

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Qualitative Data Analysis Methods

Several methods are available to analyze qualitative data. The most
commonly used data analysis methods are:

Content analysis: This is one of the most common methods to

analyze qualitative data. It is used to analyze documented
information in the form of texts, media, or even physical items. When
to use this method depends on the research questions. Content
analysis is usually used to analyze responses from interviewees.

Narrative analysis: This method is used to analyze content from

various sources, such as interviews of respondents, observations
from the field, or surveys. It focuses on using the stories and
experiences shared by people to answer the research questions.

Discourse analysis: Like narrative analysis, discourse analysis is

used to analyze interactions with people. However, it focuses on
analyzing the social context in which the communication between
the researcher and the respondent occurred. Discourse analysis
also looks at the respondent’s day-to-day environment and uses that
information during analysis.

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Grounded theory: This refers to using qualitative data to explain

why a certain phenomenon happened. It does this by studying a
variety of similar cases in different settings and using the data to
derive causal explanations. Researchers may alter the explanations
or create new ones as they study more cases until they arrive at an
explanation that fits all cases.

These methods are the ones used most commonly. However, other data
analysis methods, such as conversational analysis, are also available.

Data analysis is perhaps the most important component of research.

Weak analysis produces inaccurate results that not only hamper the
authenticity of the research but also make the findings unusable. It’s
imperative to choose your data analysis methods carefully to ensure that
your findings are insightful and actionable.

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