7.1 Interview
7.1 Interview
7.1.1 What is an interview?
The interview is a common occurrence in contemporary social life.There are many different forms of interview,for example,job interviews,media interviews,police interviews,research interviews,and so on (Bryman,2008).As May (2001) explains,the interview as a method maintains and generates conversations with people on a specific topic or a range of topics,and interpretations of these.The social researchers then analyse what constitutes the fundamentals of interviews and interviewing.Such interviews can be seen as a professional communication (Kvale,1996),one of the basic communication types.Both ordinary and professional communication between people is usually conducted by the process of asking and answering,through which people understand each other.In particular,professional communication,including research interview,brings interviewers into the real world of the interviewees.The interviewers,as researchers,elicit original information from their interviews.Interviews yield rich insights into people's biographies,experiences,opinions,values,aspirations,attitudes and feelings (May,2001:120).As Denscombe (2003) suggests,interviews are an attractive means of research for the researcher to develop an in-depth understandings of the reaction of individuals.
Interviews are linked to the qualitative approach and the purpose is to seek to describe and understand the meanings of central themes and life experiences of the interviewees (Kvale,1996).The research interview may provide valuable and reliable data.This is because skillfully conducted interviews do not change the respondents' attitudes and behaviour but reveal them (Keats,2000).In practice,the researcher should only listen to what people themselves have to say about their life,hearing the expression of their opinions in their own words and learn about their work and family life,their attitudes and emotions,their dreams and hopes.
In the contexts of social research,there are many different types of research interviews,including structured interviews,standardised interviews,unstructured interviews,intensive interviews,qualitative interviews,in-depth interviews,focused interviews,focus group interviews,group interviews,oral history interviews,and life history interviews (Bryman,2008;May,2001).Research interviews can be used in relation to both quantitative and qualitative approaches.Structured or standardised interviews,for example,may link with a more quantitative approach but unstructured or in-depth interviews link with qualitative approach.The research interview is often a prominent data-collection strategy in both quantitative and qualitative approaches.
Like self-completion questionnaires,with structured interviews the researcher designs various questions referring to closed,close-ended,pre-coded,or fixed choice responses.In-depth interviews only have a list of topics or issues.These topics are often called the interview guide.The style of questioning is usually informal unlike in the structured interview.In the structured interview,the researcher has a clearly specifi ed set of research questions to investigate,while in an in-depth interview,the emphasis is on greater generality in the formulation of initial research ideas and individuals' perspectives.Therefore,structured interviews are typically inflexible,whereas in-depth interviews are flexible.In the former research method,the researched may be more passive.By contrast,in the latter,the researched may be more active.
In the in-depth interview is very different from other types of research through surveys,e.g.a questionnaire survey.This type of interview can provide the researcher with especially detailed and 'rich' in-depth data (Denscombe,2003) and should not be too strictly time limited.The conversation may last as long as the research subject is willing to talk.The interviewer can also easily adjust the line of enquiry even during the interview itself.For example,I originally decided to use vignettes in the interviews.However,I stopped using these as soon as I found that they were not effective in my interviews.The vignettes impacted on my interviewees' accounts.They were restricted by the vignettes and could not freely describe their experiences.But in respect to self-completion questionnaires,it is difficult for the researcher to alter them even if they want to because the questions have been printed in advance and sent to groups of interviewees at the same time.
The highly flexible nature of the in-depth interview allows the researcher to develop any line of enquiry that emerges;this is known as an expanded enquiry.For example,I asked one woman about her marriage when I heard her story of psychological violence from her divorced husband.She told me that her husband was a divorced man and already had a son by his first wife when she married him.She divorced her husband because he started a relationship with another woman(third party) who became pregnant.During the course of our talk,the issue of gender inequality emerged.She came to understand that women,in her former husband's eyes,were inferior to men.He considered his wives merely as objects and abandoned them at will.In front of his friends,he flaunted the fact that he had three children by three different wives.Chinese Family Policy states that there should be one child per family.For him,his wives were just a tool of procreation.This development of a line of enquiry could not have been obtained in a self-completion questionnaire.
