Week 3- Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) Flashcards

Question

Stage 3: How can we develop emergent themes? (Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2005)

Answer 1

“In looking for emergent themes, the task of managing the data changes as the analyst simultaneously attempts to reduce the volume of detail (the transcript and initial notes) whilst maintaining complexity, in terms of mapping the interrelationships, connections and patterns between exploratory notes” * Shift from working primarily with transcript to using initial notes. * Themes aim to capture ‘essential quality’ of data * When similar themes emerge, use same label * Theme labels are grounded in participant’s narrative but may use psychological (or other) terminology * Develop plausible and grounded themes from your codes “Themes are usually expressed as phrases which speak to the psychological essence of the piece and contain enough particularity to be grounded and enough abstraction to be conceptual.” ■ Whilst initial notes may have felt ‘loose’ and ‘open’, themes are more of a reflection and understanding of the data. ■ Turning these notes into themes involves producing a concise statement that captures what was important -You start to use more of your initial notes you’ve made, labelling things directly made in the data

Answer 2

-The aim of this step is to draw together the emergent themes from one participant’s account and to produce a structure which illuminates the most important and interesting aspects. -Map the existing themes (which until now have existed in chronological order) by considering how they fit together. -Not all emergent themes need be included – some can be discarded. May depend on the research question. -There are various ways this can be done (these are examples and not prescriptive):* - Abstraction – Subsumption – Polarization – Contextualization – Numeration - Function - -Once this process has finished make a graphic representation of the structure of the emergent themes (diagram, table, figure etc.)

Answer 3

■ You can write up a single case study, but usually you have multiple participants. ■ Move to the next participant’s account and repeat the whole process. ■ Remember ‘ideography’ – ensure you treat this case as unique. ■ Bracket the ideas and findings from the previous participant. ■ As much as possible, you are wanting new themes to emerge from each case.

Answer 4

■ Can help analyst to move to more theoretical level ■ Participants have unique, idiosyncratic instances but can also share higher order qualities

Answer 5

* Tendency to simply paraphrase participant’s account * Lacks any real depth or interpretation. * Includes a lot of ‘descriptive’ themes (i.e., ones that do not attempt to capture the experiential essence of the phenomenon) * May have very few or even no quotations to support those themes * Or includes a lot of quotations (sometimes in a ‘stack’ without any analysis between them) -The presentation of a lot of ‘descriptive’ themes (i.e., ones that do not attempt to capture the experiential essence of the phenomenon) with very few or even no quotations to support those themes. -Presents a lot of quotations (sometimes in a ‘stack’ without any analysis between them, or ‘boxed off’ from the rest of the text in the findings section) with the idea that more quotations equal more evidence, which is erroneous.

Answer 6

-Presents fewer themes - a more synthesized and coherent theme structure. -Quotations tend to reflect the appropriate density of evidence for the sample size of the project (see Smith, 2011 for further details). -Interpretation of extracts is nuanced, coherent, grounded in the data. -Extracts presented are interesting, plausible, and enlightening about the participant’s psychological world. -An analysis that is representative of the ‘purely or mostly descriptive’ category is one that presents fewer themes, usually indicating that that analyst has taken time to carry out detailed and systematic coding of the data and has revisited the data and analysis repeatedly to produce a more synthesized and coherent theme structure. -Quotations tend to reflect the appropriate density of evidence for the sample size of the project and the interpretation of the extracts is nuanced, coherent, grounded in the data extracts presented, interesting, plausible, and enlightening about the participant’s psychological world.

Answer 7

-Analysis reveals imposition of the analyst’s presumptions, biases, or preconceptions onto the data. -These could be theoretical, experiential or personal – but not grounded in the data. -Over-interpretation is surprisingly easy to do but results in an interpretative narrative that is partly or wholly ungrounded in the data (meaning there is little or nothing in the data extracts that support the interpretation provided). -Analysis is usually typified by an analytical commentary that reveals some form of imposition of the analyst’s presumptions, biases, or preconceptions onto the data. -These can be theoretical (e.g., drawn from theories familiar to the analyst) or experiential (e.g., the analyst has some prior experience of the phenomenon under study and allows that knowledge to infiltrate the analysis) or personal (e.g., the analyst may have collected data from someone who they are acquainted with and is allowing their foreknowledge of that person’s everyday life and situations to permeate their analytical interpretations in an unfiltered manner). -Over-interpretation is surprisingly easy to do but results in an interpretative narrative that is partly or wholly ungrounded in the data – that means there is little or nothing in the data extracts that support the interpretation provided

