COLLAPSE SUBDISCUSSIONJames Roesler James Roesler YesterdayAug 11 at 2:36pmManage Discussion Entry Marcus, Thank you so much for your great response on the inductive and deductive reasoning process...

James Roesler

Marcus,

Thank you so much for your great response on the inductive and deductive reasoning process and analysis. I keyed in on a sentence that you presented:

"Inductive data analysis is essential because it helps a considerable variety of extensive data convert into a very concise summary format"

The inductive process is one that I have found to be more ambiguous sometimes and it creates more and more variables through the process as newvariables are found. I find the most information comes from thisprocessa lot of times when I am developing a conclusion or discerning a codex to validate theory. What are your thoughts?

Regards,

James

Deborah Carpenter

Inductive vs. Deductive Analysis and Code Development

The inductive approach is used most commonly in qualitative research. While grounded theory is implicitly inductive, researchers also use deductive strategies throughout their qualitative studies. In truth, a thorough and conclusive analysis is one that involves the interplay between inductive and deductive reasoning (Hennink et al., 2011). Inductive analysis involves developing codes, concepts, and theories that are derived from data. Codes are developed from directly reading the data themselves. Inductive analysis allows researchers to note issues raised by participants, as they can reflect on issues of importance to the participants themselves. With this approach, the data speaks (Hennink et al., 2011). Inductive analysis also takes place in the second level of code development, as researchers analyze their codes further by subgroups that were developed from the data.

In contrast, a deductive approach uses codes derived from the researcher; this may be topics on the interview guide or topics derived from the conceptual framework of the study. The researcher already knows the topics or codes that will be used; they aren’t “revealed” from the data organically or authentically. The risk of using only deductive codes is that a researcher might miss issues raised by participants (Hennink et al., 2011). This approach might miss participants’ processes, explanations, or behavior that was unanticipated by the researcher. Deductive code development takes place at the second level also, when the researcher compares responses by subgroups that were developed by the researcher (i.e. gender, socioeconomic status, etc.). It is ideal for researchers to assess the balance of inductive and deductive codes to fully and comprehensively analyze the data.

Rationale for each Approach

While qualitative research is primarily inductive and comparative (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016), there are not only uses for each approach, but one can observe both inductive and deductive analysis at work in a qualitative study. For example, when a researcher codes her data, she will then analyze it further to create broader categories for these codes. Categories are abstractions derived from the data and not the data themselves; therefore, this is inductive analysis in action (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). As the researcher continues to categorize data into clusters, themes, or main findings, she will examine whether subsequent data gathered continues to fit into these categories. When a researcher tests her tentative category scheme against further data, deductive reasoning is being used (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Therefore, both inductive and deductive reasoning are both useful in their own regard and can be intertwined to support the validity of a qualitative research study.

References

Hennink, M., Hutter, I., & Bailey, A. (2011).Qualitative research methods. Thousand Oaks, CA:

SAGE.

Merriam, S. B., Tisdell, E. J. (2016).Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and

Implementation(4th ed). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.