Moreover,through the in-depth interview,the researcher may receive a more complete response through the face-to-face contact between the researched and the researcher.Particularly,feminist interview research methodology emphasises providing a space for women's voices to be heard (Lee &Stanko,2003;Reinharz,1992;Skinner,2005) and seeks to achieve the active involvement of the respondent in the construction of data about the subject's life (Punch,1998).In interviews,the researcher opens her ears to the voices and perspectives of women in order to begin to hear the unheard and unimagined.In this exercise,I,as a listener,obtained indepth information about how husbands specifically abused their wives verbally at home and witnessed that wives went around in a daze caused by domestic violence,which I had not previously imagined.
A high response rate may be more likely in an interview study than in a questionnaire survey.This is because the individuals who agree to the interview would like to talk about their experiences.Through listening to the subject's story and talking with them,the researcher can get 'precise' or 'original' data,and 'valid' data,which benefits the researcher's understanding.As Denscombe (2003) stresses,such an interview adds a more personal element to the research.Therefore,the interview may be seen as a pleasurable conversation.
However,there are some disadvantages to the interview as a research tool.For example,time,cost,inhibition of the researched,difficulties of analysis,and so on have been cited (Denscombe,2003).From my own experience,I feel that the main disadvantage was that of time.There are two elements here.Firstly is the length of the interview.It may take the researcher one or two hours to interview an individual.For example,every interview I conducted took more than one hour.Some interviews,e.g.F4[1] lasted between four and five hours.Through my own experience,I now understand why interviews as a qualitative approach are associated with small-scale research.The second element is the length of time qualitative data takes to analyse.The longer the interview,the more its content,and the more time it will take to transcribe and code the data.This is why the interview research is associated with words and ideas but not with numbers.
Another potential disadvantage may be the issue of reliability (Denscombe,2003).This is because the interview data is collected from different individuals giving a personal account.The account therefore has a specific context and a specific individual.These may impact on the interviewer so that consistency and objectivity are hard to achieve.This may have an adverse effect on the reliability of the interview data.Subjectivity on the part of the researcher may exist unconsciously in their research sometimes.This will influence the information's'precision' or 'accuracy'.
Thus,we can see that the interview in social research may be simply described as a conversation with a purpose (Hodgson,1987;Millar et al.,1992).However,such a conversation is not simply an informal chat but a controlled interaction which uses verbal exchange (Keats,2000).As Gorden (1975) highlights,the interview is a most valuable means of learning a person's beliefs,attitudes,values and knowledge,or any other subjective orientation.Having established that it is a valid research strategy or technique,why did I choose the interview and how did I utilise it in my research? This is described below.
7.1.2 Why interviews?
I used interviews in my research because this allowed me to learn about and understand more about domestic violence.Through the interviews,I saw the exploration of domestic violence not just as my interest but as my mission:they made an impact on me during the course of my research.Many of the interviews remain vividly in my mind as if they had only taken place very recently.I will reflect more on my experiences and feelings later in this section and other sections.
The second reason for using in-depth interviews in my research relates mainly to my research aims.As Maxwell (2005) points out,the design of something or the choice of an instrument must fit not only with its use,but also with its environment or aims,and help you to accomplish what you want to.Therefore,in the light of my research aims,I chose the in-depth interview as a flexible means of exploring domestic violence,specifically psychological violence in China.My research aim was to investigate experiences of psychological violence in families,mainly between wives and husbands,and to reveal differing attitudes,behaviour,emotions and experiences in relation to married women and men.Accordingly,only by using the method of the in-depth interview could I obtain the necessary information from the respondents.
7.1.3 Interview schedule
In-depth interviews with open questions and topic lists were principally used in my data collection although more structured questions were sometimes used where this seemed appropriate to the subjects.Before the interview,I designed a list of topics for discussion,which provided the framework for the interview.These topics dealt mainly with the marital life of wives and husbands (see Appendix 2).In practice,I tried to keep the conversation between my interviewees and myself as free as possible.I never interrupted or sought to control the subjects when they told their stories.My role was that of a listener/witness.
