Thematic Analysis

Question 1

What type of data does thematic analysis analyse?

Answer 1

Qualitative data.

Question 2

What does thematic analysis analyse?

Answer 2

To spot patterns and themes in qualitative data.

Question 3

What are the steps to thematic analysis?

Answer 3

1. Familiarisation with the data.
2. Generating codes.
3. Searching for themes among the codes.
4. Reviewing evidence to support the themes.
5. Defining and naming the themes.
6. Producing a final report.

Question 4

What are the two types of thematic analysis?

Answer 4

-Inductive analysis
-Deductive analysis

Question 5

What is inductive analysis?

Answer 5

Writing out themes in the data but having no idea of themes before reading.

Question 6

What is deductive analysis?

Answer 6

Deciding on the themes before you read the answers.

Question 7

What are some strengths of thematic analysis?

Answer 7

-Uses qualitative data which has very in depth results- themes will be more valid.
-Reduces large amounts of research into manageable summaries -increases validity.
-Gathers large samples of data- more generalisable.

Question 8

What are some weaknesses of thematic analysis?

Answer 8

-Uses qualitative data which does not give objective results- hard to analyse.
-May be interpretation bias(subjectivity in the analysis)- results will be less valid.
-Criticised to not be a scientific method- cannot be analysed to see if an answer was due to chance.