Sharlene Hesse-Biber

Computer-aided qualitative data analysis : theory, methods and practice

Introduction - Udo Kelle An Overview of Computer-Aided Methods in Qualitative Research PART ONE: GENERAL METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES Computer Use in Qualitative Research and Issues of Validity - Udo Kelle and Heather Laurie User Experiences of Qualitative Data Analysis Software - Raymond M Lee and Nigel G Fielding Grounded Theory as an Emerging Paradigm for Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis - Marrku Lonkila Different Functions of Coding in the Analysis of Textual Data - John Seidel and Udo Kelle PART TWO: COMPUTERS AND QUALITATIVE THEORY BUILDING Introduction: Using Linkages and Networks for Theory Building - Gerald Prein and Udo Kelle in discussion with Lyn Richards and Tom Richards Reducing Fragmentation in Qualitative Research - Ian Dey Using Hierarchical Categories in Qualitative Data Analysis - Tom Richards and Lyn Richards Designing and Refining Hierarchical Coding Frames - Luis Araujo PART THREE: COMPUTERS AND QUALITATIVE HYPOTHESIS EXAMINATION Introduction - Udo Kelle in discussion with Ernest Sibert, Anne Shelly, Sharlene Hesse-Biber and G[um]unter L Huber Hypothesis Examination in Qualitative Research Using Logic Programming for Hypothesis Generation and Refinement - Ernest Sibert and Anne Shelly Hypothesis Testing in Computer-Aided Qualitative Data Analysis - Sharlene Hesse-Biber and Paul Dupuis Qualitative Hypothesis Examination and Theory Building - G[um]unter L Huber PART FOUR: COMPUTERS AND TRIANGULATION Introduction - Gerald Prein and Udo Kuckartz in discussion with Edeltraud Roller, Charles C Ragin and Udo Kelle Between Quality and Quantity Case-Oriented Quantification - Udo Kuckartz Hermeneutic-Classificatory Content Analysis - Edeltraud Roller, Rainer Mathes and Thomas Eckert Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis to Study Configurations - Charles C Ragin An Overview of Software - Gerald Prein, Udo Kelle and Katherine Bird

Qualitative Approaches to Mixed Methods Practice

This article discusses how methodological practices can shape and limit how mixed methods is practiced and makes visible the current methodological assumptions embedded in mixed methods practice that can shut down a range of social inquiry. The article argues that there is a “methodological orthodoxy” in how mixed methods is practiced that currently favors quantitative methodologies, with a mixed methods praxis that positions qualitative methods second and quantitative methods as primary with an overall mixed methods design that is in the service of testing out quantitatively generated theories about the social world. This article upends the current methodological focus on positivism by centering qualitative approaches to mixed methods practice. A qualitative approach seeks to empower individuals’ stories with the goal of understanding how they how make meaning within their social world. Through intensive case studies this article demonstrates the synergy of combining methods in the service of qualitatively driven approaches.

HyperRESEARCH: A computer program for the analysis of qualitative data with an emphasis on hypothesis testing and multimedia analysis

This paper describes a software program for Macintosh computers which assists with the analysis of qualitative data. HyperRESEARCH is a HyperCard-based application that allows for qualitative and quantitative analysis of textual, graphic audio, and video materials. HyperRESEARCH performs the following tasks: (1) The coding of text (of any length: a word, phrase, sentence, paragraph, etc.), graphics, coding of audio, video tapes using Tandberg computer controlled tape decks and several types of computer controlled video systems (video disc and video tape). A given segment of text, graphic, audio and video can be assigned multiple codes. (2) Retrieval of coded materials (text, graphics, audio and video segments) enabling the researcher to array all similarly coded material together. (3) The testing of propositions by performing Boolean searches on any code or combination of codes via the use of an expert system. (4) Hypothesis testing using artificial intelligence. The Expert System software technology uses production rules to provide a semi-formal mechanism for theory building and description of the inference process used to draw conclusions from the data. (5) A statistical option which allows for the simple analysis of coded data. The use of HyperRESEARCH as a methodological tool supports important advances in the validation, reliability and generalizability of qualitative data analysis.

Coming at Things Differently Future Directions of Possible Engagement With Mixed Methods Research

The field of mixed methods (MM) research facilitates ‘‘coming at things differently.’’ Traditional forms of data gathering using one method for data collection may not be adequate for answering complex questions that sometimes require a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods in one study. Although the number of MM studies continues to grow, it is clear from the literature that newcomers and seasoned MM researchers encounter praxis/practice barriers that concern the ‘‘how-tos’’ of integrating MM findings. More philosophical concerns center on issues regarding whether or not paradigmatic stances can be mixed or can coexist. Still other concerns center on research conundrums that reside within and between our disciplinary contexts, such as the impact of and interfacing with newly emergent technologies for data analysis and collection with MM research. Some of these barriers are conscious whereas others are unconscious.

Eating patterns and disorders in a college population: Are college women's eating problems a new phenomenon?

This paper examines the relationship between gender differences in eating patterns among college students and the disorders as clinically defined. A considerable number of college women but few men in our sample show behavioral patterns associated with an eating disorder (anorexia or bulimia). Our findings for women are in the moderate to high range for these symptoms, compared with other university populations. Results indicate that the eating difficulties of college women may be an eating problem, which only partially resembles clinical eating disorders. Although our female college sample displays the behavioral symptoms associated with anorexia and bulimia, they exhibit few of the constellation of psychological traits associated with these disorders. Some evidence suggests that the etiology of eating problems may be partly related to women wanting to be thinner than is medically desirable and may represent a response of “normal” women to the new, more demanding cultural and supercultural standards for thinness. Diagnosis and treatment issues as well as sociocultural implications of these results are discussed.