I found that different respondents had different reactions.Some were talkative but others were shy at the beginning of the interview.In such circumstances,the interviewer needs to guide his or her respondents to discuss the issues.My research topic is particularly sensitive.By its very nature,psychological violence is an'invisible' or 'hidden' violence.Some respondents suffering violence were reticent about relating their experiences to others,for example,that their husbands did not speak to them or abused them verbally or had another relationship.Moreover,within the group experiencing psychological violence was a specific group,in which there were some victims who had a high standard of education or high status in society.Some of these did not tell their experiences to others in order to save face.Accordingly,a combination of in-depth interviews and structured interviews was an appropriate strategy for collecting data.As academic interviewers,we cannot be too prescriptive in practice although the experience of many researchers informs our own research interviews.Ultimately,the interview needs to be tailored to the specific context.
7.1.3.1 The sample
I collected my interview data (53 individuals) through two routes:networks and snowballing.The first was through the local government:the Hubei Women's Federation (HWF),which provided me with contact detail for certain departments and people.The second was through personal contact:my colleagues,my classmates and my friends (in China),who introduced me to interview subjects.From initial contacts,53 individuals formed the interview sample.The initial interviews helped me to refine my research methods and to develop ideas for future research.However,how did I come to the HWF and how did I contact the Federation? How did I make contact with my subjects? What experiences did I get from this? This is described below.
• The Hubei Women's Federation
In discussing my interview data,I cannot neglect to mention the Hubei Women's Federation (HWF) because the majority of my interview data was collected through the medium of the HWF,either directly or indirectly.
The All-China Women's Federation (ACWF) was first mentioned in Chapter 2.The ACWF plays an important role in women's studies in China and has had some success in preventing domestic violence (Huang,2004;Zhao et al.,2006).The HWF is a member of the ACWF and has similar objectives.I therefore applied for help with my research from the HWF.The HWF played a critical role in my collection of interview data.Without this help,I could not have carried out my research successfully.
I made my initial contact with the HWF through an officer of the HWF I had met in November 2002 when I was sent to the Beijing Conference on Prevention of and Intervention on Domestic Violence.I arranged to meet this officer (a man) immediately on my return to China in September 2003.He helped me and introduced my research project to the HWF and explained what help I needed.They then provided me with information such as the names of the centres,telephone numbers,the names of 'Danwei' leaders,and so on.With this valuable information,I was able to visit these centres and 'Danwei' and speak to the professionals,e.g.professors and lawyers.There I introduced myself and explained my research aims to them.They were interested in the project and therefore supported and helped me to find research subjects and to complete the interviews smoothly.
The HWF also suggested I get in touch with Professor Yan (a man)[2].Although I was initially unsuccessful,we finally met and talked.He introduced me to a number of his colleagues with whom I discussed aspects of family and domestic violence.I was interested to learn of cases they had come across and of their attitudes to the social issues involved.Professor Yan permitted me to work voluntarily in this Centre and ultimately 10 (19%) of the 53 individuals I interviewed were from this Centre.
From my experience,I have come to realise that to be pro-active and to take advantage of every lead is also a key element in research.For example,the International Day of Action Against Domestic Violence (25 November) took place while I was in China for my research.Before the special day,I contacted the HWF to ask if there would be any activities in Wuhan to mark the occasion.They told me about an event in Jianghan District on 25 November 2003,organised by the Jianghan Women's Federation (JWF).I contacted the JWF and arranged to meet the chairman,Mrs.Zeng[3].Through the JWF,I was able to participate in their International Day activities.Through this,I got to know the heads of various residential communities.With their help,I was introduced to and was able to interview a number of ordinary families and carried out a number of interviews.Of the 53 individuals interviewed,there were four couples and 10 individuals including six professionals in the residential communities.I never thought I would be able to interview ordinary families in order to collect data before my research.It was owing to this important information from JWF that I interviewed the inhabitants in the communities.
Again reflecting on my experience,I feel that it is vital for interviews to build a good and friendly relationship with the interviewee.It helps us as researches if we can quickly develop rapport with our subjects so that they trust and talk openly to us.The HWF,the JWF and the majority of the individuals I came into contact with during my research were previously unknown to me.However,I received their invaluable support.I am deeply grateful to them.
