Content and Thematic Analysis

• thematic analysis

  indirect observation, where we analyse a pre-existing artefact
• familiarisation (thematic)

  the researcher begins by reading/reviewing the material in order to familiarise themselves with it
• theme generation (thematic)

  create the themes and categories as they emerge from the material, rather than using preconceived ones
• review (thematic)

  • once the themes are drawn out, they are reviewed to check they are appropriate and that the names reflect the content
• iteration (thematic)

  material is analysed again and again to refine them, in an iterative process
• content analysis

  • analyse a pre-existing artefact to draw conclusions
• behavioural categories generation (content)

  • the researcher will use or create a list of clear, operationalised behavioural categories that can be used as a tally chart during the observation
  • they should be distinct an not overlap
  • a pilot study will likely be used to test the coding system
• coding of artefact

  the researcher will observe the artefact, recording each behaviour (using either time or event sampling) in the tally table
• analysis of data

  frequencies can then be counted and analysed - content analysis transforms qualitative into quantitative
• strengths of content analysis

  • can deal with many ethical issues associated with many ethical issues associated with psychological research as many of the material is already under public domain and therefore you don't have to get permission
  • more sensitive content is still high in external validity with the author's consent to use it
  • it is flexible in that it may produce both qualitative and quantitative data depending on the aims of the research
• limitations of content analysis

  • people tend to be studied indirectly so the communication produced is usually analysed outside of the context within which it occurred
  • this means that the researcher may attribute opinions and motivations to the speaker or writer that were not intended orginally
  • content analysis may still suffer from a lack of objectivity, especially when more descriptive forms of thematic analysis are employed