Tonight I watched a Delve video on deductive and inductive approaches to qualitative coding. The short video (2 minutes) was packed with information. They defined deductive coding as a top down approach that starts off with a set of codes based on a research question or framework. Examples of deductive coding mentioned were structural coding and program evaluation. Deductive coding is best for descriptive, structured, or evaluative research. Inductive coding is a ground-up approach that derives codes from the data. It is better suited for discovery and exploratory methods of coding. Some examples are Grounded Theory, thematic analysis, exploratory research, and coming up with a new research framework. In inductive coding, you use the data to let themes emerge. The video did note that a combination of the two methods can be used.
