Module: Research Methods in Psychology
Lecture 4: Online Session (Qualitative) Thematic Analysis
What is the second step after familiarisation?
Coding the data
We are coding for what the participant says about friendship.
In an IPA, we would always analyse one case fully before moving onto the next
case/interview/transcript. In this case, we can code data for the whole set.
Coding
AL = Alexander (the participant)
Paragraph 002
This paragraph contains mostly background information.
When asked to talk about friendship, his first thought was to talk about his
best friend – what does this tell us? It implies that he has other friends who
aren’t his best friend. In his world, there seems to be different types of
friendships – he seems to make distinctions about friends.
Code ‘best friend’ and give it a code name e.g. close friendship, different
kinds of friends.
Paragraph 006
What sorts of things do you notice here? New experiences, feeling protected,
common interests, adapting, unknown experiences (not knowing anyone there).
You would highlight most of the paragraph and code it:
Feeling protected
New experiences
Helping
Common interests
Sitting next to each other in class
You need to capture everything that might be worth capturing.
You might need to change the name of the codes or discard them later on.
Paragraph 008
Lecture 4: Online Session (Qualitative) Thematic Analysis
What is the second step after familiarisation?
Coding the data
We are coding for what the participant says about friendship.
In an IPA, we would always analyse one case fully before moving onto the next
case/interview/transcript. In this case, we can code data for the whole set.
Coding
AL = Alexander (the participant)
Paragraph 002
This paragraph contains mostly background information.
When asked to talk about friendship, his first thought was to talk about his
best friend – what does this tell us? It implies that he has other friends who
aren’t his best friend. In his world, there seems to be different types of
friendships – he seems to make distinctions about friends.
Code ‘best friend’ and give it a code name e.g. close friendship, different
kinds of friends.
Paragraph 006
What sorts of things do you notice here? New experiences, feeling protected,
common interests, adapting, unknown experiences (not knowing anyone there).
You would highlight most of the paragraph and code it:
Feeling protected
New experiences
Helping
Common interests
Sitting next to each other in class
You need to capture everything that might be worth capturing.
You might need to change the name of the codes or discard them later on.
Paragraph 008
