MAXQDA - Webtutorial - Chapter E

E: Case Attributes and Activation by Attributes 1. The List of Attributes MAXQDA enables the administration of attributes for every text in the sense of statistical programs. For instance, you can record personal data and frame information for a text or classify specific text features and code them in form of attributes, respectively attribute values. MAXQDA 2007 differentiates between two kinds of attribute views: the attribute view (list of attributes) and the data view (attribute table). New attributes can be created in the list of attributes. Before you are able to enter values for the attributes, you have to define these first. Click on Attributes in the menu row and select List of Attributes. The first time you use this command, the window will not be empty because MAXQDA has already created internal attributes (e.g. the name of the corresponding text group, the text name, and the import date of the text). Overall there will already be seven attributes in the list; you will later recognize these internal attributes with a red symbol in the first column. A tool bar allows the definition of new attributes and switching to the data view. In the column “To be displayed” you can define which attributes are displayed in the data view. When working with a lot of attributes the tabular view might become quite confusing, so that the possibility of only displaying selected attributes is urgently needed.

2. Creating attributes To create a new attribute, click on the symbol “New Attribute”. Next, enter a meaningful name for the attribute, for example “Gender“, “Education“, “Marital Status“, etc. and select the attribute type. Five types of attributes are available: • String • Integer • Boolean • Floating point • Date/Time If you want to, e.g. abbreviate the gender of the interviewees with “m” and “f”, you should select the attribute type string. *Please consider* that the attribute type can not be changed later on. This way you may define an (almost) infinite number of attributes. The rectangular data matrix (texts * attributes) may later be exported directly to statistical programs such as SPSS or Excel.

3. Entering Data In order to enter data you have to switch from the list of attributes to the data view. If you haven’t called on the attribute list before, you may select the data view directly, as well: select the menu Attributes – Edit or the corresponding button in the symbol bar. You will find the attribute button in the symbol bar. In the list of attributes you will see the complete list of all texts and those attributes which have been marked “to be displayed” in the list of attributes. The data table is similar to the data matrix in its rectangular structure, which is also well know from SPSS or Excel: Each row of the matrix complies with a case (text) in the Document System. The attributes are listed in the columns. This way you can enter one value for each case (text) and each attribute. All attributes can easily be imported, respectively exported from or to SPSS/Excel. If your attribute appears in the overview (you might have to scroll the list further to the right), you could assign your text an attribute value by double clicking into the corresponding cell. The entering of values into a newly created attribute is easiest, when you begin with the top row: double click into the first cell, enter the corresponding value and confirm with ENTER. The cursor will now automatically jump into the next row and you may begin the entering of the next value (see screenshot). By clicking on the column headers you may sort the existing attributes. According to the type of attribute the sorting will be done alphabetically, numerically, or chronologically. Repeated clicking changes the direction of sorting. Similar to the Document System, a text is opened via double click on the text symbol in the attribute window and appears in the Text Browser. You can blend out an attribute column by right clicking on a column and header and selecting switch off from the appearing menu. The command select fields leads you to a selection window (see following screenshot) in which you are able to choose from a list of attributes the ones that you would like to be displayed. After placing the desired checkmark confirm by pressing OK. Given you had defined an attribute “Months there” in which you would like to save how long an interviewee had already worked in the initiative group. In order to enter a value for the attribute “Months there“ in the first text of the table (“interview1“), double click on the corresponding cell of the matrix and enter a number, e.g. “10“. Do the same thing in the second row and enter “7“. All of the values entered for this attribute will be saved in a selection list by MAXQDA. Should you now click into a cell of the attribute column “Months there”, you could access the list (“Picklist”) via the little triangle at the right border of the entry window and select the corresponding value from the list, so that you do not have to enter the value for a specific text again. This is especially useful if the attribute values to be entered are rather long, as with job description, for example. The list of values can be extended at any time; new values will be adopted into the list immediately.

4. Exporting and Importing Attributes The tool bar of attribute table contains an Export-Button. With the help of this button you can export the list of your attributes as a text file (.txt). This file may later be imported into programs like, e.g. Excel or SPSS for the quantitative analysis or graphical refurbishment of your attributes. The export function is also accessible directly from the main menu through the Attributes-Export Data Matrix option. In order to insert these attributes into SPSS it suffices to select the specific menu command in SPSS. You will be guided through the following 6 entry steps by SPSS. Change 2 entries exclusively: 1. the first row contains the attribute name and 2. only tab delimited. Hint: In SPSS versions <13 attribute names which are longer than 8 signs or contain blank spaces will be renamed or shortened by SPSS. The attribute import follows a similar path. Save the matrix of attributes which you have created with SPSS or Excel as a .txt file. The first and second attribute have to correspond to the values of the text name and text group given by MAXQDA2007, otherwise an exact classification of the values is impossible. You can insert this .txt file in MAXQDA2007 with the menu command Attributes-Import.

5. Activation by Attributes The activation of texts can not only be done manually but also automatically. With the activation of attributes function the values of attributes play the control function for the text activation. If you defined the attributes ”Gender“, “Age“, and “Education“ it is possible to start a text evaluation only for women of a specific age group, who received a college degree. The selection criterions for the text analysis have to be entered in a standardized way. The syntax that MAXQDA demands for the entry of such logical conditions is similar to those of statistical programs, such as SPSS. The activation by attributes function always refers to the whole, currently worked on project. Therefore it is called on with a right click on the highest level in the Document System window or by the corresponding button in the tool bar. With the New-Button you will at first select those attributes from the list of all attributes that you need for your condition (e.g. age and gender). Simply place a checkmark into the corresponding field via mouse click and confirm your selection with the OK-Button. In the activation by attributes window you will see a list of your attribute selection. To the right of it you will have the possibility of seeing the Type of Combination and defining specific conditions. When entering a condition (e.g. Age > 30), mark the corresponding attribute and then select the condition in the right section. Here you may define the combination of the attributes for the activation of the texts. An AND-combination results in the fact that a text has to fulfill all criteria of the combined attributes in order to be activated while an OR-combination only demands one fulfilled criterion. After clicking on the Activate-Button you will see in the Document System which texts have been activated according to your criteria. It is possible that no text will be activated if there are no cases that match your criteria. Now, you just have to activate the desired code(s) and you will then receive the text segments of those persons, who correspond with the given criteria (e.g. only statements from persons over 30). It is generally possible that the Code System stays empty. In this case there are no text segments by, for example, persons over 30 which you have assigned to the selected code word.

6. Text Sets MAXQDA2007 gives you the opportunity of creating temporary text sets. A set always consists of the momentarily activated texts. In our example we could therefore create a new text set after the activation by attributes with the criteria “male over 30”. We could then call this text set “Men over 30” and always access if for later analysis without having to go through the process of activation by attributes. Make sure that at least one text is activated. Then right click on the word Sets in the Document System and select the entry New Set. MAXQDA2007 will then create a set from the currently activated texts. Now, select a fitting name for the set (e.g. “Men over 30”). Each set can be extended or changed by adding or removing texts to or from the text via Drag&Drop. A set is no duplication of the text material but rather a collection of references. This text set is available for further analysis until it has been deleted via the context menu option Remove Set.

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