back to the Publication Alerts menuHsieh, Hsiu-Fang, and Sarah E. Sahnnon. "Three Approaches to Qualitative Content Analysis." Qualitative Health Research 15, no. 9 (2005): 1277-1288.
Hsiah and Shannon identify three approaches to qualitative content analysis: conventional, directed, and summative. They explain that "[i]n conventional content analysis, coding categories are derived directly from the text data. With a directed approach, analysis starts with a theory or relevant research findings as guidance for initial codes. A summative content analysis involves counting and comparisons, usually of keywords or content, followed by the interpretation of the underlying context" (p. 1277). Hsieh and Shannon discuss how each of these approaches might be applied in research related to end-of-life care.