7.1.3.2 Interviewees
I interviewed 53 individuals between November 2003 and January 2004.Among the 53 interviewees,there were eight couples and 37 individuals,all together 35 women and 18 men.Fifty-one of the respondents were married,two women were unmarried but worked in the area of women's studies.A further 11 of the 53 were also engaged in work on women and on family[4].
Table 7.1.3.2 (a):Individuals (n=53)
Table 7.1.3.2 (b):Individuals
The ages of the respondents ranged from 24 to 63 years old.While the interviewees were born in the 1940s,1950s,1960s and 1970s,the majority were between 30 and 49 years old.The individuals born in the 1940s,1950s and 1960s witnessed or experienced the Cultural Revolution and the Economic Reform in China.Therefore,I felt that their views on marriage and the family and on the relationship between wives and husbands would benefit my research because they might reflect different historical contexts.
In respect of academic qualifications,among the 40 individuals[5] who were asked,one was illiterate and the rest (39) had completed the junior school education.Of these 40 respondents,19 (47.5%) had an educational background of college level or above.Half had attended senior or secondary special technical school level,and junior school level.This personal educational information proved to be an important element in my exploration.Accordingly,I explored how domestic violence occurs in the context of educated and less educated married people.
With regard to occupation,the 53 individuals interviewed had different professions.They included teachers,cadres,lawyers,correspondents,policemen,manual workers and salespeople.Some had permanent employment,but others not.Twelve (23%) were unemployed.To help support themselves and their families,their community offered them the opportunity to sell certain low value commodities.This is a feature of China in the period of economic reform.Respondents with different occupations might have different attitudes towards marriage and family.From my data,I examined whether there is a difference in the kind of domestic violence between individuals in different occupations as well as educational levels.
7.1.3.3 Reflection on interviews
In this section,I consider my role in the interviews.This is because I feel that my role had important implications for the assessment of the data.It is a feature of the interview that the role of the interviewer may impact on collection of the data(Denscombe,2003).The interviewer's role in the interviews determines whether the research project succeeds or not.This is very different to the questionnaire survey.Generally,there were both positive and negative aspects to my conduct of the interviews.I will now consider these in detail.
On the whole,the process of collecting my interview data went well.Within three months (November to January),I interviewed 53 individuals.As Section 7.1.3.1 has described,my interview data were collected through two means:local government and personal contacts.My success in collecting data is reflected in obtaining 53 respondents.Analysis of this data will be dealt with later.
Academics have pointed out that most of the decisions about the content and course of interviews are dictated by considerations of specific factors such as time,cost,inexperience,context,etc.(Denscombe,2003;Miller &Brewer,2003).In my experience,a few factors directly affected my interviews substantially.Firstly,it is the timing of the collection of the interview data.For example,the Chinese traditional Spring Festival holidays (Cunjie) were approaching when I collected both my questionnaire and interview data.The collection of the interview data was particularly affected because it was carried out very late in 2003.I had to stop interviews because of the holiday.In addition,to achieve my research aims,I needed to interview couples.This also caused me difficulty.For example,the best time to interview couples was at weekends.Therefore,the time factor again influenced my interviewing.I was unable to interview the number of married couples and married men that I had originally intended.
Secondly,I also found that the researcher's own experience might directly affect collection of interview data.For example,the number of male respondents was fewer than that of female respondents.This arose from my lack of experience.Firstly,I did not notice the inequality in the numbers of males and females.I only felt pleased that I had managed to interview 53 individuals successfully.It was only when I came back to the UK and reviewed the data carefully that I realised the sex imbalance:women (35) and men (18).For another instance,because of my inexperience in interviews,I sometimes did not feel able to discuss the relations between wives and husbands or some sensitive topic or intimate topics with the subjects,particularly with men because I sometimes felt shy in front of them.There were probably sexual distinctions subconsciously appearing in my mind.Accordingly,I feel I missed some opportunities.Through this exercise,I found that the researcher should concentrate on research work (the interview) but not on distinction of sex.Therefore,I will pay more attention to the point in my future research.
