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Using thematic analysis in psychology 85

(which are sometimes specifically referred instead seeks to theorize the sociocultural
to as ‘thematic DA’ (eg, Singer and Hunter, contexts, and structural conditions, that
1999; Taylor and Ussher, 2001)), where enable the individual accounts that are
broader assumptions, structures and/or provided. Thematic analysis that focuses
meanings are theorized as underpinning on ‘latent’ themes tends to be more con-
what is actually articulated in the data. structionist, and it also tends to start to
Increasingly, a number of discourse analysts overlap with thematic DA at this point.
are also revisiting psycho-analytic modes of However, not all ‘latent’ thematic analysis
interpretation (eg, Hollway and Jefferson, is constructionist.
2000), and latent thematic analysis would
also be compatible with that framework. The many questions of qualitative research
It is worth briefly noting that qualitative
Epistemology: essentialist/realist versus research involves a series of questions, and
constructionist thematic analysis there is a need to be clear about the relation-
As we have argued, thematic analysis can be ship between these different questions.
conducted within both realist/essentialist First, there is the overall research question
and constructionist paradigms, although or questions that drive the project. A re-
the outcome and focus will be different for search question might be very broad (and
each. The question of epistemology is exploratory), such as ‘how is lesbian and
usually determined when a research project gay parenting constructed?’ or ‘what are the
is being conceptualized, although episte- meanings of the vagina?’. Narrower research
mology may also raise its head again during questions might be ‘how and why is lesbian
analysis, when the research focus may shift and gay parenting normalized?’ (Clarke and
to an interest in different aspects of the data. Kitzinger, 2004), or ‘what are the discourses
The research epistemology guides what you around vaginal size?’ (see Braun and Kit-
can say about your data, and informs how zinger, 2001). These narrow questions may
you theorize meaning. For instance, with an be part of a broader overarching research
essentialist/realist approach, you can theo- question, and if so, the analyses they inform
rize motivations, experience, and meaning would also provide answers to the overall
in a straightforward way, because a simple, research question. Although all projects are
largely unidirectional relationship is as- guided by research questions, these may
sumed between meaning and experience also be refined as a project progresses.
and language (language reflects and enables Second, if data from interviews or focus
us to articulate meaning and experience) groups have been collected, there are the
(Potter and Wetherell, 1987; Widdicombe questions that participants have responded
and Wooffitt, 1995). to. Finally, there are the questions that
In contrast, from a constructionist per- guide the coding and analysis of the data.
spective, meaning and experience are so- There is no necessary relationship between
cially produced and reproduced, rather these three, and indeed, it is often desirable
than inhering within individuals (Burr, that there is a disjuncture between them.
1995). Therefore, thematic analysis con- Some of the worst examples of ‘thematic’
ducted within a constructionist framework analysis we have read have simply used
cannot and does not seek to focus on the questions put to participants as the
motivation or individual psychologies, but ‘themes’ identified in the ‘analysis’ /