Thematic Analysis - Week 3

  • Braun & Clarke

    • ‘It is a method of qualitative analysis, widely used across the social and health sciences and beyond, for exploring, interpreting, and reporting relevant patterns and meaning across a dataset. It utilizes codes and coding to develop themes’ (2022)

    • ‘Thematic analysis is a method for identifying, analysing, and reporting patterns (themes) within data. It minimally organises and described your data set in (rich) detail.' (2006)

  • Thematic analysis is a qualitative data analysis method used to identify, analyze, and interpret patterns of meaning (themes) within qualitative data.

  • It is a flexible approach that can be applied across various tyoes of qualitative research and is particularly useful for examining participants’ perspectives, experiences, and ideas.

  • Inductive (Data-Driven):

    • Themes emerge directly from the data without perconceived frameworks.

    • Example: Analyzing interview transcripts to explore participants’ experiences with therapy.

  • Deducive (Theory-Driven):

    • Themes are identified based on existing theories or research questions.

    • Example: Coding for stress coping strategies using Lazarus and Folkman’s stress model.

  • Semantic vs. Latent Themes:

    • Semantic: Focus on explicit, surface-level meanings, more overt

    • Latent: Explore underlying ideas, assumptions, and conceptual frameworks.

Advantages of Thematic Analysis

  • Flexibility

  • Can be used across a range of data collection approaches (interviews, focus groups, diary studies, ethnography, etc)

  • Easy and quick to learn and conduct

  • Accessible to new qualitative researchers

  • Highlights similarities and differences in the data set

Disadvantages of Thematic Analysis

  • ‘thin’, ‘light’, ‘soft’ approach to qualitative data analysis, not really understanding what is happening to the participant.

  • Too flexible?

  • Tends to be descriptive

  • Analyses across cases not within, not talking about individual experiences

Summary:

  • Thematic analysis seeks to describe patterns across qualitative data but it is atheoretical (unlike Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis)

  • Thematic Analysis is useful for many types of datasets

Reflexivity in Qualitative Research

  • Acknowledge your role in the research

  • Reflexive questions for researcher (as per Patton, 2014)

    • What do I know?

    • How do I know what I know?

    • What shapes and has shaped my perspective?

    • With What vouce do I share my perepectivr?

    • What do I do with what I have found?

Data collection

Methods

Focus groups

  • Focus group discussions are group discussions intended to identify the beliefs and opinions of a selected group of people on a specific topic.

  • Pros:

    • May be a better method to use for sensitive topics

    • No need to book a venue or schedule an entire group to attend one event

    • Can occur in a place that is easy to get to for the person being interviewed, which puts them at ease

    • Can be more private

    • Allows more time to explore topics per person

    • Can yield more detailed answers from people

  • Cons

    • More expensive per person than conducting FGDs

    • Take more overall time

    In-depth interviews

  • In-depth interviews are one-onone discussions designed to provide a detailed picture of an individual particiapnt’s views about the area of interest.

  • Pros:

    • Allows for group interaction and for people to build off of other’s answers

    • New idead or insights are more likely to emerge as a result of group exchange

    • Less time than it would take to interview the same number of people one by one

    • Good way to assess social norms

  • Cons:

    • Requires more logistics to schedule and plan things like finding a venue and a time that works for more people

    • Moderator must have training or skills at managing group interaction

    • Sensitive topics may be hard for people to talk about in the presence of others and so may be better explored in priavte, one by one

    • Hard to hear voices and transcribe when in a group setting

Strengths of semi-structured interviews (Livesey, Sociological Central, 1995-2010)

  • Positive rapport between interviewer and interviewee. A simple, efficient and practical way of obtaining information.

  • Meanings behind actions may be revealed through this dialogue, which is non directive.

  • High Validity as respondent