Thirdly,although I designed vignettes,I did not end up using them.There were two reasons for this.Firstly,the conditions of the interview did not lend themselves to using vignettes.For example,when I worked voluntarily in the Wuhan Centre for Protection of Rights of Disadvantaged Citizens,I interviewed people who had come to this Centre because they were victims of domestic violence and wanted to tell their painful experiences and seek advice from the Centre.Vignettes were not suitable for these subjects.Secondly,the interview was both interrupted and disrupted by vignettes.For example,one male interviewee was immediately at a loss when I used the vignette with him.He did not react as I expected and explained his response to this vignette.I found that my vignette disturbed him.I decided therefore that I would not continue to use vignettes in my face-to-face interview.In my practice,I also found that my respondents preferred unstructured or open discussion more than structured or closed interviews.
Finally,although I bought a sophisticated tape-recorder,I did not use it to record the interviews.I very much regretted this as I could not do CA (Conversation Analysis[6]).However,my respondents did not like the tape-recorder.They did not want their private stories to be recorded on tape.In Chinese society,people do not want to talk their family's private matters to non-family members,in particular,they are naturally reticent about relationships between wives and husbands.Some interviewees said to me before I interviewed them:'Do you use a recorder?' It seemed a casual enquiry but actually,it was clear that they did not like the idea.Therefore,I respected their wishes and did not use the machine in my interviews.I wrote down their answers and conversation and transcribed them immediately after finishing the interview.In conclusion,an interview is a purposeful activity,and involving an interviewer and an interviewee.The relationship between them is dynamic and mutual.
7.1.4 Analysis of interview data
As emphasised in Section 6.1.5,data analysis is a very important step in research.Researchers,through the analysis of data,can make the data speak and help them to explore and explain the phenomena and issues under consideration.Chapter 6 was concerned with quantitative data analysis and explained how I used it in my research.However,next we need to consider qualitative data analysis and its purpose,and how I analysed my interview data in my research.
Qualitative research concentrates on the exploration of social life in natural settings.Therefore,looking at and analysing qualitative data needs to be through multiple perspectives and practices.According to the feature of such an analysis,qualitative analysis is not conducted simply because the resources/data available are,for one reason or another,too scarce in comparison with quantitative analysis(Alasuutari,1995).Therefore,a great number of observation units and statistical thinking are neither needed nor normally possible in qualitative analysis unless there are resources for a large and costly project.
Although qualitative and quantitative approaches are different,they have similarities in the process of research analysis.For example,their steps in the analysis of research data are similar:qualitative/quantitative raw data→editing→coding→analysis (Kumar,2005).Accordingly,how is the analysis conducted with regard to the in-depth interview data? As Morse et al.(2002) and Strauss (1987) emphasise,coding is very important for researchers who want to become profi cient in qualitative analysis.The excellence of the research depends to a large extent on the excellence of the coding.Researchers must learn to code well and simply.However,what is a code and how did I code my interview data? This is discussed in the next section.
7.1.4.1 What is coding?
Everyone uses the term 'coding' in qualitative research (Morse et al.,2002),and coding is very important for researchers because it is an initial activity in analysis(Punch,1998).As a new researcher,I needed to examine this and thoroughly understand it in order to benefit my research.
Codes,at their simplest,are labels assigning to units of meaning in order to describe information compiled during a study.Codes are usually organised as an index system so that the labels work like a cataloging system in a library.This allows users to find grouped-together material in relation to topics and indicates how they are related.Coding will benefit researchers' findings whatever their area of study.It helps the researcher to move from the data to the idea,and from the idea to all the data pertaining to that idea.This can be seen as a dynamic process,from practice to theory and from theory to practice.This process can be seen as a continuous process in study:coding→label→recoding→relabel.Within the process,researchers will generally label information/data and develop their ideas gradually.Coding makes flexible links between data and ideas,links which allow researchers to trace back and find where a particular idea comes from,what data is coded there,and then justify and account for their interpretation of the ideas.Coding is therefore an essential and important step for researchers.
