On the Pragmatics of Qualitative Assessment

Using the example of a project on the assessment of implicit leadership theories, this article aims to describe qualitative content analysis as a systematic, rule-based process of analyzing verbal and textual data (e.g., interviews, group discussions, documents). Steps and typical problems in the qualitative assessment process are addressed and guidelines for decision and action presented. The steps include transcription of interview tapes into raw data, condensing and structuring the data, building and applying a category system, displaying data and results for concluding analyses and interpretation. Necessary checks for securing the quality of the assessment are shown for each step. Ideas for the combination of qualitative and quantitative analyses are presented, and applications of qualitative content analysis in the field of psychological assessment discussed.