Developments in Thematic Analysis Flashcards
what is thematic analysis the foundation for?
qualitative analyses used to identify meaningful themes in order to understand social talk
what do themes consist of?
recurrent ideas, topics, and statements that generate a pattern to add to experiences
what is epistemology?
nature of knowledge
approaches of epistemology
positivism
contextualism
social constructionism
what does positivism believe about human experience?
that it is knowledgeable, and research investigates the truth
knowledge is inert and impartial
what does contextualism necessitate?
the need for contextualisation of behaviour, as there is no single reality
what does social constructionism use?
research to investigate accounts, as knowledge is active and reconstructed through language
what is ontology?
nature of reality
approaches of ontology
realism
critical realism
relativism
what does realism argue exists?
a pre-social reality exists, that can be fully accessed through research
what does critical realism believe?
a pre-social reality can only ever be partially known
what does relativism state?
reality is dependent on the ways we come to know it
issues with thematic analysis
- coding reliability measures
- a mashing of other approaches
what does reflexive thematic analysis offer?
a focus on deliberate methodological decisions that allow for exploration on the position of the researcher, in relation to the topic of study
how can reflexive TA be conceptualised?
using a ‘big q’ organic/inductive method to explore meaning construction
interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA)
attempts to understand experiences from participants’ perspectives through descriptive, linguistic, and conceptual comments
discourse analysis (DA)
considers talk as social action which allows people to convey their social position
conversational analysis
focuses on how interactions are represented via talk and in naturally occurring conversations
grounded theory
involves the identification of a model generated from the data, with no preconcieved ideas on what might be found
content analysis
uses a count frequency of pre-defined behaviour
what is IPA flexible to?
researcher positionalirty and adheres to a set of philosophical assumptions
what does IPA focus on?
personal experience and meaning-making, using small homogenous samples
this allows depth of interpretation and consideration of broader social structures
how is researcher subjectivity explained in IPA?
the double hermeneutic
first hermeneutic…
participants making sense of their experiences
second hermeneutic…
researcher making sense of the participants’ sense-making
differences between TA and IPA
IPA tends to be more detailed and draw on metaphor, psychological processes, and language use
what is DA influenced by?
the process is heavily influenced by theories and concepts
what does DA involve?
multiple iterations which range from specific focus on language use, to a broader approach where language represents social discourses
differences between TA and DA
TA coding follows a more inductive, practice-based approach to interpret data, whereas DA draws on the specific functions of language use
