finding. Suppose that you’re studying an emerging cult and that you have the impression that people who do not have a regular family will be the most likely to regard the new cult as a family substitute. The danger is that whenever you discover a subject who report no family, you’ll unconsciously try to find some evidence in the subject’s comments that the cult is a substitute for family. If at all possible, then get someone else to code some of your cases to see whether that person makes the same assignments you made.
Codebook Construction
The end product of the coding process is the conversion of data items into numerical codes. These codes represent attributes composing variables, which, in turn, are assigned locations within a data file. A codebook is a document that describes the locations of variables and lists the assignments of codes to the attributes composing those variables.
A codebook serves two essential function. First, it is the primary guide used in the coding process. Second, it is your guide for locating variables and interpreting codes in your data file during analysis. If you decide to correlate two variables as a part of your analysis of your data, the codebook tells you where to find the variables and what the codes represent.
Figure 14-1 is a partial codebook created from two variables from the General Social Survey. Though there is no one right format for a codebook, this example presents some of the common elements.
Notice first that each variable is identified by an abbreviated variable name: POLVIEWS.ATTEND. We can determine the church attendance of respondents, for example, by referencing ATTEND. This example uses the format established by the General Social Survey, which has been carried over into SPSS. Other data sets and/or analysis programs might format variables differently. Some use numerical codes in place of abbreviated names, for example. You must, however, have some identifier that will allow you to locate and use the variable in question.