Qualitative data analysis

kitkat.3b4t

Hi
I’m just finishing off my masters thesis. I spoke to my tutor yesterday (a man of few words). He told me that I would have to redo the qualitative part of my results section. In my methods section I said that I was going to use thematic analysis, but I’m not sure of this now.

I want to compare the progress of two participants who completed separate weight management programmes. I want to identify behavioural and cognitive changes for each at different stages of their respective programme. Initially I had presented these results in table format, but was told that that won’t do.

Has anybody worked with this type of qualitative data before? Does anyone have any ideas on how this should be done?

Any advice would be appreciated, there is no chance of further help by my tutor.

Ostrom

kitkat.3b4t wrote: »

Hi
I’m just finishing off my masters thesis. I spoke to my tutor yesterday (a man of few words). He told me that I would have to redo the qualitative part of my results section. In my methods section I said that I was going to use thematic analysis, but I’m not sure of this now.

I want to compare the progress of two participants who completed separate weight management programmes. I want to identify behavioural and cognitive changes for each at different stages of their respective programme. Initially I had presented these results in table format, but was told that that won’t do.

Has anybody worked with this type of qualitative data before? Does anyone have any ideas on how this should be done?

Any advice would be appreciated, there is no chance of further help by my tutor.

Have a look at Uwe Flick's books on qualitative data analysis, it will walk you through thematic analysis. It comes under different names depending on the region and author, so some texts will refer to it as open or inductive coding, it is used in grounded theory also.

Can you be more specific about the tables you used? It would be unconventional for a qualitative analyst to present data in tabular form; thematic analysis involves searching for common themes in your respondents transcripts and building a narrative around this using the derived themes as sub headings. In doing so you would use quotes to support your interpretation of the theme - some of the themes will probably be indicated in your literature review and theory.

Are you using any programmes like nudist or nvivo?

kitkat.3b4t

Hi elfa

Thanks for your reply. Im not bothering with nidist. I dont really have all that much data. I used a graph to illustrate the fact that the same themes were present for both participants even though they were on different programmes. I think I know what I'm doing more now. I have the themes I just wasnt sure how to present them, but now I think I will have to present the data in traditional discourse analysis style.

Cat Melodeon

There is no problem in presenting qualitative data graphically, but only additionally to your data descriptions. You can include tables, hierarchical category schemes, venn diagrams etc to illustrate your data and your interpretations and analysis.