Coding Guidelines

CRED has established a method for coding of group interactions and group goals which is being applied to various laboratory and field projects in Brazil and Uganda. While some coding is dependent on the scenario of the lab experiment or the context of the respective field project (water resource management, farming), the codes for group interaction (inclusion vs. rejection; level of interaction, engagement, and participation); adoption and maintenance of group goals (open-mindedness vs. resistance toward others); flow of information (sharing, withholding); use of and involvement in subgroups can be applied across projects and serve as a measure of group affiliation and identity.

A combination of video recordings of and transcripts of group discussions allows for analysis of both verbal and non-verbal communication among group members. In addition to group identity, CRED researchers are interested in the reasons and arguments that lead to the final group decision.

In particular, we have created coding guidelines for participants’ employment of cognitive and affective modes of information processing (analytic vs. experiential); regulatory focus of promotion (references to hope, advancement, aspiration, attainment, support) or prevention (references to obligation, responsibility, vigilance, caution, safety); goal type (material and non-material such as ethics or guilt); and appeals to authorities (science, god, tradition and customs, government, common sense). Again, while the specific content of the reasons and arguments varies from project to project, common to all projects is the question of how consensus is formed.

» View the guidelines for coding group interaction
» View the guidelines for coding regulatory focus
» View an example of coded transcript from a group discussion
» View sample guidelines from the codebook for CRED Glacier project