Chapter 6
Number and Depth of Codes

During the initial stage of analysis while engaged in Open Coding it's easy to develop dozens, even hundreds, of codes. And if you really get carried away you might find yourself starting to forget the names of your codes or where they're located on your Index Tree. You might even find that you've actually created different codes with almost identical meanings.

Should you reach this point you'll know it's time to take a deep breath and begin looking more closely at both your Code Definitions and the relationship between your codes, the nodes and child nodes - the categories and sub-categories. Spend some time reflecting on the relationships between the categories and reorganizing the nodes and child nodes. It's time to give those handy Pop-Up Menus a workout, sorting, cutting, attaching, merging, arranging and rearranging the nodes on your Index Tree as you reflect on your data.

You can also review the section, What is a Node?, and remember that:

• nodes should contain conceptually related ideas and reflect a high degree of internal coherence
• the relationship between two nodes should be mutually exclusive - that is, sufficiently distinct so their meanings do not overlap
• child nodes should be conceptually related to parent nodes

And if you're still finding yourself a little 'stuck' - then go back and review your Research Questions. Try to remember what it was that made you curious enough to embark on this study in the first place.

While there are probably some studies that would justify creating dozens ... and dozens of parent nodes on the Index Tree, most of us will be better able to manage the complexities of our data by developing parent nodes that represent very broad concepts and we can thus limit the total number of parent nodes on the Index Tree. A tree with more than 25 parent nodes can quickly turn into something that is unmanageable. And you will be doing well to limit the depth of your sub-categories to three levels, or four at most.

Analysis...coding...rethinking...recoding - this is an iterative process that reflects the ongoing ebb and flow of your thinking - sometimes expanding, sometimes contracting - but always changing as you develop and focus your understandings.

Copyright Bobbi A. Kerlin, Ph.D.
http://kerlins.net/bobbi/research/nudist/
Last updated February 10, 2002