The Politics of Disgust: The Public Identity of the Welfare Queen

Appendix C: Data Analysis Procedures

Appendix C Data Analysis Procedures Instrumentation The measures studied in this project are the product of an extensive literature review and a dialogue with the data that is central to qualitative research .1 The development of a single underlying concept, Public Identity, was the primary goal of this project. Dimensions of this variable, along with dimensions of three other substantive variables are detailed below. Operational definitions of three primary variables were developed through the review of the literature. One variable emerged from the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the data from the Congressional Record. Variables of both information origins were tested for confirmation of the theory put forth throughout the book. I provide the definitions of Public Identity, Policy Options, Political Values, and Key Buzz Words below. Public Identity Public Identity refers to welfare recipients/mothers as a group with specific characteristics, behaviors, and morality. As the central variable of this project, it was defined as a variable with fourteen conceptually distinct dimensions. Many of the dimensions were determined through a review of the academic literature surrounding welfare policy. One or two dimensions were split to better fit with the definition of public identity. For example, the dimension of Don’t Work was split from Lazy, to better separate attributions of behaviors and moral judgments, two separate cognitive processes used in the process of public identity assignment. The dimensions of Public Identity are listed in Table C.1 with their definitions ; additional descriptive analysis of both the news media and the Congressional Record data samples are presented later in this appendix. 168 Policy Options Policy Options is the variable that intervenes prior to the substantive political outcome, passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Act of 1996 (PRWA). Analyses in chapters 3 and 4 investigate the proposition that Policy Options and Public Identity are strongly associated . Policy Options refers to any proposed solution to reform the welfare system, whether seriously considered or not. Half of the ten dimensions of Policy Options were obtained through a review of the literature before the qualitative analysis. The second five dimensions were revealed during the qualitative analysis. Each of the dimensions of Policy Options is hypothesized to correspond to one or more aspects of Public Identity. The dimensions of Policy Options are listed in Table C.2 with their definitions; frequencies and data analysis in the news media and the Congressional Record are presented in chapters 3 and 4. American Political Values American Political Values has the longest history in the literature among the variables considered for this project. It is defined as values or beliefs that many Americans think are vital to the success and continued prosperity of themselves and of the United States. The majority of dimensions for this variable, surprisingly, arose from the qualitative investigation rather than the literature review. Only three common political values were included in the discussion of welfare reform. Others arose within the context of the welfare reform analysis. The nine dimensions of American Political Values are listed in Table C.3 with their definitions; frequencies and data analysis pertaining to the news media and the Congressional Record are presented in chapters 3 and 4. Key Buzz Words This last variable is a summary variable of words and phrases that arose through the exploration of the data. Its more frequent components likewise have dimensions, including Consensus for Welfare Reform, Compassion, and Escape from Poverty. In this area, Responsibility was separated from the American Political Value dimension, Parental Responsibility , and referred to the concept of personal responsibility contained in the title and preamble of the PRWA. The five terms are listed in Table C.4, with their dimensions and definitions. Appendix C: Data Analysis Procedures | 169 The presence of each of these variables within each document analyzed is determined by the presence of the dimensions identified in appendix tables C.1, C.2, C.3, and C.4, respectively. Notably, missing data were left as such and not coded as absent in order to avoid imputing a specific motive to the speaker (Hodson 1999, 27). For example, if a speaker does not refer to block grants in her discussion of welfare reform on the floor of Congress, her reasons for doing so can span from conscious omission, oversight, error, previous mentions not covered by the random sample, and so on. As noted...