As Coffey and Atkinson (1996) and Miles and Huberman (1994) indicate,coding is a part of the analysis.Nevertheless,it should not be seen as the analysis in itself or thought of as a substitute for analysis nor should we confuse coding itself with developing conceptual schemes.Coding encompasses a variety of approaches to,and ways of organising qualitative data.Attaching codes to data and generating concepts play a critical function in enabling researchers to rigorously review what their data is saying.Therefore,coding is essentially an activity for reviewing a set of data notes,and transcribing and dissecting it meaningfully,while keeping the relationship between the parts intact.Coding reveals how researchers differentiate and combine the data they have retrieved and the reflections they make about this information (Miles and Huberman,1994).In the other words,coding can be considered as a way of relating researchers' data to their ideas about that data.Indeed,it reflects the analytic ideas of researchers.As Seidel and Kelle (1995) explain,codes represent the decisive link between the original 'raw data',namely the textual material,e.g.,interview transcripts,and the researchers' theoretical concepts.Put simply,coding as analysis will be completed by the linking of data and concepts.
Coding of data is often a taken-for-granted aspect of the qualitative research process (Coffey and Atkinson,1996).Every researcher needs to be able to organise,manage,and retrieve the most meaningful bits of their data.Coding can be considered as a range of approaches that aid the organisation,retrieval,and interpretation of data.The usual practice concerning this is to assign tags or labels to the data,based on the researcher's concepts.It seems to be a quite mechanistic process but is in fact a means of achieving understanding and theory.Morse et al.(2002) emphasise an actual way of coding that fractures data,breaks data up,and disaggregates records.Once coded,the data looks different,as it is seen and heard through the category (or label) rather than the research event.The retrieval from such a code offers a new focus,the ability to compare and be surprised by things not apparent when the data information was viewed as a whole.For example,when I did the data coding,I found that individuals subjected to verbal abuse,e.g.dirty language,wanted to divorce their husbands sometimes,which I had not known before.
Coding as an analytic strategy therefore serves three purposes:(1) noticing relevant phenomena,(2) collecting examples of those phenomena,and (3) analysing those phenomena (Seidel &Kelle,1995:55-6).Its purpose is to find commonalities,differences,patterns,and structures from the data.Coding is usually seen as reducing data and heuristic devices (Morse et al.2002).Coding qualitative data differs from quantitative analysis because researchers are not merely counting.On the contrary,they attach codes as a way of identifying and reordering data and allow the data to be thought about in new and different ways.Researchers inspect and analyse raw data carefully and use coding to expand,transform,and reconceptualise data,opening up more diverse analytical possibilities.
After briefly talking about coding,I describe and illustrate below my own experience of coding the interview data in my research.
7.1.4.2 How did I code my data?
Coding data can be carried out manually or by using a qualitative computer package.Both methods are extremely time-consuming (Kumar,2005) and complex.
Coding my interview data occupied both much time and was stressful.I interviewed 53 individuals in-depth and wrote up the notes from the interviews.On initially examining this data,I was concerned because so much of the information I had collected seemed to be unconnected.However,according to the principles of coding,the process takes the researcher from practice to theory and from theory to practice,specifically,from coding to label then from recoding to relabel.Therefore,I initially began to analyse my data manually and coded or labeled my data directly onto paper (Kumar,2005).Through the process of recoding and relabelling,I completed the coding and arrived at findings.During the process of my coding,I found that the more I categorised data the more clearly my ideas developed.
As Miles and Huberman (1994) point out,codes are usually attached to 'chunks' of data of varying sizes:words,phrases,sentences,or whole paragraphs,which connected or unconnected to a specific setting.They can take the form of a straightforward category label or a more complex one.For the researcher's purposes,it is not the words themselves but their meaning that matters.Codes can then be used to retrieve and organise these chunks.Their organisation allows the categorisation of the various chunks so that researchers can find,pull out,and cluster the segments relating to a particular research question,hypothesis,construct,or theme.For example,in respect to marriage,I coded my data by splitting it into different subtopics:
Diagram 7.1.4.2 (a):Marriage attitude by individuals
Diagram 7.1.4.2 (a) is a simple picture showing my primary coding,which can be seen as reduction of the data.I first read through all my data,briefly wrote down what my individuals spoke about,and then I labelled this by category.I then classified or clustered the segments in relation to the themes.Looking at the diagram,we can see that 'marriage' is the key issue like a tree trunk.'Opinion' and'context' are like tree branches dependent on 'marriage'.Others such as 'happy' or'unhappy' marriage and 'divorce','conditional marriage[7]' and 'broken marriage' are sub-branches derived from 'opinion' and 'context',which also link closely with'marriage'.They are all interrelated.The relationship between the main topics and subtopics can be seen as the radial.
