Types of Coding Procedures

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As I continued reading Corbin and Strauss, I wanted to understand the principles that underlie the different types of coding procedures in order to see how I can fit the data I have gathered so far. This is a summary of what I understood.

Open Coding-

It is the process of breaking down, examining, comparing, conceptualizing and categorizing data. This is the first step in the procedure of text interpretation. The goal is to develop concepts based on the data and also on the researcher's contextual knowledge. During the process, comparisons must be made and questions formulated, while open coding starts with the analysis of single passages of text and phrases. The following questions occupy the initial stages of the coding process:

1. What actually happens in the text?
2. What category does the textual passage suggest?

After this, there will be a search for "in vivo" codes (interpretations recognizable in the text itself). Open coding should analyze very exactly and investigate the text with microscopic presicion in order to minimize the risk of overlooking important categories. During this process, theory memos should be written to record the development of concepts, categories and dimensions.

The asking of questions, the precise analysis of words, phases and sentences together with a continuous process of comparison. These will increase the theoretical sensitivity and creativity of the coding process.

Axial coding-

This refers to the procedures which on the basis of the above mentioned coding paradigm reassembles the results of open coding by creating nw relationships between concepts. Threfore, it will assist in the refinement and differentation  of already available concepts whereby these fist acquire the status of categories. After open coding, it is normally not yet clear whether a particular concept has to do with a condition , a strategy or a consequence. Each single concept together with its indicators analysed and assigned according to the points of the coding paradigm.

These are the questions that a researcher should ask during the axial coding process:

1. What are the conditions for the events comprised in the concept?
2. How can the interactions between actors be described?
3. What strategies and tactics can be determined?
4. What are the consequences of the event?

During the coding process. which begins with open coding, axial coding becomes increasingly predominant: either individual text locations are extracted and interpreted axially or several text locations are interpreted in comparison with one another. In such cases, the procedure is similar to open coding this is to formulate a question, dimensionalize. etc.

In axial coding the properties of a category are first elaborated which means that the category is dimensionalized either implicitly or explicitly. Then assumptions about the condition , interactions, strategies and consequences are specified and tested which increases the relationship to other categories. The links between the categories should be recorded in representation of networks and the investigator should capture in the form of coding notes and theory memos as many as possible of the thoughts which have occured during the process.

Selective coding-

This refers to the process of selecting core categories validating this linking process and the filling of other categories which require further requrement and development. A core category is that cental phenomenon around which all other categories are integrated. As the starting point of this final stage, coding lists, memos and network modls should be reviewed and theoretically sorted.

Strauss and Corbin recommend enquiring about the story contained in the data. The essential events  should be brought  together by answering the following questions:

1. What is the most striking feature of the field of investigation?
2. What do I consider to be the main problem?
3. What is the central theme of the story?
4. Which phenomena are represented again and again in the data?

The central story extracted in this way rotates around the core category and shows its relationships to other categories. In the simplest case, the core category may be recognized from the network model and has already been identified, while the most difficult case it must be completely newly identified, refined with regard with its properties and its location established in the network of relationship. The provisional result should be examined continually with reference to the textual data. In this way, step by step, a grounded theory will emerge.