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LSE Department of Methodology,
MY428/528 - LT 2014
Qualitative Text Analysis
Course Convenor: Aude Bicquelet ([email protected])
Office Hours: Thursday 11:30-13:30
DESCRIPTIVE APPROACHES:
Thematic and Qualitative Content Analysis
Week 3
1. Definitions
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2. Thematic Analysis (TA) & Co.
TA & other Methods
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3. Models & Approaches
- Classical/Network/Hybrid
- Qualitative Content Analysis
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4. Trustworthiness & Robustness
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Lecture Outline
Definitions and
Ambitions
(Boyatzis, 1998)
- A process to be used with qualitative information. It is not a another
qualitative method but a process that can be used with most, if not
all qualitative methods (methods of data collection).
- Thematic analysis is a process for encoding qualitative information.
What is Thematic Analysis?
Plethora of definition
• ‘Thematic analyses seek to unearth the themes salient in a text at different
levels (…) (Attride-Stirling, 2001).
• Thematic analysis is a search for themes that emerge as being important to
the description of the phenomenon. The process involves the identification
of themes through ‘careful reading and re-reading of the data’. It is a form
of pattern recognition within the data, where emerging themes become the
categories for analysis. (Fereday & Cochrane, 2006)
• ‘A research method for the subjective interpretation of the content of text
data through the systematic classification process of coding and identifying
themes or patterns’ (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005)
What is Thematic Analysis?
What’s the ambition of TA?
o To classify qualitative data through a transparent, coherent and consistent
coding strategy.
o To generate classifications or typologies allowing to capture the richness of the
phenomenon under study.
What is Thematic Analysis?
What kind of data can be analysed with TA?
• Interviews/focus group transcripts
• Field notes
• Parliamentary debates
• Policy documents
• Public consultations
• Newspaper articles
• Pictures
• Paintings
• TV ads (…)
What is Thematic Analysis?
What can be coded?
Themes/Topics
Types of arguments
Values
Attitudes
Emotions
Group dynamic
Colour, Posture, character (paintings…)
Mixed: i.e. topics + values + rhetorical appeal to emotion
(…)
What is Thematic Analysis?
What to look for in the data?
Repetitions
Similarities/differences
‘Indigenous’ themes or words
Metaphors and analogies
Transitions
Theory-related material
(…)
What is Thematic Analysis?
What is a theme?
A theme is a fundamental concept (or idea) that we are trying to extract from the data in order to describe or explain it.
A theme may be identified at the manifest level (directly observable in the information) or at the latent level (underlying the information).
A theme is an outcome of coding (coding is the process of looking for themes)
The compilation or integration of a number of codes in a study is often called a
codebook , code manual, coding scheme or coding framework.
Concepts and Jargon
Corpus: Collection of materials which is determined in advance by the analyst and on
which work is being done (Bauer & Gaskell, 2009)
Units of analysis: the entity on which the interpretation of the study will focus (‘speech-
act’; article; whole document…)
Units of coding: the most basic segment, or element, of the raw data or information that
can be assessed in a meaningful way regarding the phenomenon (paragraphs; sentences;
words…)
Concepts and Jargon
Why am I confused about the difference between a theme, a code, a label, a
category, an incident, a data-chunk, a global theme, basic theme…?
o It’s not you! It’s everybody!
o Social scientists use different words to refer to the same thing or refer to different
things with similar words.
o ie: - Glaser and Strauss talk about themes that need to be sorted into categories
- Attride-Stirling refers to basic themes and organizing themes
- Miles and Huberman refer to codes and thematic units
- We refer to sub-categories and categories
Terminological Issues
How can I survive this terminological madness?
Be clear and consistent about your low-order and high-order analytical
strategy. (i.e: I will look for themes which I will arrange into categories).
Use established jargon (i.e; Using the model developed by Attride-Stirling,
my basic themes will be sorted into organizing themes)
Embrace the semantic confusion and create new jargon
(I will look for micro-units which I will organize into super-galactic units…)
Terminological Issues
EXAMPLES
Thematic Analysis & Co.
TA & other Methods
• From a purely chronological perspective, TA was developed based on
some of the principles of Argumentation analysis ( Toulmin, 1958)
• Argumentation analysis aims to provide a structured method for analysing
negotiation processes and to disentangle them.
• Thematic Analysis aims to explore the understanding of an issue rather
than to reconcile conflicting definitions of a problem (see Attride-Sterling
2001).
TA and other Methods
• From a purely epistemological perspective, TA very much resembles Grounded Theory.
• Grounded Theory involves the generation of theory from data. Rather than beginning with a hypothesis, data is collected and analysed through constant iterations between the researcher and the data until saturation is reached (See Glaser and Strauss, 1967).
• Thematic Analysis: If grounded theory is based around developing a theory that can explain findings, thematic analysis aims to summarise/encapsulate the data (not necessarily with the aim of developing a new theory).
TA and other Methods
• From a purely methodological perspective, TA is very much akin to
Qualitative Content Analysis or Qualitative Analysis of Content.
• Qualitative Content Analysis ‘goes beyond merely counting words to
examining language intensely for the purpose of classifying large amounts of
text into a large number of categories that represent similar meanings.
(Hsieh & Shannon, 2005)
• Thematic Analysis: shares the same aims; uses very similar approach(es).
TA and other Methods
Content Analysis
Definition
“A research Technique for the
objective, systematic, and
quantitative description of the
manifest content of communication”
(Berelson, 1952).
Aim
To test hypothesis about texts by
analysing their manifest and latent
content.
Thematic Analysis
Definition “A Research Method for the subjective interpretation of the content data through the systematic classification process of coding and identifying themes or patterns” (Hsieh and Shannon, 2005: 1278)
Aim To provide an integrated view of speech/texts and their specific contexts.
