Content analysis is described as "a research technique for the objective, systematic, and quantitative description of the manifest content of communication" (Cooper & Schindler, 2011). Further, content analysis can be used to analyze written, audio, video data from experiments, observations, surveys, and secondary data studies (Cooper & Schindler, 2011). We apply content analysis on a daily basis.
There are for different types of content analysis:
- Syntactical units can be words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs; words are the smallest and most reliable data units to analyze.
- Referential units are described by words, phrases, and sentences; they may be objects, events, persons, and so forth, to which a verbal or textual expression refers.
- Propositional units are assertions about an object, event, person, and so on.
- Thematic units are topics contained within (and across) texts; they represent higher-level abstractions inferred from the text and its context.
When interviewing children who have been abused which of these content analysis might the interviewer be using?