Analysing Qualitative Data: Content Analysis

Question 1

Content Analysis

Answer 1

• Analysing qualitative data into themes or categories

> Identifying themes within qualitative material and seeing how common each theme is

Question 2

4 steps to Content Analysis

Answer 2

1. Decide on the material that will be analysed
2. Decide on categories or themes.
   > Often done through a pilot study
   > Generally not permitted to add additional categories or themes once the researcher has begun to analyse the data
3. Put these themes into a tally chart and work your way through the data
4. Add up how many times each theme appeared and draw conclusions based on this.

Question 3

Thematic Analysis

Answer 3

• Many researchers are unhappy with reducing qualitative data to quantitative data and so advocate thematic analysis as an alternative.
• This also involves looking for key themes but aims to keep the data qualitative
  > Often involves going a step further and interpreting the data to get a more holistic feel for what the data is trying to convey.

Question 4

2 types of Thematic Analysis

Answer 4

There are two main approaches to thematic analysis:
- Bottom up approach = means that data is analysed as it is studied.
> No predetermined categories, the researcher simply records the data that presents itself as it appears.
- Top down approach = means that data is analysed based on predetermined categories.
> Data isn’t usually reduced to a tally chart. The data remains qualitative.