Thematic analysis

Braun, Virginia; Clarke, Victoria

Abstract

In the social and health sciences, TA has been extensively used for analyzing qualitative data, but until the last decade or so, there had been little discussion of TA as a method or guidance provided for its use (Aronson, 1994; Boyatzis, 1998; Patton, 1990, provide early exceptions). In 2006, Braun and Clarke (2006) proposed a “systematic” and “sophisticated” (Howitt & Cramer, 2008, p. 341) approach to TA, which has subsequently been widely adopted. Although TA is often used merely to describe or summarize key patterns in data, for Braun and Clarke, a good TA involves more than simply reporting what is in the data; it involves telling an interpretative story about the data in relation to a research question.
TA is often referred to as if it is one homogenous entity, with one set of underlying assumptions and analytic procedures (Terry, Hayfield, Clarke & Braun, 2017). But it is not. Braun and Clarke (2019) now label their approach reflexive TA and distinguish it from other approaches to TA – ones that involve the use of a structured codebook and coding reliability measures. There is considerable variation in the assumptions and procedures between broadly-different clusters of approaches to TA, which need to acknowledged in doing (good) TA. Beyond “reflexive” TA, Braun and Clarke refer to the other clusters as “coding reliability” or “codebook” TA.

• Online Publication Date: Feb 19, 2023
• Publication Date: Feb 10, 2023
• Deposit Date: Feb 21, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 11, 2025
• Publisher: Springer
• Edition: 2nd
• Book Title: Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10475698
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-319-69909-7_3470-2
• Related Public URLs: https://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1007/978-3-319-69909-7
• Contract Date: May 21, 2022