Chapter 4 Analyses: Mixed Method

By definition, a mixed method study incorporates both quantitative and qualitative methods. There are several ways to analyze the data; I am going to discuss two. In the first method, the quantitative data is analyzed and the qualitative simply adds to an understanding of that data through quotes.  

In the second method, the data are analyzed together. Typically, the quantitative data is analyzed first, using more sophisticated analyses, such as multiple regression. Then the qualitative data is transformed into quantitative data (see Creswell and Plano Clark, 2011). To do this you will need to develop a scoring rubric for the qualitative themes and codes that you want to incorporate. Let's use the qualitative data from last time (see May 20 post), in which we had 3 sample responses. I developed coding as follows: 

101- grandmother, death, visual imagery, with mother, crying (negative emotion)

102- grandmother, visual imagery, auditory, empathy (recognizing other's emotions)

103- mom, eating, auditory imagery, feelings of comfort 

I need to decide what is important to include in my data analysis. I want to include any person mentioned; if a female relative, it will be designated as 1, a male relative will be 2, nonrelative female 3, etc. I am also interested in the use of imagery; if they mention visual images it will be 1, no visual will be 0. Auditory imagery will be 1, no auditory will be 0. Emotions in the self will be 1, and emotions mentioned in others will be 2. I would then enter this into SPSS along with the participants' scores on the quantitative measures that were used. The resulting SPSS entry would look something like this: 

Subnum	Survey1Tot	Survey2Tot	Person	Vismage	AudImage	Emotions
101	56	24	1	1	0	1
102	32	23	1	1	1	2
103	86	26	1	0	0	1

 

Then I will analyze the data using probably correlations and chi square to see if the scores on the surveys are related at all to the memories that the participants reported. Presumably, I would have some theoretical rationale for doing this. 

If you would like to see what a mixed method analysis looks like in a journal, please see:  

Stadtlander, L., Giles, M., Sickel, A., Brooks, E., Brown, C., Cormell, M., Ewing, L., Hart, D., Koons, D., Olson, C., Parker, P., Semenova, V., & Stoneking, S. (2013). Independent Living Oldest-Old and Their Primary Health Provider: A Mixed Method Examination of the Influence of Patient Personality Characteristics. Journal of Applied Gerontology. (Available in Walden Library's Psychology/ Sage database) 

Next time we will look at the final dissertation chapter – Chapter 5, Summary. 

 

Creswell, J. W. & Plano Clark, V.L. (2011) Designing and conducting mixed methods research, 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.