Content Analysis

Question 1

What is a content analysis

Answer 1

A research technique that enables the indirect study of behaviour by examining communication that people produce
used to analyse qualitative data by turning it into quantitative data via coding

Question 2

What is coding in a content analysis

Answer 2

initial stage of a content analysis where the communication to be studies is analysed by identifying each instance of the chosen categories

Question 3

Give an example of a content analysis in psychology

Answer 3

Waynforth and Dunbar lonely heart study
advert in a newspaper to see what men and women look for in a relationship
men aimed their adverts at younger women and cited their resources rather than attractiveness whereas women aimed their adverts at older men and cited their attractiveness more
the researchers codified the above themes and gave them numerical values so that the qualitative responses were transformed into quantitative data

Question 4

How do you conduct a content analysis?

Answer 4

1) choose a research question
2) select a sample of pre-existing qualitative data (done by you or someone else)
3) decide on the coding of the categories (should be operationalised to avoid subjective interpretation)
4) work through the data and create a tally which indicates the most common categories/codes within the qualitative data
5) test for reliability via test-retest reliability (run the content analysis again on same sample and compare results) or inter-rater reliability (a second researcher will conduct the analysis with the same sample and same coding categories then compare results)

Question 5

How can you measure how closely the two sets of data match?

Answer 5

use a test or correlation such as Spearman’s rho
stronger correlation will show the data is more reliable

Question 6

What are the strengths of content analysis

Answer 6

• the arefact’s/communications used are usually taken from the real world and not created just for research; this means content analysis has high external validity and findings can be generalised to other real world situations
• it is easy to gather a sample as they often already exist within the public domain so there are no issues with obtaining permission
• reliable as can be easily replicated

Question 7

What are the limitations of content analysis

Answer 7

• possible researcher/observer bias as they will often need to interpret subjective text; may do this in a way that supports their pre-existing views
• the data was not created for research purposes and so was not created under controlled conditions meaning it may lack validity

Question 8

What is thematic analysis?

Answer 8

type of content analysis
the researcher begins with reading the text first and identifying the deeper meaning of it, allowing themes to emerge
it is an inductive method as themes emerge and there is no hypothesis-testing involved

Question 9

How do you conduct a thematic analysis?

Answer 9

the researcher familiarises themselves with the data first by reading it over and over again
themes within the data will emerge (eg patterns or common concepts)
researcher reviews these themes to see if they can explain behaviour and answer the question
researcher categorises and defines each theme, finishing by writing up the analysis

Question 10

What are the strengths of thematic analysis

Answer 10

• more flexible way of analysing qualitative data as theories come after discovering themes meaning it can stop researchers imposing their own bias by only looking for what they want to see
• shares same as content analysis

Question 11

What are the limitations of thematic analysis

Answer 11

same as content analysis