Quantitative or qualitative content analysis? Experiences from a cross-cultural comparison of female students’ attitudes to shoe fashions in Germany, Poland and Russia

Abstract

In order to examine differences in attitudes to shoe fashions between women in Germany, Poland and Russia, we asked three samples of advanced female students of English to write a short English composition in response to the stimulus: “Tell us a little bit about the footwear (shoes, boots, etc.) you own and when you wear it”. We analysed the results using a manual qualitative content analysis and two forms of quantitative computer content analysis: one using project-specific categories developed from the qualitative content analysis and previous theory, the other using general semantic field categories. Both techniques were successful in highlighting similar between-group differences, suggesting that qualitative content analysis and project-specific categories can largely be dispensed with. Some issues in using non-native student English compositions as data in cross-cultural studies are also considered.