Thematic analysis

Question 1

what is thematic analysis?

Answer 1

-analysing qualitative data through 6 phases

Question 2

what are the 6 phases of thematic analysis?

Answer 2

1-familiarisation with data (read stuff)
2-generating initial codes(see what jumps out as interesting)
3-searching for themes among codes(anything related/similar)
4-reviewing themes(enough evidence for a pattern?)
5-defining and naming themes
6-producing the final report

Question 3

what are the STRENGTHS of thematic analysis?

Answer 3

• allows in-depth qualitative data
• encourages researcher to derive themes rather than impose pre-selected ones
• able to test inter-rater reliability (2 observers encoding same thing)
• reduces large amounts of data into manageable summary

Question 4

what are the WEAKNESSES of thematic analysis?

Answer 4

subjectivity is a problem-other people may pick different themes

• criticised as unscientific
• time-consuming and requires skill to pick out representative themes