Thematic and content analysis

Question 1

What is thematic analysis?

Answer 1

1. Data is collected through interviewing participants by using open ended questions, case studies, etc…
2. When all the data is collected, detailed transcripts are made of the interview process and the researcher familiarises themselves with these notes
3. The researcher then tries to identify any common themes that run throughout the data and may use direct quotations to support their findings in the results and discussion section of their report

Question 2

What is content analysis?

Answer 2

• Tries to quantify the frequency of themes
• Quantifying qualitative data

Question 3

What are the 4 steps of a content analysis?

Answer 3

1. You initially become increasingly familiar with the data by going through it several times. This could be a speech, film, transcript, interview, etc…
2. This familiarity helps identify any relevant themes/ coding units that can be used to dissect the data
3. The researcher than works through the data again and uses a behavioural checklist to tally down the frequency that each coding unit appears
4. This provides categorical (nominal) data that can be displayed in graph’s and statistically analysed (through a stats test)

Question 4

What are the advantages of a thematic and content analysis?

Answer 4

1. The ease of application
2. It compliments other methods
3. Reliability
4. Ecologically valid

Question 5

What are the disadvantages of a thematic and content analysis?

Answer 5

1. Difficult to make cause and effect statements
2. Availability of data- flawed results
3. Limited to descriptive findings
4. Can be difficult to summarise