Answer 8

Emergent themes organised into a preliminary structure - Capturing the sense of the participants account at a very basic level of analysis. Assess possible interrelationships in emergent themes - Looking for interrelations between different emergent themes As reaching gestalt condense themes per person -Consolidate the information down -End up with a set of clustered themes -Perception of health/worth -End up with clustered themes which make sense i.e., tells a story on the phenomenon

Answer 9

Compare case for convergence and divergence -Look for similarities and differences across each of your participants account -What’s happening overall for your participants? Organise shared themes -Task is to cluster themes across all samples -Deviant cases are pointless but IPA contains an element of it to some regard (lecturer recommends to avoid it)

Answer 10

Subordinate: -Recurrent themes which appear across one third or half of the participants in the study. -Analytical work which aims to capture the most significant aspects of participants accounts whilst also brining out the nuances within the theme. -They are more descriptive Superordinate themes: -Highly abstracted themes which aim to capture the key aspects of the experience and the subordinate theme from a more abstract/conceptual lens. (hierarchical) -More abstract themes at the top -Superordinate themes=your top themes -Subordinate=your granula themes

Answer 11

-Be aware that you might not be able to write everything you have done- focus on aspects which appear key to participants accounts. -Opportunity for you as the author to reflect the analytic work you have completed -Don’t hide behind multiple quotes- be confident in your analytical work and let it be the focus of your writing (paper) -Capture similarities in participants accounts but also bring to light individual nuances. -Read other qualitative work for inspiration!

Answer 12

-IPA recognises the central role of the researcher within the research process-the final analysis is after all the product of interpretation. -Heidegger ideas around preconceptions- important to note these down (e.g. memo notes) -Allowing the reader to assess its trustworthiness. -Will have to write about reflexivity and its relationship to the data (when doing 3rd qualitative project!)

Answer 13

Gadamer (1975): the important thing is to be aware of one’s own bias, so that the text can present itself in all its otherness and thus assert its own truth against one’s own fore-meaning.

Answer 14

-In choosing the variables you want to study you are already making assumptions about what is important or a key feature of a phenomenon. -End product is the researcher's interpretation – analysis is thorough and systematic, and interpretations are embedded in the participants account- independent audit -Commitment to Ideography: cannot generalize -In focusing on one individual, we can help illuminate the experiences of others. -Human experience is complex- individual analysis can do justice and bring to light important features -Theoretical transferability -It can’t be generalised -There are a lot of steps to do in terms of methodology (some argue waste of time)

Answer 15

1. European and National Policy (NICE) 2. Local service provision 3. Underpins one of the ten principles in the WHO European Region's (53 countries) policy framework on scaling up HIV testing and counselling across the region (presented at European Parliament world aids day 2010)

Answer 16

 Ensuring your research question matches the methodology (for IPA – deep insights, psychological, for more theoretical analysis would choose grounded theory)  Ensure your recruitment pool can answer the research question (exclusion/inclusion criteria) aka “purposive sampling”  Ensuring that the sample is homogenous (i.e. similar on a key variable to the research question such i.e. clinically depressed) otherwise analysis becomes troublesome in IPA

Answer 17

 Using a semi-structured interview to guide your interview (gives structure and direction to interview couple with flexibility to ask nuanced questions).  Picking up on important participant insights and questioning them.  Effectively prime participants for what the study is about.  Pilot your interview/ practice interview techniques.  Ensure interviews are ended well, i.e. not on a particularly sensitive topic.

Answer 18

 Being reflexive (i.e. keeping an eye on how your biases might affect your analysis) aka. “Bracketing”  Doing analysis case by case during the beginning stages (vs all at once)

Answer 19

 Recruiting a large sample (difficult to explore each case in-depth)

Answer 20

* Asking closed ended - yes/no questions * Asking about facts versus psychological, social and personal events important to the participant. * Challenging the truthfulness of someone’s answer. * Not giving participants enough time to answer questions/interrupt their insights.

Answer 21

* Rush into coding data without getting a sense of the transcript first. * Analysis that does not interpret what the participants psychological experience is (this is key to IPA and without interpretation analysis is simply not IPA).