In such a study, the therapist would be the unit of analysis while each session would the unit of observation. In content analysis, as in other studies, the unit of analysis is not always the same as the unit of observation. We might find that older therapists were more likely to practice empathetic body language and that when they did so clients were more likely to be responsive to questioning. The advantage of using video as a record of communication associated with body language is that such communication is not recorded in transcripts, case records or written documents generally. Content analysis of case records can involve many things from studying the frequency of use of certain words, to how often clients are treated in a particular way, to counting up which types of clients tend to receive what types of treatment, to many other tallies.
Content analysis can also take many other forms as the body language example suggests.
All of these however involve a coding scheme . Coding is critical to content analysis. All coders must use the same criterion or operational definition for coding each item or variable you study. The coding instructions for all the items or variables are usually specified in a codebook or protocol. These instructions specify how to look for certain pieces of information and convert them to codes in numerical form that can later be tabulated usually using a computer.