Grounded theory, first described by Glaser and Strauss, is intended to generate or discover a theory inductively from data gathered about a specific phenomenon. Three elements of grounded theory are concepts, categories, and propositions. Concepts are the basic units of analysis. Corbin and Strauss stated:
Theories can’t be built with actual incidents or activities as observed or reported; that is, from “raw data.” The incidents, events, happenings are taken as, or analysed as, potential indicators of phenomena, which are thereby given conceptual labels. If a respondent says to the researcher, “Each day I spread my activities over the morning, resting between shaving and bathing,” then the researcher might label this phenomenon as “pacing.” As the researcher encounters other incidents, and when after comparison to the first, they appear to resemble the same phenomena, then these, too, can be labelled as “pacing.” Only by comparing incidents and naming like phenomena with the same term can the theorist accumulate the basic units for theory.