TA and other Methods
Content Analysis
Epistemological Foundations
Deductive (top-down approach)
Sampling
Random
Coding Closed
Indicators Validity; Reliability; Generalisability.
Thematic Analysis
Epistemological Foundations
Inductive (bottom up approach)
Sampling
Purposive
Coding
Open
Indicators
Credibility; Transferability;
Dependability; Conformability
TA and other Methods
Models and Approaches
Classical Approach Zang and Wildemuth (2009)
1. Prepare the Data
2. Define the Unit of Analysis
3. Develop Categories and a Coding Scheme
4. Test your Coding Scheme on a Sample of Text
5. Assess your coding consistency
6. Code all the Text
7. Draw Conclusion from the Coded Data
8. Report your Methods and Findings
Models and Approaches
A codebook usually looks like this:
Models and Approaches
Results usually look like this: Occurrences
7
4
15
3
4
12
17
n…
….
Models and Approaches
Thematic Networks Analysis
Web-like-illustration that summarizes the main themes constituting a piece of
text (Attride-Stirling, 2001)
Thematic analysis systematizes the extraction of:
i. Lowest-order premises evident in the text (Basic Themes)
ii. Categories of basic themes grouped together to summarize more abstract
principles (Organizing Themes)
iii. Super-ordinate themes encapsulating the principal metaphor in the text as
a whole (Global Themes)
Models and Approaches
Thematic Networks Analysis :
Steps in analyses employing thematic networks (Attride-Stirling 2001)
Models and Approaches
Results look like this;
Models and Approaches
Models and Approaches
Hybrid Approach:
Fereday and Muir-Cochrane (2006) have developed a hybrid process of
inductive and deductive thematic analysis.
This method incorporates both a data-driven inductive approach and a
deductive a priori template of codes.
The codebook is typically based on previous research.
Models and Approaches
Theory- driven codes
Definition
Description
data
(Code 1)
>>>>
>>>>>>>>
(Code 2)
>>>>>>
(Code 3)
…
…
…
Models and Approaches
Data- driven codes
Definition
Description
data
Trust and respect
(Code 4)
…
…
…
….
(Code 5)
…
…
…
Models and Approaches
Qualitative Content Analysis (I)
Hsieh & Shannon (2005) individuate three approaches to Qualitative Content Analysis akin to thematic analysis.
A) Conventional Qualitative Content analysis (= bottom-up approach)
Researchers avoid using preconceived categories
Categories and names for categories flow from the data
Researchers immerse themselves in the data to allow new insights to emerge
Data are read word by word to derive codes
Codes are then sorted into categories based on how different codes are related and linked.
Emergent categories are used to organize and group codes into meaningful clusters.
Models and Approaches
Qualitative Content Analysis (II)
Hsieh & Shannon (2005).
B) Directed Qualitative Content analysis (= Hybrid approach)
Using existing theories or prior research, researchers begin by identifying key
concepts or variables as initial coding categories.
The next step is to code all highlighted passages using predetermined codes
Any text that could not be categorized with the initial coding scheme would
then be given a new code.
Models and Approaches
Qualitative Content Analysis (III)
Hsieh & Shannon (2005).
C) Summative Qualitative Content analysis (= Hybrid approach)
Starts with identifying and quantifying certain words or content in text with the purpose of understanding the contextual use of the words or content.
Quantification is not an attempt to infer meaning, but, rather, to explore usage.
If the analysis stopped at this point, the analysis would be quantitative, focusing on counting the frequency of specific words or content.
Summative qualitative content analysis goes beyond mere word count to include latent content analysis
Models and Approaches
Trustworthiness & Robustness
Validity, Reliability and Objectivity are criteria used to evaluate the quality of research in the conventional positivist research paradigm.
As a interpretative method, thematic analysis (and qualitative content analysis) differ from the positivist tradition in their fundamental assumptions, research purposes and inference processes.
Lincon and Guba (1985) proposed 4 criteria for evaluating interpretative research work: credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability.
Trustworthiness and Robustness
Credibility: refers to the adequate representation of the construction of
the social world under study.
A set of activities can improve the credibility of research results
- Triangulation
- Checking interpretations against raw data
- Member checking
Trustworthiness and Robustness
Transferability: refers to the extent to which the researcher
working hypothesis can be applied to another context.
Dependability: refers to the coherence of the internal coding
process.
Confirmability: refers to the extent to which the characteristics of
the data, as posited by the researcher, can be confirmed by others
who read or review the research results.
Trustworthiness and Robustness
• Attride-Stirling, J. (2001) ‘Thematic Networks: an Analytic Tool for Qualitative Research’, Qualitative Research 1(3): 385-405
• Boyatzis, R.E (1998) Transforming Qualitative Information. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.
• Bradley, J. (1993). Methodological issues and practices in qualitative research. Library Quarterly, 64 (4)., 431-449.
• Feredey, J. and Cochrane, E.M. (2006) ‘Demonstrating Rigor Using Thematic Analysis: A hybrid approach of inductive and deductive coding and theme development,’ International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 5(1): 80-92
• Hsieh, H. and Shannon, S. (2005) “Three Approaches to Qualitative Content Analysis.” Qualitative Health Research 15(9): 1277-1288
• Lincoln, Y.S. and Guba, E.G (1985). Naturalistic Inquiry. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications
• Saldaña, J. (2009). The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.
• Zhang, Y. and Wildemuth, B. M. (2009). Qualitative analysis of content. In B. Wildemuth (Ed.), Applications of Social Research Methods to Questions in Information and Library. PDF available: http://ils.unc.edu/~yanz/Content_analysis.pdf
Resources