More people are at least somewhat familiar with what computers do with quantitative data: They “crunch the numbers” by performing various statistical procedures on the numerical data. However, when the data take a more qualitative form, such as field notes or the text of a magazine article, the manner in which computers would be used to analyze the data is less widely understood. Yet as early as the 1960s, computer programs existed that could perform content analysis on such texts. Since then, advance in computer hardware and software, artificial intelligence, and optical scanning technologies have expanded dramatically the kind of tasks that computers can do in qualitative research (Bainbridge et al., 1994; Weitzman and Miiles, 1995; Evans, 1996). We won’t discuss specific software programe but rather the general capabilities that are found in some or all versions of what is now called computer-assisted qualitative data analysis (CAQDA). However, computer haven’t substantially changed what is done in qualitative data analysis; they simply assist the research in doing many of the tasks that have been described in this chapter. CAQDA software definitely dose not do the researchers’ work for them. Qualitative data analysis is still difficult and time-consuming and calls for substantial creativity on the analyst’s part. It is analogous to writing: Even with word processors, writing is still a difficult job and requires a creative mind. But computers definitely make writing, as well as qualitative data analysis, easier and more effective than they would be without them.
To illustrate what computers can do these days, let’s look at a qualitative study of eating disorders among people referred to an addiction treatment center. The data in this study might consist of openended interviews with the clients, client social histories and treatment plans, and chart logs taken from client records. There might also be videotapes of meetings where the staff discusses cases. Many of these document would be in narrative form, and the first step would be either to type or to scan them into a computer as text files (an ASCII file, in most cases)