qualitative data analysis

• thematic analysis


  qualitatively method identify, analyse and interpret patterns within data

  it is commonly used to understand participant‘s experiences, behaviours or perceptions in research
• what are the 6 steps in thematic analysis

  familiarise in data

  generate initial codes

  search for themes

  review potential themes

  defining themes

  produce a report
• familiarising with data in thematic analysis


  re-read data to be familiar with it (e.g. researcher reviews interview transcripts)
• generating initial codes in thematic analysis

  breaking up data and giving it codes (labels)

  (summarising data)
• searching for themes in thematic analysis

  group similar codes together and give a broader theme
• reviewing potential themes in thematic analysis

  ensure themes are coherent

  discard/ merge overlapping themes
• defining themes in thematic analysis

  refine each theme and give a clear definition
• producing a report in thematic analysis

  write up what you have found using quotes
• when to conduct a thematic analysis

  you want to identify patterns within data

  you are conducting a qualitative analysis

  you want to involve research participants in the analysis process
• strengths of thematic analysis

  allows for in depth exploration of the data making it possible to understand the complexity of human experiences

  straight forward and easy to learn

  uncovers common themes / patterns across participants providing insights into shared experiences / perceptions
• weaknesses of thematic analysis

  can be very time consuming as it requires researcher to repeatedly read through data

  involves interpretation which leads to researcher’s bias, perspectives and preconceptions that influence how themes are defined

  it may miss out on the nuances of individual experiences - leads to loss of detail in the data
• grounded theory


  bottom up technique used when analysing qualitative data that generates theories directly from the data, rather than existing theories
• content analysis


  results that have been gathered using qualitative methods can be ‘reduced’ to a quantitative form

  e.g. counting the content of anything (categories / themes)