(a) Describe various methods of qualitative data analysis. Highlight some popular computer softwares used in qualitative…

(a) Methods of qualitative data analysis and popular software

Qualitative analysis turns fieldnotes, interview transcripts, images and documents into interpreted patterns, usually alongside data collection.

• Thematic analysis: coding the data and grouping codes into recurring themes that are reviewed and named.
• Content analysis: systematic categorisation of text, images or audio by coding rules, sometimes counting frequency.
• Grounded theory: theory built from data by open, axial and selective coding and constant comparison (Glaser and Strauss).
• Narrative analysis: study of life histories and stories for their structure and meaning.
• Discourse analysis: study of how language produces meaning, power and ideology.
• Others: analytic induction, domain and taxonomic analysis (Spradley), and semiotic or visual analysis.

Software (CAQDAS): NVivo, ATLAS.ti, MAXQDA, Dedoose and QDA Miner store and organise data, and support coding, memos, searches, code co-occurrence queries, networks and visualisation. They manage large data sets but do not interpret; the researcher does.

(b) Assumptions and importance of genetic equilibrium

Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium states that allele frequencies (p + q = 1) and genotype frequencies (p² + 2pq + q² = 1) remain constant from generation to generation.

Assumptions:

1. Random mating, with no inbreeding or assortative mating.
2. A very large population, so that genetic drift is absent.
3. No mutation.
4. No migration or gene flow.
5. No natural selection, with all genotypes equally fit.

Importance: it is a null model. Departure from equilibrium shows that evolutionary forces (selection, drift, gene flow, mutation, non-random mating) are operating, and helps to detect them and measure their strength. It allows calculation of carrier frequencies of recessive disorders such as sickle cell anaemia and thalassaemia from the number of affected, is used in population genetics, forensic DNA frequency estimates and genetic counselling, and gives a baseline for studying microevolution and endogamy.

(c) Political and methodological aspects of national character studies, and their contemporary relevance

National character studies, a product of the Culture and Personality school during the Second World War (Benedict's The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, 1946, Gorer, Mead), tried to describe the modal personality of nations.

Political aspects: they were sponsored by wartime governments for propaganda, morale and occupation policy, and were open to use in stereotyping and justification of state interests.

Methodological aspects: study "at a distance" through films, literature, interviews with émigrés and prisoners replaced fieldwork. Problems included unrepresentative samples, overgeneralisation and stereotyping, neglect of class, regional and gender variation, dependence on child-rearing theories (such as Gorer's swaddling hypothesis), and absence of testing.

Contemporary relevance: the idea of a single national character is rejected, but the studies are relevant to cultural nationalism and identity politics, the ethics of research sponsored by the state, and cross-cultural psychology, and they warn against essentialism in cultural comparison.