The use of the qualitative content analysis in psychology: A critical review

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the inferential processes underpinning interpretation in qualitative Content Analysis and that are related with a triad compounded by theory, phenomenon and datum. In the first section, a brief history of this method and of its main modalities and techniques are presented. In the second, the standard procedures of a categorical Content Analysis are discussed, according to Bardin's perspective. Specifically, the paper discusses the codification and categorization processes and their underlying logical mechanisms: induction and deduction. Some questions and epistemological issues are introduced concerning the operationalization of both these mechanisms in Content Analysis and the limits of treating the later merely as an ad hoc resource. In the next two sections, the article provides a critical analysis of the qualitative Content Analysis, taking into account the three following interconnected components: phenomenon, theory and data. It is argued this method of analysis must go beyond the mere description or organization of data through categorization, focusing instead in a theorization of the psychological phenomenon under investigation.