In order to analyse the data, the techniques outlined by Charmaz (2006, 2014) were drawn on. Suddaby (2006) argued that, in grounded theory studies, researchers sometimes make the
Chapter Five – Methodology and research design
mistake of applying methods of analysis as if they were strict rules, rather than exploring different techniques to see what works best. Charmaz, too, encourages a creative approach to coding data, emphasising the inductive and interpretive dimensions of grounded theory (2014). Coding refers to “categorising segments of data with a short name that
simultaneously summarises and accounts for each piece of data” (Charmaz 2006:43).
Transcription
Each interview was transcribed verbatim by myself, as soon after the interview as possible, so that data collection and preliminary analysis could be carried out alongside one another in line with grounded theory. I used software to slow the speed of the audio in order to
transcribe verbatim, and also attempted to capture pauses or other non-verbal gestures which conveyed meaning. Transcribing the interviews as soon as possible also meant I was better able to recall gestures, facial cues, or other movements which were not audible in the recording. After initially transcribing, I listened to each interview again at normal speed while reading through the transcript. This allowed the correction of any mistakes and addition of any missed data, and also increased my familiarity with the data, enabling me to understand the interviews as whole pieces more closely.
Preliminary analysis
Once all of the interviews had been conducted and transcribed, I used QSR NVivo10 to support analysis, using grounded theory techniques set out by Charmaz (2006). I carried out preliminary analysis in order to think about how subsequent interviews could be improved, consider questions which were less fruitful, and identify topics emerging as significant. The preliminary analysis began during the transcription, when I made notes to myself about particular points to return to later, and then I began the process of coding the data in NVivo.
Chapter Five – Methodology and research design
I utilised Charmaz’s (2006) method of initial coding, which involves comparing data with data and asking particular questions of it, such as ‘what does this piece of data suggest?’ The aim of initial coding is to remain close to the data and to summarise processes rather than applying pre-existing theoretical categories to it. Charmaz recommends using ‘action’ language (2006:48), in order to code actions rather than topics. For example, I coded ‘wanting to look like a normal woman for her daughter’, rather than alternatively ‘decisions about reconstruction’. This enabled the exploration of the processes which were evident in the data, rather than a set of topics. I also found it useful to use ‘in vivo codes’ (Charmaz 2006:55), which is to code segments in the women’s own words. For example, I coded ‘wanting to just get the breast off’, and ‘feeling like a strange little alien’. This enabled the women’s own understandings and meanings to remain intact (Hesse-Biber 2014). In this phase of coding, Charmaz emphasises remaining open to alternative interpretations of the data, using brief labels for the codes, and moving quickly through the data.
I attempted to use the technique of line-by-line coding, whereby each line of data, regardless of whether they are full sentences, is coded (Charmaz 2006). However, I found that this fractured the women’s accounts in an arbitrary way, and preferred to code the accounts in a way which made sense in terms of the women’s own structuring of their experiences and perceptions. Charmaz also suggests coding incidents or events. For example, the use of codes such as ‘first GP visit’ proved useful. The experience of going to the GP with
concerns about symptoms was present in almost all of the women’s accounts, and using this method of coding meant that I was able to group all of their accounts of this together, and easily compare them in order to identify what was similar and different about the women’s accounts of this particular phenomenon, and therefore what was distinctive about young women’s experiences of it. After initially coding the interviews, I gathered codes together under umbrella codes such as ‘feelings about body’, in order to ease navigation of the hundreds of codes.
Chapter Five – Methodology and research design
This initial coding phase was useful in becoming immersed in the data, beginning the analysis, and identifying areas of interest to pursue further in subsequent interviews. It meant that I became familiar with the participants’ accounts and felt more immersed in the data, and also enabled me to take an iterative approach to the analysis.
