Braun-Clarke-Thematic-Analysis

UsingthematicanalysisinpsychologyVirginiaBraun1andVictoriaClarke21UniversityofAucklandand2UniversityoftheWestofEnglandThematicanalysisisapoorlydemarcated,rarelyacknowledged,yetwidelyusedqualitativeanalyticmethodwithinpsychology.Inthispaper,wearguethatitoffersanaccessibleandtheoreticallyflexibleapproachtoanalysingqualitativedata.Weoutlinewhatthematicanalysisis,locatingitinrelationtootherqualitativeanalyticmethodsthatsearchforthemesorpatterns,andinrelationtodifferentepistemologicalandontologicalpositions.Wethenprovideclearguidelinestothosewantingtostartthematicanalysis,orconductitinamoredeliberateandrigorousway,andconsiderpotentialpitfallsinconductingthematicanalysis.Finally,weoutlinethedisadvantagesandadvantagesofthematicanalysis.Weconcludebyadvocatingthematicanalysisasausefulandflexiblemethodforqualitativeresearchinandbeyondpsychology.QualitativeResearchinPsychology2006;3:77/101Keywords:epistemology;flexibility;patterns;qualitativepsychology;thematicanalysisThematicanalysisisapoorlydemarcatedandrarelyacknowledged,yetwidelyusedqualitativeanalyticmethod(Boyatzis,1998;Roulston,2001)withinandbeyondpsychology.Inthispaper,weaimtofillwhatwe,asresearchersandteachersinqualitativepsychology,haveexperiencedasacurrentgap/theabsenceofapaperwhichadequatelyoutlinesthetheory,ap-plicationandevaluationofthematicana-lysis,andonewhichdoessoinawayaccessibletostudentsandthosenotparti-cularlyfamiliarwithqualitativeresearch.1Thatis,weaimtowriteapaperthatwillbeusefulasbothateachingandresearchtoolinqualitativepsychology.Therefore,inthispaperwediscusstheoryandmethodforthematicanalysis,andclarifyCorrespondence:VirginiaBraun,DepartmentofPsychology,UniversityofAuckland,PrivateBag92019,Auckland,NewZealand.E-mail:[e-mail]#2006EdwardArnold(Publishers)Ltd10.1191/1478088706qp063oaQualitativeResearchinPsychology2006;3:77/101(HollowayandTodres,2003),andthematicanalysisshouldbeseenasafoundationalmethodforqualitativeanalysis.Itisthefirstqualitativemethodofanalysisthatre-searchersshouldlearn,asitprovidescoreskillsthatwillbeusefulforconductingmanyotherformsofqualitativeanalysis.Indeed,HollowayandTodres(2003:347)identify‘thematizingmeanings’asoneofafewsharedgenericskillsacrossqualitativeanalysis.2Forthisreason,Boyatzis(1998)characterizesit,notasaspecificmethod,butasatooltouseacrossdifferentmeth-ods.Similarly,RyanandBernard(2000)locatethematiccodingasaprocessper-formedwithin‘major’analytictraditions(suchasgroundedtheory),ratherthanaspecificapproachinitsownright.Wearguethematicanalysisshouldbeconsid-eredamethodinitsownright.Oneofthebenefitsofthematicanalysisisitsflexibility.Qualitativeanalyticmethodscanberoughlydividedintotwocamps.Withinthefirst,therearethosetiedto,orstemmingfrom,aparticulartheoreticalorepistemologicalposition.Forsomeofthese/suchasconversationanalysis(CA;eg,HutchbyandWooffitt,1998)andinterpre-tativephenomenologicalanalysis(IPA;eg,SmithandOsborn,2003)/thereis(asyet)relativelylimitedvariabilityinhowthemethodisapplied,withinthatframework.Inessence,onerecipeguidesanalysis.Forothersofthese/suchasgroundedtheory(Glaser,1992;StraussandCorbin,1998),discourseanalysis(DA;eg,BurmanandParker,1993;PotterandWetherell,1987;Willig,2003)ornarrativeanalysis(Murray,2003;Riessman,1993)/therearedifferentmanifestationsofthemethod,fromwithinthebroadtheoreticalframework.Second,therearemethodsthatareessentiallyin-dependentoftheoryandepistemology,andcanbeappliedacrossarangeoftheoreticalandepistemologicalapproaches.Althoughoften(implicitly)framedasarealist/experi-entialmethod(Aronson,1994;Roulston,2001),thematicanalysisisactuallyfirmlyinthesecondcamp,andiscompatiblewithbothessentialistandconstructionistpara-digmswithinpsychology(wediscussthislater).Throughitstheoreticalfreedom,the-maticanalysisprovidesaflexibleanduse-fulresearchtool,whichcanpotentiallyprovidearichanddetailed,yetcomplex,accountofdata.Giventheadvantagesoftheflexibilityofthematicanalysis,itisimportantthatweareclearthatwearenottryingtolimitthisflexibility.However,anabsenceofclearandconciseguidelinesaroundthematicanalysismeansthatthe‘anythinggoes’critiqueofqualitativeresearch(Antakietal.,2002)maywellapplyinsomeinstances.Withthispaper,wehopetostrikeabalancebetweendemarcatingthematicanalysisclearly/ie,explainingwhatitis,andhowtodoit/andensuringflexibilityinrelationtohowitisused,sothatitdoesnotbecomelimitedandconstrained,andloseoneofitskeyadvan-tages.Indeed,acleardemarcationofthismethodwillbeusefultoensurethatthosewhousethematicanalysiscanmakeactivechoicesabouttheparticularformofanalysistheyareengagedin.Therefore,thispaperseekstocelebratetheflexibilityofthemethodandprovideavocabularyand‘recipe’forpeopletoundertakethematicanalysisinawaythatistheoreticallyandmethodologicallysound.3Aswewillshow,whatisimportantisthataswellasapply-ingamethodtodata,researchersmaketheir(epistemologicalandother)assump-78VBr