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Using thematic analysis in psychology 97

Table 3 Advantages of thematic analysis allow the researcher to make claims about
language use, or the fine-grained function-
Flexibility.
Relatively easy and quick method to learn, and do. ality of talk.
Accessible to researchers with little or no experience of Finally, it is worth noting that thematic
qualitative research. analysis currently has no particular kudos
Results are generally accessible to educated general
public. as an analytic method / this, we argue,
Useful method for working within participatory re- stems from the very fact that it is poorly
search paradigm, with participants as collaborators. demarcated and claimed, yet widely used.
Can usefully summarize key features of a large body of
data, and/or offer a ‘thick description’ of the data set. This means that thematic analysis is fre-
Can highlight similarities and differences across the quently, or appears to be, what is simply
data set. carried out by someone without the knowl-
Can generate unanticipated insights.
Allows for social as well as psychological interpreta- edge or skills to perform a supposedly more
tions of data. sophisticated / certainly more kudos-bear-
Can be useful for producing qualitative analyses suited ing / ‘branded’ form of analysis like
to informing policy development.
grounded theory, IPA or DA. We hope this
paper will change this view as, we argue, a
rigorous thematic approach can produce an
insightful analysis that answers particular
the method itself. Further, the flexibility of
the method / which allows for a wide range research questions. What is important is
of analytic options / means that the poten- choosing a method that is appropriate to
tial range of things that can be said about your research question, rather than falling
your data is broad. While this is an advan- victim to ‘methodolatry’, where you are
tage, it can also be a disadvantage in that it committed to method rather than topic/
content or research questions (Holloway
makes developing specific guidelines for and Todres, 2003). Indeed, your method of
higher-phase analysis difficult, and can be analysis should be driven by both your
potentially paralysing to the researcher try- research question and your broader theore-
ing to decide what aspects of their data to tical assumptions. As we have demon-
focus on. Another issue to consider is that a
strated, thematic analysis is a flexible
thematic analysis has limited interpretative
approach that can be used across a range
power beyond mere description if it is not
of epistemologies and research questions.
used within an existing theoretical frame-
work that anchors the analytic claims that Notes
are made.
Other disadvantages appear when the- 1. Boyatzis (1998) provides a much more
matic analysis is considered in relation to detailed account of thematic analysis. However,
some of the other qualitative analytic meth- we do not feel that it is a particularly accessible
ods. For instance, unlike narrative or other account for those unfamiliar with qualitative
biographical approaches, you are unable to approaches. Moreover, his approach differs
retain a sense of continuity and contradic- from ours in that, although he acknowledges
the subjective dimension of qualitative analysis,
tion through any one individual account,
his approach is ultimately, if often implicitly,
and these contradictions and consistencies
located within a positivist empiricist paradigm.
across individual accounts may be reveal- 2. Dey’s (1993) account of on ‘qualitative data
ing. In contrast to methods similar to DA analysis’, which aims to identify shared techni-
and CA, a simple thematic analysis does not ques across the diverse range of qualitative