Thematic Analysis Flashcards
What is thematic analysis?
- Understood as an umbrella term (Braun et al, 2019)
- Refers to a range of approaches that differ in philosophy and procedure
- Used to identify, analyse and synthesise patterns
- Flexible and accessible
What is thematic analysis used for?
- To identify, analyse and syntehsise patterns:
- For social/psychological interpretations
- To inform policy
- To guide applied research
What is inductive thematic analysis?
- Bottom-up
- Not driven by researcher’s theoretical interests
- Themes linked to data
- Research Q might evolve during analysis
- Little resemblence to interview questions
- No pre-defined coding frame
What is deductive/theoretical thematic analysis?
- Top-down
- Driven by researchers theoretical interests
- Themes linked to theory, research or interview questions
- Specific research Q
- Might use pre-defined coding frames
What are the 4 key terms of thematic analysis?
- Data corpus - All data collected for a project
- Data set - All data from corpus used for a particular analysis (i.e. interview
- Data item - Piece of collected data
- Data extract - Identified chunk of data item
What make up the codes?
The building blocks - more instances doesn’t necessarily mean more crucial
What is a theme?
‘Captures a common recurring pattern across a dataset, clustered around a central organising concept’
What are codes?
Can be conceptualised as building blocks that combine to create themes
What is the first phase of thematic analysis?
Familiarising with data
- Transcribing data if necessary
- Recording and re-reading data
- Jotting down initial ideas
What is the second phase of thematic analysis?
Generating initial codes
- Coding interesting features of the data systematically across the whole data set
- Data-driven or theory-driven - coding anything of interest
- Begin to think about relationships between different codes
What is phase 3 of thematic analysis?
Searching fot themes
- Sort different codes into potential themes
- Analysing codes - hwo do different codes combine to form overarching themes
- Phase ends when you have a collection of potential themes and a host of data extracts coded in relation to them
What is phase 4 lf thematic analysis?
Reviewimg themes
- Some may not be as strong as others and some may collapse into one theme
- Some may need to be split into multiple themes
What is phase 5 of thematic analysis?
Defining and naming themes
- Identify the essence of what each theme is about and what aspects of your data capture that theme
- Begin to write a story about themes - identify what is interesting about them and why - provide detailed analysis about each theme
What is the final stage of thematic analysis?
Producing the report
- Clear, coherent and interesting story must be made
- Suitable evidence for themes needed
