Though C-I-SAID appears only in one of Harald's categories it, in fact
fits into many more - containing both features for typical qualitative
analysis as well as content analysis and acoustic analysis within the broad
framework of a quantitative package.
The content analysis features include two built in dictionaries which can
be used to analyse documents. These are the Regressive Imagery Dictionary
which contains some 3000 words within 29 categories and the Harvard
dictionary which contains a similar number of words grouped into 55
categories. In fact because the words are lemitised the range of words
covered is far greater. These concepts can be used to analyse documents
directly or as a basis for creating user defined categories - known as word
groups in C-I-SAID.
Although you can generate word counts based on these groups you can do much
more. Respondents on this list have described using simple word searches to
try and get a feel of a text. With C-I-SAID you can search for complex
concepts which may involve hundreds of related words. In the new
documentation for C-I-SAID version 3 I provide an illustration of the ways
you can use to word groups and searches automatically code and analyse a
set of questionnaires which contain open and closed questions.
Part of the power of the method is that it is grounded in the actual words
used by the respondents and can deal with complex phrases identifying and
sifting out negations like 'I don't feel worried'. it is also interactive
giving the user ultimate discretion as to what is coded and what not.
I final quality of this methodology is that it can deal with a situation
where the number of categories is unknown at the beginning of an analysis
and doesn't suffer from the problem of that multiple responses can cause in
more traditional analyses.
More details of C-I-SAID version 3 are to be found on my web page.
Regards
Alan Cartwright
At 10:30 11/06/2001 +0200, Harald Klein wrote:
> > >-----Original Message-----
> > >From: Katherine Hall <[log in to unmask]>
> > >To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
> > >Date: 07 June 2001 03:47
> > >Subject: liwc
> > >
> > >
> > >Dear Ann
> > >I wonder if your unit, or anyone you know, has had experience in
> > >using a linguistic computer analysis programme called
> > >'Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count' (by J Pennebaker and M
> > >Francis)? What it does is count the number of words which fall into
> > >68 pre-defined categories (e.g. the cognitive category finds
> > >instances of 'because', 'thought' etc). You can also construct your
> > >own categories too.
> > >It is not really a qualitative tool as such but I am interested in using
> > >it in a study I am doing looking at whether the use of fiction
> > >enhances clinicians ability to reason about ethics. I am thinking it
> > >may be a way of measuring change in their reasoning before and
> > >after a writing task.
> > >If you could give me any advice about this programme I would be
> > >very very grateful.
>
>LIWC is a program that counts these pre-defined categories, similar
>programs are Diction and MCCA, the number of categories differ a lot.
>The authors of LIWC and Diction are both psychologists at the University
>of Texas in Austin. For more information point your browser to
>http://www.intext.de/textanae.html and find much more text analysis
>programs, links to the authors/developers/distributors and a
>classification of software.
>
>Hope this helps
>
>Harald
>
>---------------------
>Dr. Harald Klein
>Social Science Consulting
>Brückengasse 12
>07407 Rudolstadt
>Germany
>Tel/Fax: +49 3672 488494
Alan Cartwright PhD
Developer Code-A-Text MultiMedia Products
Hon. Senior Lecturer Kent Institute of Medicine and Health Studies.
Email [log in to unmask]
CISAID: Powerful Multi-Media Software for Analysing Interviews and Dialogues.
CTANKS: Word processing, Recording, Transcription, Searching and Report
Generation in a single user friendly package.
Information at
Code-A-Text Web Page <http://www.code-a-text.co.uk>
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