Second phase of analysis
The second phase of coding set out by Charmaz, focused coding, produces codes which are “more directed, selective, and conceptual” (2006:57) than those produced in the initial phase. This involves sorting through and synthesising initial codes, and making decisions about which codes are the most significant, effective, and useful in building an interpretation of the accounts. Charmaz explains it as determining “which initial codes make the most analytic sense to categorise your data incisively and completely” (2006:58). The aim of focused coding is to compare large amounts of data and to allow ideas about it to emerge. To use the example from the previous section, using focused coding, I was able to compare all of the accounts of the first visits to the GP in each interview. Through this comparative process I developed an understanding of these events as biographically disruptive, and which had distinctive features as a result of the ages of the women (discussed in Chapter Seven). I considered how I had labelled particular segments of data and compared them with one another, considering which codes made the most sense, and which accounted for the data in a way which made the most sense in terms of the young women’s own experiences and perceptions.
I found the actual process of this to be easiest away from NVivo. Using NVivo to collect segments of the data which referred to particular incidents, events, or areas of the women’s lives, I converted them to a Word document which I printed in order to compare the data manually and take a fresh look. For example, I collated child codes under the umbrella codes ‘feelings about body’ or ‘being pregnant at diagnosis’ and compared all of the incidents in
Chapter Five – Methodology and research design
which women had spoken about this. Some of these were extensive – there were dozens of child codes collated under ‘feelings about body’ – and being able to handle them on paper made it much more manageable. I made notes on the paper copies, or cut them up and grouped them together, making notes to myself throughout. NVivo was therefore used in this phase to collate codes, and the print-outs were used to further analyse the segments of data and compare the coding.
Third phase of analysis
The coding process was not a linear one, and the third phase of analysis occurred alongside and after the second phase. After the initial coding, I conducted another phase of coding during which I focused particularly on the parts of the accounts in which women spoke about their bodies and embodied experience. Rather than imposing pre-existing categories on the women’s accounts, the aim of this was to be able to focus on one particular area of my theoretical framework (although inevitably I spotted segments which were relevant to other parts of the framework and made notes). This allowed a more focused and attentive analysis of the ways that the young women experienced and perceived their bodies. I created a new codebook on NVivo which was solely focused on embodiment, and later used the same technique as described above to print off collections of codes and explore them on paper. After this approach proved useful, I followed the same method for the next part of the theoretical framework. I analysed the young women’s accounts, paying particular attention to how they talked about the impact of breast cancer on their life course, their futures, and their everyday lives. The research question was ‘to what extent does biographical disruption characterise the experiences and perceptions of the young women?’, but I aimed to allow alternative interpretations of the data to emerge rather than impose the framework of biographical disruption straightforwardly to their accounts. This involved comparing the segments of data and how they had been labelled, remaining critical to the coding and considering other possible understandings or explanations, and also exploring aspects of the
Chapter Five – Methodology and research design
accounts which were different and contradicted one another. I followed the same method for the final part of the framework: gender and intersectionality. This involved again re-
analysing the young women’s accounts paying particular attention to the ways that gender and other oppression shaped them. Often this stage involved reflecting back on the earlier analyses, as gender had permeated the young women’s accounts of the impact of breast cancer on their experiences and perceptions of their bodies, and on their life course.
This phase of coding was similar to Charmaz’s (2006:60-63) account of ‘axial coding’. It enabled the development of categories and subcategories, and an understanding of “the properties and dimensions of a category” (p.60). For example, the experience of uncertainty began to emerge as significant, and I was able to explore how the young women experienced the category ‘uncertainty’ across multiple spheres of their lives, and to identify how this was age-related (see Chapter Seven). It can also be viewed as the process of producing
‘theoretical codes’ (Charmaz 2006:63), which are described by Glaser (1978:72) as “weaving the fractured story back together”. By comparing data across codes, developing the categories, and drawing links and comparisons between the categories and subcategories, relationships between categories emerged, and this created a broader picture of the young women’s lives (Hesse-Biber 2014). For example, the relationship between uncertainty and the experience of everyday aches and pains emerged through the analysis, and a more coherent and whole understanding of the young women’s experiences and perceptions could be constructed (see Chapter Nine).