Thematic analysis

DR JOSEPH KEENAN – [email protected]

OFFICE HOURS – THURSDAY 2-4 (BY APPOINTMENT)
 Lecture overview

 Through this lecture we shall overview the following learning

objectives:

 Gain an understanding of thematic analysis

 Understand the stages of conducting a thematic analysis

 Understand the importance and processes of transcription

 What is thematic analysis

 An analysis that seeks to identify and interpret patterns across qualitative datasets

 Forms the principle structure of a large proportion of other qualitative analysis

 Can be applied to a number of different types of data sets

 Wide range of research questions – experiences, understandings, representations,
constructions of reality etc.
 Different types of data – media, transcripts, focus groups, interviews
 Large or small datasets

 Important to identify the “active” role of the researcher in the analytic process
 Inductive vs Deductive

 Themes or patterns within data can be identified in one of two primary ways in
thematic analysis: in an inductive or “bottom up” way, or in a theoretical or deductive
or “top down way”

 An inductive approach means the themes identified are strongly linked to the data
themselves.
 The themes identified may bear little relationship to the specific question that were asked of the
participants

 In contrast, a deductive TA would tend to be driven by the researcher’s theoretical or

analytic interest in the area, and is thus more explicitly analyst-driven.
 This form of thematic analysis tends to provide less a rich description of the data overall, and
more a detailed analysis of some aspect of the data
 Semantic vs Latent

 A thematic analysis typically focuses exclusively or primarily on one level,

therefore the researcher needs to identify what “level” best fits their research
question.

 Semantic approach – Themes are identified within the explicit or surface

meanings of the data and the analyst is not looking for anything beyond what a
participant has said
 Description > Organisation > Interpretation

 Latent approach – Themes are identified to examine the underlying ideas,

assumptions, conceptualisations, and ideologies that shape or inform the
semantic content of the data.
 6 stages of TA (Braun and Clark,
2006)
Stage Description of process

1) Familiarising yourself with the data Transcribing the data (if necessary), reading and re-
reading the data, noting initial thoughts

2) Generating initial codes Coding interesting features of the data systematically

across the entire data-set and collating extracts for each
code
3) Searching for themes Identify patterns across codes, gathering all data relevant
to each potential theme

4) Reviewing themes Check that the themes work in relation to the codes that
construct them – generate a thematic map of the dataset

5) Defining and naming themes Ongoing refinement of the specifics of each theory,
considering the story that each tell – develop a label

6) Producing the written report Selection of compelling extracts that encapsulate the
story within each theme. Relate back to research Q and
literature
 Stage 1 – Familiarisation with the
data

 This phase involves reading and re-reading the data, to become

immersed and intimately familiar with its content.

 Read and re-read, whilst noting down initial ideas

 Search for meanings, patterns, ideas, etc.
 Initial notes will be returned to/reviewed in subsequent re-
readings
 This process of re-reading constitutes immersion in the data
 Stage 2 – Generating initial codes

 Codes – the most basic element of the data that ‘can be assessed in a meaningful
way regarding the phenomenon’ (Boyatzis, 1998, p.63).

 Having ‘coded’ a piece of the interview transcript (I.e. you have created a summary
classification for it) you:
 view subsequent material with an eye to further instances (e.g. where else is ‘sense of self-
worth’ appearing?)
 Do this for both current transcript & the remaining transcripts
 At the most basic level you are organising your data into meaningful groups and
summarising it’s content.
 Work systematically through the whole data set, giving full and equal attention to each data
item… identify interesting/relevant items that may form the basis of themes.
 E.g. ‘write notes on the texts you are analysing, use highlighters or coloured pens to indicate
potential patterns, or by using ‘post-it’ notes to identify segments of data.’
 What can you code?

 Lots of things! For example:

 Specific acts, behaviours
 Strategies, practices, tactics
 Meanings
 What concepts do participants use to understand their world? Norms and
values.
 What significance does it have for participants? Emotions…
 Relationships or interaction
 Conditions or constraints
 Stage 3 – Searching for themes

 This phase involves examining the codes and collated data to identify
significant broader patterns of meaning (potential themes).
 It then involves collating data relevant to each candidate theme, so
that you can work with the data and review the viability of each
candidate theme.

