Content/ Thematic Analysis

Question 1

What are two way qualitative data is analysed

Answer 1

Through content and thematic analysis

Question 2

What is a thematic analysis?

(ana. - qual data. - res. int. data. - comm. them.)

Answer 2

The analysis of qualitative data, where the researcher interprets the data to find common themes

Question 3

What are themes?

(ids. - app. cons. - set of qual. data)

Answer 3

Ideas that appear consistently in a set of qualitative data

Question 4

How would researchers conduct a thematic analysis?

1. conv. data - writ.
2. familiarise
3. label w/ codes
4. categ. codes - them.
5. report - interp. them. +rel. back res. topic.

Answer 4

1. Researchers convert their data into a written form
2. Researchers then familiarise themselves with the data
3. Researchers then label the data using codes
4. These codes are then categorised into themes
5. The researcher then writes a formal report, interpreting their themes and relating it back to the research topic

Question 5

What is a strength of thematic analysis?

(prov. +det. und. - ppts. exp - inc. ext. v of stud)

Answer 5

Thematic analyses provide a more detailed understanding of participants’ subjective experience, increasing the external validity of a study.

Question 6

What is a limitation of thematic analysis?

(lack ext. v, them. + cods. depe. - relev. at time - meth. of ana. - sub. + unrel.)

Answer 6

Thematic analysis lacks external reliability. The themes and codes developed are dependent on what the researcher at the time deems relevant. Therefore this method of analysis can be seen as subjective and unreliable.

Question 7

What is content analysis?

Answer 7

A method used to analyse qualitative data by turning it into quantitative data

Question 8

What are the steps to conducting a content analysis?

1. Choose RQ
2. Qual res. selected - example
3. Coding units + tally
4. Tally indicates?
5. Test for reliab.

Answer 8

1. The researcher chooses a research question
2. A sample of pre - existing qualitative research is selected, like a video recording
3. The researcher decides on the coding units and works through the data, to create a tally
4. The tally indicates how many times a specific codes appears in in the qualitative data
5. Researcher tests for the types of reliability: test - retest reliability/ inter - rater reliability

Question 9

What is a limitation of content analysis?

(subj. view of rschrs, reli. - red. - avail. qual. data, diary = higher subj. = red. reli. res.)

Answer 9

Content analysis can be subjective to the views of researchers. Reliability of the analysis may be reduced due to the availability of the qualitative data. For example, using a diary entry may cause higher subjectivity, reducing the reliability of the results.

Question 10

1. What is a strength of content analysis?

(allw. res. - use stats. - test hyp. - draw. clr. conc. - qual. data, obj. > them. ana. - more reli.)

Answer 10

Content analysis allows researchers to use statistics to test hypotheses so they can draw clearer conclusions about qualitative data. They tend to be more objective than thematic analyses, and therefore more reliable too

Question 11

Compare and contrast thematic and content analysis

1. TA - conv. data - writ. form/ CA - any form data = gd
2. TA - conv data. - codes - cat. them./ CA - cd. uni. - count. - freq. occur.
3. TA - sift data - b4 codes/ CA - cod. uni. first b4 data search
4. TA - report made/ CA - prod quan. nom. data

Answer 11

1. Thematic analysis has to convert data into written form, whereas content analysis can have data in whichever form appropriate
2. Thematic analysis converts data into codes and categorises the codes into themes, whereas content analysis has coding units which are counted based on their frequency of occurrence
3. Thematic analysis involves sifting through data before making codes to categorise, whereas content analysis involves making the coding units first before going through data
4. Thematic analysis results in report made on the themes and linking back to the research question, whereas content analysis produces quantitative, nominal data

Question 12

What are the two methods used to test the reliability of content analyses?

Answer 12

Test - retest reliability or inter - rater reliability

Question 13

What is test - retest reliability?

(run - con. ana - aga. - same samp. - comp. res, sim. res. = gd test - retest reliability)

Answer 13

Running the content analysis again on the same sample, them comparing results
Similar results indicate the research has good test - retest reliability

Question 14

What is inter - rater reliability?

(second res. - cont. ana. w/ same cod. uni. + data - findings comp, sim. = gd int. rater. reli.)

Answer 14

A second researcher runs the content analysis with the same coding categories and data and the findings are compared

If there is similarity then there is good inter - rater reliability