Karen,
all major CAQDAS programs (except NVivo, N6, and Kwalitan AFAIS) have
already been mentioned. All of them have pluses and disadvantages, but in
order to decide, which, if any, of the programs is useful, you need to
decide first, which *methodology* you are using. CAQDAS are not a
methodology in and of themselves, they are "merely" a tool that might
enable you to work more efficiently with your data, once you decided, which
theoretical, epistemological, and methodological framework you want to use.
That decision frankly should have been made before the questionaire was
developed and/or selected for reanalysis. Alas, you didn't give us any
information about, which methodological framework you are using.
In fact, from the information you are giving, my first hunch would have
been that the most important program for you would be SPSS, SAS, or Stata,
because semi-closed questionaires are usually used for more quantitative
styles of analyses. You could have a coding schedule for the open-ended
answers in your questionaire and keep the codes in a simple spread sheet
(MS Excel, Lotus 1-2-3, or even free Open Office). Of course, you could
also do the coding in CAQDAS, which *is* much more comfortable, and most of
these programs also let you export codings into spreadsheet/SPSS format.
So, if you have 200-500 bucks to spare, you should probably go for it. You
see, I would position myself somewhat inbetween Ed and Ray. Maybe UNLV or
your department even has a license for one or more of the programs?
If you in the end decide to buy CAQDAS, look at our and/or Harald Klein's
overview of content analysis software:
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/mmethods/research/software/index.html
http://www.textanalysis.info/
At 04:02 12/11/2003 +0000, you wrote:
>Hello! I am currently completing my Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and have
>a substantial amount of qualitative data (approx. 200 questionnaires),
>mostly from sentence completion and 1 or 2 word responses, although some
>individuals have chosen to elaborate more fully on their questionnaires.
These are not qualitative data, but data that can be analyzed by either
quantitative and qualitative methods. The range w/i each of these
subbranches of methodology is enormous, you will have to give us some more
information about the specific method you want to use, if you would like
more specific advice.
>Looking for a reliable, valid & "student affordable" computerized program
>to analyze data.
That *sounds* like Stata (except that @$745, it's hardly "affordable")!
Stata makes RELIABLE statistical analysis. A program by itself can NEVER
make "valid" or "invalid" analyses.
All CAQDAS, to the best of my knowledge, also make reliable analyses, of
course. Indeed, it seems to me that reliablity is the most important
advantage of all "computerized" analyses.
Just my 2c.
Good luck,
thomas
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