ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 introduces the Terrapsychological Inquiry (TI) steps for analyzing data gathered during the active phases of the research project. Not all projects involve data analysis. For those that do, especially in academic work that requires a high degree of rigor, data analysis can be held by the researcher as a ritual that begins with sorting relevant from irrelevant findings according to clearly specified criteria. Sorting leads to data coding, a frequently performed method in qualitative research. TI uses standard codes, emphasizing those that treat findings as elements in a story, and adds several others unique to the methodology. Codeweaving melds the codes into larger categories preparatory to exploring them for themes: recurring bundles or knots of findings that bear directly on the research question. Themes studied by TI are frequently symbolic or metaphoric rather than literal. Themes are sorted into major and minor prior to appearing in a final summary of the study.
