Content analysys

What is content analysis

An indirect observational method that is used to analyse human behaviour, investigating through studying human artefacts (e.g. advertisements, movies etc)

Which type of data is usually used for content analysis

Qualitative data or write-ups of spoken words(transcript). This is transformed into quantitative data

What is content analysis

An indirect observational method that is used to analyse human behaviour, investigating through studying human artefacts (e.g. advertisements, movies etc)

Which type of data is usually used for content analysis

Qualitative data or write-ups of spoken words(transcript). This is transformed into quantitative data

What do you need to perform a content analysis

1. Decide a research question

2. Select a sample(e.g. randomly, systematically) from a larger quantity of all possible data(e.g. diary entries, children’s book)

3. Coding: The researcher decides on categories/ coding units to be recorded(e.g. occurrences of a particular words) these are based on the research question

4. Work through the data- read the sample, and tally the number of times the pre-determined categories appear

5. Data analysis-can be performed on the quantitative data to look for patterns

Why categories should be operationalised

They should be clearly defined as possible to try to reduce subjective interpretation, e.g. directly threatening physical violence rather than aggressive statements

What should the researcher do after performing a content analysis

Testing for reliability/ assessing for consistency

What are 2 options for testing reliability

1. Test-retest reliability. Run the content analysis again on the same sample and compare the two sets of data

2. Inter-rater reliability- a second rather also perform the content analysis, with the same set of data and the same behavioural categories. Compare the two sets of data.

What correlation can show that data is reliable

0.8

What are the advantages of content analysis

• The artefacts are usually not created for the research, but taken from the real world, which means that content analysis has high external validity, and findings should be generalisable to other real-world situations

• Easy to gather a sample

• Other researchers should be able to replicate a content analysis using the same behavioural categories and easy to access sample

What are the disadvantages of content analysis

1. Researcher bias, as researcher will often need to interpret subjective text

2. As the data was can be not created under controlled conditions, it may lack validity

What is thematic analysis

Researchers start by attempting to identify the deeper meaning of the text by reading it first, and allowing themes to emerge

What do you need to perform a thematic analysis

• Collect text/ turn recordings into text through transcription

• Read text/ transcript first to spot patterns that can be coded and collected

• Re-read the transcription/ codes looking for emergent themes

Themes are not pre-determined, they come from the text

What are the advantages of thematic analysis

• No researcher bias as theories come after the discovery of themes, so researcher won’t imposing their bias by only looking what they want to see

• High external validity

• Easy to get a sample

• Easy to replicate

What are the disadvantages of thematic analysis

• Subjective interpretation

• Data not created in controlled conditions