 All data has been collated & coded – a long list of different codes identified
across the data set.
 Sort the different codes into potential themes – collate all the relevant coded
data extracts within the identified themes.
 How might different codes combine to form an overarching theme?
 Stage 4 – Reviewing themes

 This phase involves checking the candidate themes against the

dataset, to determine that they tell a convincing story of the data, and
one that answers the research question.

 In this phase, themes are typically refined, which sometimes involves

them being split, combined, or discarded.
 Data within themes should cohere together meaningfully, while there should
be clear and identifiable distinctions between themes
 You might produce a ‘thematic map’
 Stage 5 – Defining and naming
themes

 This phase involves developing a detailed analysis of each theme,

working out the scope and focus of each theme, determining the
‘story’ of each. It also involves deciding on an informative name for
each theme.

 Define and further refine the themes you will present for your analysis
 Identify the essence of what each theme is about and determine what aspect of
the data each theme captures.
 DO NOT just paraphrase the content of the data extracts provided – identify
what is of interest about them and why.
 For each theme you need to conduct and write a detailed analysis
 So what constitutes a theme?

 Themes…what are they?

 Is it a word?
 A phrase?
 What size does a theme need to be?

 “Themes are recurrent and distinctive features of participants’

accounts, characterising particular perceptions and/or experiences,
which the researcher sees as relevant to the research question” (King
& Horrocks, 2010, p.150)
 Is it about numbers?

 Often researchers look for prevalence – a theme that keeps occurring

throughout a transcript and possibly across transcripts:
 However, this is not a numbers game
 More times does not always mean a more important theme
 It does not necessarily need to take up a substantial amount of the
transcript
 Techniques for identifying themes
(Robinson, 2011)

 Repetitions
 Indigenous categories
 Terms that participants use: may be unfamiliar to researcher
 Metaphor and analogies
 Transitions
 Naturally occurring change of tone
 Similarities and differences
 Linguistic connectors
 Relations : causal (because), conditional (if, then), time-oriented (before)
 Missing material
 Theory-related
 Adopting a hierarchal approach

Global/Superordinate
Theme

Subordinate Theme 1 Subordinate Theme 2

Code Code Code Code

Entire dataset
 Stage 6 – Producing the report

 This final phase involves weaving together the analytic narrative and data
extracts, and contextualising the analysis in relation to existing literature.

 Key consideration is to identify extracts which encapsulate the argument or

interpretation that you are making
 Remember to link back to your overarching research question – Ask yourself, How
does this theme respond to the question I’m posing
 Structure – PEEL on your work:
 Point
 Evidence
 Explanation/Interpretion
 Link back to research question
 How to do Thematic Analysis badly
(Braun & Clarke, 2014)

 Providing data extracts with little or no analysis (no interpretation of the

data that tells us how they are relevant to answering the research
question) or simple paraphrasing or summarizing data

 Using data collection questions as themes is another common error —

themes are better identified across the content of what participants say
rather than via the questions they have been asked

 On a different level, an analysis can be weak or unconvincing if themes

are not coherent or try and do too much. Analysis can also suffer from
lack of evidence
 So what do we need to remember?

 Researchers must be clear about the “process” of analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006)
 Follow a clear procedure

 Need to know how people went about analysis their data & what assumptions
informed their analysis (Attride-Stirling, 2001)

 In developing and revising your analysis, make sure data-based claims are
justified and that the claims fit within your overall theoretical position (e.g.,
whether you are using an experiential or critical form of TA).

 Think back to our lecture last week – how do we demonstrate rigor throughout
this process?
 Benefits of using thematic analysis

 Primarily, the advantage of using thematic analysis stems from its

flexibility
 Not tied to a particular epistemological position (School of thought)
 Essentially thematic analysis is not tied to theoretical approaches

 Consequentially, TA can be used to provide a rich and detailed, yet

complex account of data (Braun and Clark, 2006)

 Braun and Clark (2006) essential create a recipe for how to approach
qualitative analysis using TA
 Lecture Summary

 Over the course of the lecture we have covered some of the core
principles of qualitative research:

 Explore the different types and approaches to conducting a thematic

analysis

 Understanding the stages involved in conducting a thematic analysis

 Awareness of the pitfalls that researchers can find themselves in when

doing a bad thematic analysis