Selective coding involves the process of selecting and identifying the core category and systematically relating it to other categories. It involves validating those relationships, filling in, and refining and developing those categories. Categories are integrated together and a Grounded Theory is arrived at.
The process involves the following stages:
Explication of the story line
Relating subsidiary categories to the core category using the paradigm model
Relating categories at the dimensional level. This involves understanding the range of values that categories may have. For example, the category 'motivation' may have a range of values between not motivated and highly motivated.
Validation of relationships against data
Further refinement of the storyline