A neophyte’s journey through qualitative analysis using Morse’s cognitive processes of analysis

Abstract: In the early stages of her master’s thesis the author became increasinglyconcerned about how she would analyze the data for her planned critical interpretivestudy. She felt that she needed clear direction about the process of qualitativeanalysis but found the “how to” of theory development within qualitative dataanalysis poorly described and vague. A book chapter by qualitative researcher JaniceMorse (1994) provided guidance. In it Morse outlined four cognitive and essentiallysequential processes, which the author adapted to guide the analysis of data for herstudy.