What is it about?
The article presents a rationale and procedure for conducting thematic analysis on brief texts such as responses to open-ended questions or social media comments. It is grounded in existing approaches to thematic analysis and has a number of innovative features. It is conducted using standard spreadsheet software such as Excel.
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Why is it important?
Qualitative psychology has traditionally been associated with in-depth approaches to data collection. However, with the growth of social media and email, along with the rising popularity of mixed-methods research, brief texts are becoming increasingly important as narrative vehicles of life experiences and personal attitudes. This article aims to provide an approach to thematic analysis to flexibly support researchers who wish to grasp the opportunities provided by brief texts, without the need for specialist software.
Perspectives
I initially developed this approach to thematic analysis to support my own work on brief texts, such as research conducted on people's descriptions of their most recent dreams, or research using brief vignettes describing a person that participants really admire. Following this, I gradually worked up the method into a formal set of phases and protocols. I am sure it fills an important niche and I encourage researchers to continue developing the method in new directions.
Oliver Robinson
University of Greenwich
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Conducting thematic analysis on brief texts: The structured tabular approach., Qualitative Psychology, March 2021, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/qup0000189.
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