Presentation by Victoria Clarke Associate Professor of Qualitative and Critical Psychology UWE Sep 2021 PowerPoint slides from the Braun Clarke amp Hayfield Qualitative Methods Online Teaching amp Learning Resources Collaboration QMOTLRC ID: 918879
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Slide1
Thematic analysisPart 1: What is thematic analysis?
Presentation by Victoria Clarke
Associate Professor of Qualitative and Critical Psychology, UWE
Sep 2021
Slide2PowerPoint slides from the Braun, Clarke & Hayfield Qualitative Methods Online Teaching & Learning Resources Collaboration (QMOTLRC)
Slide3Topic overviewUnderstanding the key features of thematic analysis and specifically of the Braun & Clarke reflexive approach to thematic analysis.
Understanding how to undertake a reflexive thematic analysis of qualitative data, including coding and theme generation.
Understand how to conduct a high quality thematic analysis and avoid common problems.
There are some Alerts! to highlight key points
Slide4Lecture overviewPart 1: What is thematic analysis?
Part 2: Thematic analysis is uniquely flexible
Part 3: Six phases of reflexive thematic analysis
Part 4: Avoiding common problems
Slide5Braun and Clarke – thematic analysis
Slide6Successful Qualitative Research:
A Practical Guide for Beginners
Slide7Thematic Analysis: A Practical Guide and other more recent publications
‘How to’ chapters (e.g. Braun & Clarke, 2021a, 2021b, 2021c).
Commentaries – on saturation (Braun & Clarke, 2021), on why
reflexive
TA (Braun & Clarke, 2019), on why statistical models for ‘sample size’ don’t work (Braun & Clarke, 2016).
Papers on quality and common problems in published TA (Braun & Clarke, 2020), conceptual and design thinking (Braun & Clarke, 2021), similarities and differences between TA and other pattern-based approaches and when and why to use TA (Braun & Clarke, 2021).
Interviews (e.g. Braun et al., 2019; Lainson et al., 2019).
Slide8Alert! 1
Don’t just rely on Braun & Clarke (2006); read other more recent publications too.
See our University of Auckland School of Psychology TA website for a full list of our publications:
https://www.psych.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/our-research/research-groups/thematic-analysis.html
Slide9What is thematic analysis?Early uses of TA:
“Thematic analysis is a poorly demarcated, rarely acknowledged, yet widely used qualitative analytic method within psychology” (Braun & Clarke, 2006: 77).
More recently:
“TA has recently been recognized as a method in its own right” (Joffe, 2012: 210).
“Thematic analysis is a method for identifying,
analysing
and reporting patterns (themes) within data. It minimally
organises
and describes your data in (rich) detail. However, frequently it goes further than this, and interprets various aspects of the research topic” (Braun & Clarke, 2006: 79).
But… it’s a bit more complicated…
Slide10Is TA one method? (NO!)The term ‘TA’ has had lots of different meanings.
Some claim TA evolved from grounded theory, but it seems more likely that TA evolved from content analysis.
Some early versions of TA recognisable as something akin to TA in the contemporary context.
It wasn’t until the 1990s that procedures for TA as a qualitative method began to be discussed.
In its early development, TA was often discussed as a phenomenological method. This common linking of TA with phenomenology continues.
Now, three broad approaches to TA predominate according to Clarke et al.’s (2019) typology of TA: coding reliability, reflexive and codebook.
Slide11Different ‘approaches’ to TA now
Three loosely clustered different approaches to TA.
Each has different processes & assumptions:
Approaches oriented around ‘coding reliability’ (e.g., Boyatzis, 1998; Guest et al., 2012) –
a small q approach.
An reflexive approach based on ‘organic’ coding (e.g. Braun & Clarke, Hayes, 2000) –
a Big Q approach
.
Approaches based on a structured codebook and qualitative philosophy (e.g. template analysis, King & Brooks, 2017) – medium q?
Slide12Coding reliability TA
Deductive (theory-driven) approach more common (e.g., Boyatzis, 1998)
Familiarisation
↓
Theme development↓Coding (development of coding frame)
↓
Test reliability of coding frame
Slide13Reflexive TAInductive (data-driven) approach more common
Familiarisation
↓
Coding (organic and subjective; one coder)
↓Theme development (review initial themes against coded data and entire data-set; subjective and interpretive)
Slide14Codebook TA
Encompasses approaches like –
framework analysis (e.g. Ritchie & Spencer, 1994; Smith & Firth, 2012).
template analysis (e.g. Brooks, McCluskey, Turley & King, 2015; King & Brooks, 2017).
matrix analysis (e.g. Miles & Huberman, 1994; Nadin & Cassell, 2014).Use of a structured codebook or coding frame (like coding reliability TA), and qualitative philosophy (like reflexive TA), but there is often with pragmatic compromise of some qualitative principles (e.g. in applied research).Some or all themes determined in advance or in the early stages of analysis.
Coding is a process of organising the data into these themes (and possible theme refinement during or after coding).
The codebook is used to map/chart the developing analysis.
Slide15TA – closer to a method than a methodologyMost qualitative approaches are methodologies – theoretically informed frameworks for research.
Specifying guiding theoretical assumptions, suitable research questions, ideal methods of data collection and data/participant selection strategies, as well as analytic procedures.
TA as a generic approach, by contrast, is just an analytic method, but particular approaches to TA encode particular philosophical assumptions and so sit somewhere between a method and a methodology.
In reflexive TA, there’s lots of flexibility and variability… (see Part 2).
Slide16But what is a ‘theme’?
Slide17Themes as ‘topic summaries’ (buckets)
Adolescents’ perceptions of the risks and benefits of conventional cigarettes, e-cigarettes and marijuana (
Roditis
& Halpern-
Felsher, 2015).Reported five themes - e.g. ‘Perceived risks and benefits of conventional cigarettes compared to marijuana’.
