Alternative methodologies for the analysis of qualitative data

Three different methodologies exist to analyse data which is in the form of verbal texts. They are content analysis, the Glaser-Strauss constant comparative method of grounded theory, and text interpretation in the hermeneutic tradition. This article briefly reviews content analysis and the constant comparative method. More detailed instructions for text interpretation, for which relatively few explicit specific directions exist in the literature, are developed. The appropriate use of each methodology is discussed.