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Using thematic analysis in psychology 91

Figure 4 Final thematic map, showing final two main themes (see Braun and Wilkinson, 2003).

need to be combined, refined and separated, rework your theme, creating a new theme,
or discarded. finding a home for those extracts that do not
currently work in an already-existing
Phase 4: reviewing themes theme, or discarding them from the analy-
Phase 4 begins when you have devised a set sis. Once you are satisfied that your candi-
of candidate themes, and it involves the date themes adequately capture the
refinement of those themes. During this contours of the coded data / once you
phase, it will become evident that some have a candidate ‘thematic map’ / you
candidate themes are not really themes (eg, are ready to move on to level two of this
if there are not enough data to support them, phase. The outcome of this refinement
or the data are too diverse), while others process can be seen in the thematic map
might collapse into each other (eg, two presented in Figure 3.
apparently separate themes might form Level two involves a similar process, but
one theme). Other themes might need in relation to the entire data set. At this
to be broken down into separate themes. level, you consider the validity of indivi-
Patton’s (1990) for dual criteria judging dual themes in relation to the data set, but
categories / internal homogeneity and ex- also whether your candidate thematic map
ternal heterogeneity / are worth consider- ‘accurately’ reflects the meanings evident in
ing here. Data within themes should cohere
the data set as a whole. To some extent,
together meaningfully, while there should
what counts as ‘accurate representation’
be clear and identifiable distinctions be-
tween themes. depends on your theoretical and analytic
approach. However, in this phase you re-
This phase involves two levels of review-
read your entire data set for two purposes.
ing and refining your themes. Level one
involves reviewing at the level of the coded The first is, as discussed, to ascertain
data extracts. This means you need to read whether the themes ‘work’ in relation to
all the collated extracts for each theme, and the data set. The second is to code any
consider whether they appear to form a additional data within themes that has been
coherent pattern. If your candidate themes missed in earlier coding stages. The need for
do appear to form a coherent pattern, you re-coding from the data set is to be expected
then move on to the second level of this as coding is an ongoing organic process.
phase. If your candidate themes do not fit, If the thematic map works, then you
you will need to consider whether the moves on to the next phase. However, if
theme itself is problematic, or whether the map does not fit the data set, you need
some of the data extracts within it simply to return to further reviewing and refining
do not fit there / in which case, you would of your coding until you have devised a