“Youth either stated there was nothing good about using conventional cigarettes or stated that using cigarettes could help someone relax. Students easily recited a long list of negative consequences related to conventional cigarette use such as the yellowing of teeth, bad breath, and cancer” (
Roditis
& Halpern-
Felsher
, 2015: 182).
Slide18‘Fully realised’ (shared meaning) themes – themes as stories
Shared meaning underpinned by a central concept.
Multi-faceted; tell a story about the data.
The meanings of male body hair (Terry & Braun, 2016).
Report three themes – e.g. ‘men’s hair as natural’ captured the way male body hair was often described as natural for men and “a dominant expression of masculine embodiment” (Terry & Braun, 2016: 17).
Slide19Themes – Analytic input? Output?
Developed early on and guide coding.
Developed later and represent the outcome of coding.
Slide20Themes – Buried treasure or built by the researcher?
Themes are often implicitly conceptualized as buried treasure – entities that pre-exist the analysis that the researcher merely uncovers or discovers in their data.
In reflexive TA, themes are understood as actively created of the researcher – theme generation occurs at the intersection of the data and the researcher’s interpretative frameworks, prior training, skill, assumptions etc.
Slide21References for part 1 – slide 1
Boyatzis, R. E. (1998).
Transforming qualitative information: Thematic analysis and code development
. Sage.Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3
(2), 77-101.Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2013). Successful qualitative research: A practical guide for beginners. Sage.Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2016). (Mis)conceptualising themes, thematic analysis, and other problems with Fugard and Potts’ (2015) sample-size tool for thematic analysis. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 19(6), 739-743. Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2019). Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise & Health
,
11
(4), 589-597.
Braun, V., Clarke, V., & Hayfield, N. (2019). “A starting point for your journey, not a map”: Nikki Hayfield in conversation with Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke about thematic analysis.
Qualitative Research in Psychology
. Advance online publication.
Slide22References for part 1 – slide 2
Lainson, K., Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2019). Being both narrative practitioner and academic researcher: A reflection on what thematic analysis has to offer narratively informed research.
International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work
,
4, 86-98.Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2020). One size fits all? What counts as quality practice in (reflexive) thematic analysis? Qualitative Research in Psychology, 18(3), 328-352. Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2021). Thematic analysis. In H. Cooper, P. M. Camic, D. L. Long, A. T. Panter, D.
Rindskopf
, & K. J. Sher (Eds.),
APA handbook of research methods in psychology, Vol. 2: Research designs: Quantitative, qualitative, neuropsychological, and biological
(2
nd
ed.). American Psychological Association.
Slide23References for part 1 – slide 3Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2021). Thematic analysis. In E. Lyons, A. Coyle & C. Walton (Eds.),
Analysing
qualitative data in psychology
(3rd ed., pp. 128-147). Sage.Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2021). Thematic analysis. In J.-F. Morin, C. Olsson & E. O. Atikcan (Eds
.), Research methods in social sciences: An A-Z of key concepts (pp. 283-288). Open University Press.Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2021). Conceptual and design thinking for thematic analysis. Qualitative Psychology. Advance online publication. Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2021). Can I use TA? Should I use TA? Should I not use TA? Comparing reflexive thematic analysis and other pattern‐based qualitative analytic approaches. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 21(1), 37-47.
Slide24References for part 1 – slide 4
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2021).
To saturate or not to saturate? Questioning data saturation as a useful concept for thematic analysis and sample-size rationales.
Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise & Health, 13(2), 201-216. Brooks, J., McCluskey, S., Turley, E., & King, N. (2015). The utility of template analysis in qualitative psychology research.
Qualitative Research in Psychology, 12(2), 202-222.Clarke, V., Braun, V., Terry, G., & Hayfield N. (2019). Thematic analysis. In Liamputtong, P. (Ed.), Handbook of research methods in health and social sciences (pp. 843-860). Springer.DeSantis, L., & Ugarriza, D.N. (2000). The concept of theme as used in qualitative nursing research. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 22(3), 351-372.Guest, G., MacQueen, K. M., & Namey, E. E. (2012).
Applied thematic analysis
. Sage.
Slide25References for part 1 – slide 5Hayes, N. (2000). Doing psychological research
. Sage.
Joffe, H. (2012). Thematic analysis. In D. Harper & A. R. Thompson (Eds.),
Qualitative methods in mental health and psychotherapy: A guide for students and practitioners (pp. 209-223). Wiley.Kidder, L. H., & Fine, M. (1987). Qualitative and quantitative methods: When stories converge. In M. M. Mark & L. Shotland (Eds.),
New directions in program evaluation (pp. 57-75). Jossey-Bass.King, N. & Brooks, J. M. (2017). Template analysis for business and management students. Sage.Miles, M. B. & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook (2nd ed.). Sage.
Slide26References for part 1 – slide 6Nadin, S. & Cassell, C. (2014). Using data matrices. In C. Cassell & G. Symon (Eds.),
Essential guide to qualitative methods in organisational research
(pp. 271-287). Sage.
Roditis, M. L. & Halpern-Felsher, B. (2015). Adolescents’ perceptions of risks and benefits of conventional cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and marijuana: A qualitative analysis. Journal of Adolescent Health
, 57, 179-185.Smith, J., & Firth, J. (2011). Qualitative data approaches: The framework approach. Nurse Researcher, 18(2), 52-62.Terry, G., & Braun, V. (2016). ‘I think gorilla-like back effusions of hair are rather a turn-off’: ‘Excessive hair’ and male body hair (removal) discourse. Body Image, 17, 14-24.