thematic analysis

• -          stage 3 = categorisation – which is when the codes are reviewed to look for emergent themes that are related t the research question and the themes are finalised and similar statements or codes are merged together to complete themes and name them
• -          themes may change as more data is analysed and more theme emerge – meaning that themes are constantly adjusting and the data is returned to for further searches of new themes that have emerged
• -          stage 2 = coding – in this stage you would give codes or labels to the data and these codes make it easier and clearer to identify the themes found in the data – a researcher could be looking through a transcript and when they identify a theme like the amount of times a interviewee thinks about the future and would use a code to highlight when it is mentioned (TF= the future)
• -          stage 1 = familiarising yourself with the data – so the researcher needs to keep the research question in mind as they read through the transcript a number of times and to think about what was said and how it relates to the focus of the research but at this point no notes are made
• -          there are 3 stages required for conducting thematic analysis
• -          before you can analyse qualitative data you need to transcribe it which involves typing up the raw data like all the information form an interview and numbering each line from being to end so that it can be clearly analysed
• -          thematic analysis is the process if identifying categories , themes , phrases or keywords that may be found in a set of data and the aim if thematic analysis is to understand the remaining of the data obtained
• -          thematic analysis is an analysis that is used for qualitative data and this can include data gathered from case studies , interviews or content analysis