I specifically chose to use topic coding to examine my interview data although different coding techniques such as descriptive coding,topic coding and analytic coding are available.This was because topic coding is the most accessible of these techniques (Morse et al.,2002).When researchers do topic coding on paper,the technique usually includes bringing portions of text physically together.They identify them as being associated with a particular topic,copy them from the original documents and place them in a labeled topic file.When the researcher wants to reflect on a given topic,they can then go to that file.Such a process works fairly well as long as any given text passage is about one specific topic only.The researcher by gathering bits of data into topics can then often see new subdivisions of the topics.These can be conceptualised as a treelike structure creating subdivisions within the layers of categories.My diagram 7.1.4.2 (a) is a case in point.
Diagram 7.1.4.2 (b) indicates the result of my coding concerning individuals' experiences of domestic violence.
Diagram 7.1.4.2 (b):Individuals' experiences of domestic violence
I arrived at this by firstly gathering my all data and reading through them word by word and sentence by sentence.I then wrote down the points the individuals suffering domestic violence made and then I coded their words generally.From these exercises,I obtained a general sense of the information,which reflected on its overall meaning.I identified the words written down about different topics and organised them in relation to the common topic.Both the identification and organisation steps are usually applied repeatedly.Finally,I classified the topics,then outlined them within the central or main study topic.As a result,I found that in order to find patterns through coding,I copied the same passages many times in different categories.In the process of coding,the more I coded and classified my data into the specific topics,the more clearly the information became rooted in my mind.I thereby understood what I had explored through the process of continuous coding.
Topic coding is the most common but also the most challenging type of coding done in qualitative research.As Morse et al.(2002) point out,topic coding is a very analytic activity,which is a necessary precursor to researchers' discussion and interpretation of their findings.It entails creating a category or recognising one from earlier,reflecting on where it stands among researchers' growing ideas,and also reflecting on the data researchers are referring to and on how they fit with the other data coded there.Through my practical experience of coding,I think that topic coding is an analytic activity.This is because I could find out what I would discuss and explain through coding and also because I could discover research problems through repeatedly coding data.
Through my practical experience,I think that topic coding may be seen as a first step towards more interpretative coding and a very useful tool for researchers,in particular for novice researchers.By reviewing all the material on a topic,the researcher may become aware of more subtle subtopics or dimensions (Morse et al.2002).This may create new categories for them on the way to analysis.
Through the process of coding,I came to understand further the difference between quantitative and qualitative approaches.Comparatively,coding the data from the questionnaires within a quantitative approach is easier than coding the data from the interviews within a qualitative approach.This is because the former is associated with numbers while the latter is associated with words.However,more detailed and perhaps 'precise' information can be obtained from the interview data which may not be obtained from the questionnaire data.For example,in respect to verbal abuse,I only know from the questionnaire data whether or not the respondent was subjected to such abuse.From the interview data,however,I not only know whether the respondent was abused verbally,but also know why and how they suffered such violence and how they felt about it.
During the process of coding,I also found that coding is not just an analytic activity but also a purposeful one,and this means that researchers need to think not of the research event alone,but also of its relevance to their project.Coding can help the research to explore issues specifically.As Morse et al.(2002) explain,as researchers read,depending on their method and purpose,they want to do many things.However,there are two primary things for them:1) to record their ideas in annotations and memos,and 2) to create and record categories representing what the text is about.Thus,topic coding allowed me to have a new understanding of domestic violence,specifically psychological violence.For example,perpetrators of both low and high educational levels are likely to use verbal abuse against their partners as will be discussed later.
Topic coding also let me orient the themes to fit with my research aims.For example,my interview data is generally classified into two categories:attitude to marriage,family and domestic violence,and experience of physical violence,psychological violence and impacts.From these attitudes and experiences,we can see why and how domestic violence occurs between wives and husbands,what forms perpetrators use to abuse their partners,and what experiences and feelings victims have.My findings will be provided in the next chapter.