Emerging Methodologies and Methods Practices in the Field of Mixed Methods Research

This special issue marks a reflective turning point in thinking about the theory and practice of mixed methods research. As a field of study, mixed methods practice is both “old” and “emergent.” It is old in that the field of mixed methods has an historical legacy of practice that has remained invisible. Early on, social science research practice employed mixed methods data. Hesse-Biber (2010) notes,Mixed methods research developed with the earliest social research projects; among these are studies of poverty within families conducted in the 1800s in Europe by researchers such as Frederic LePlay (1855) and Charles Booth (1891) . . . research practices included the use of demographic analysis, participant surveys and observations, and social mapping tech-niques. These methods practices filtered into the research landscape in the United States by the begin-ning of the 20th century. . . . The

Triangulation and Mixed Methods Research Provocative Positions

Triangulation is a measurement technique often used by surveyors to locate an object in space by relying on two known points in order to ‘‘triangulate’’ on an unknown fixed point in that same space. Early on, social scientists borrowed the concept of triangulation to argue for its use in the validation process in assessing the veracity of social science research results. There are alternative perspectives on the use of triangulation that argue for its usefulness as a ‘‘dialectical’’ process whose goals seek a more in-depth nuanced understanding of research findings and clarifying disparate results by placing them in dialogue with one another. This special issue of the Journal of Mixed Methods Research (JMMR) analyzes and explores the variety of ways triangulation is used in mixed methods research and the range of issues and controversies surrounding triangulation praxis. To date, there are few scholarly in-depth discussions of its deployment in mixed methods research. The choice of triangulation as the topic for this first special issue of JMMR is based on the claims made by many scholars in the field that triangulation provides a justification for the use of mixed methods. The contributors to this volume raise many questions about the meaning of triangulation, its philosophical positioning in the mixed methods community, and strategies for using triangulation in the design of mixed methods studies, analysis and interpretation of data, and making visible subjugated voices. They take provocative positions, suggesting that qualitative, constructivist, and interpretive pathways provide greater potential for research to address the social good than has been possible using mixed methods approaches that are more closely aligned with the postpositivist paradigm. They revisit the ‘‘paradigm wars’’ and ask this question: Are we still stuck with the incompatibility thesis that paralyzed advances in mixed methods in past decades? They explore and critique the potential of alternative methodologies for harnessing the synergy that is said to lie in the application of mixed methods research designs by asking another set of questions: Have members of the mixed methods community done an injustice to pragmatism as a philosophical frame for mixed methods? Is qualitatively framed mixed methods the way forward? Is it possible that qualitatively framed mixed methods are better suited to the ability of mixed methods researchers to demonstrate a causal relationship between variables? How and when should triangulation be brought into mixed methods research to obtain a more nuanced

A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF EATING DISORDERS AMONG COLLEGE WOMEN Factors that Influence Recovery

This study provides insight into factors that determine whether women in the college population who exhibit eating-disordered behavior during their college years recover during their postcollege years. The study assessed changes in the eating patterns of 21 women across a six-year time period, from sophomore year in college to two years postcollege. Eleven of the women get better during their postcollege year, whereas 10 of the women continue to struggle with disordered eating. The major differences between the two groups revolve around the relationship between autonomy and relation. Women who get better negotiate the tension between autonomy and relatedness and are more likely to have higher selfesteem based on a more positive self-concept; this, in turn, leads to healthier relationships with food and body image. Two factors that appear to influence this negotiation include (I) ones history of chronic physical or sexual abuse and (2) the quality of familial messages about food, body image, relationship, and autonomy.

Women, weight and eating disorders: A socio-cultural and political-economic analysis

Abstract This article presents a socio-cultural and political-economic perspective on eating disorders. We argue that the current outbreak of eating disorders and weight obssession among women is part of a larger historical transformation of womens bodies into commodities through a “marriage” between capitalistic and patriarchal interests. These interests have transformed womens body image increasingly toward an ultra-slender ideal. We explore the relationship between eating disorders and ultra-slenderness by focusing on the eating habits and attitudes of a sample of college students. Results indicate that women were more likely than men to follow an ultra-slender “cultural” model of ideal weight. Women who follow a cultural model were three times more likely to score abnormally high on a standard measure of eating disorders than women who follow a less stringent “medical” model of ideal weight. These results are not confounded with psychological correlates typically associated with clinical eating disorders. We discuss alternative visions and solutions to eating disorders from a socio-cultural and political-economic perspective.

From high school to college : changes in women's self-concept and its relationship to eating problems

A longitudinal panel study of a sample of college women was undertaken to assess changes in womens self-concept from high school to college and during their college years and the relationship between changes in self-concept ratings and eating disorders. Self-concept was measured at Time Change 1 (senior year of high school to sophomore year of college), Time Change 2 (sophomore year of college to senior year of college), and Time Change 3 (senior year of high school to senior year of college) using Brownfains (1952) self-rating scale. Eating behavior in college was measured at two points, sophomore and senior year, by the Eating Attitudes Test (Garner, Olmsted, Bohr, & Garfinkel, 1982). The women were placed into three eating groups: Group 1 (eating pattern becomes or remains abnormal). Group 2 (eating pattern gets better), and Group 3 (eating pattern remains normal). Results revealed that all womens self-concept ratings declined in Time 1 with only a slight increase on a few traits in Time 2. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that Group 1 experienced a significant overall decline in self-concept ratings between Time 1 and Time 3 compared with Group 2 and Group 3. Group 2 reported significantly greater increases in assertiveness at Time 1 compared with Group 3. We suggest an interactional model for understanding the relationship between self-concept and eating problems.