Chapter 1: Introduction
3.10 Data Analysis
3.10.2 IPA process of analysis
adopted to move through the stages, for example, their suggested first stage of ‘reading and re-reading’ was repeated after carrying out the second stage of ‘initial noting’.
Table 3.10.2.1 outlines the stages of data analysis.
Table 3.10.2.1: Data analysis stages
Stage 0 Verbatim transcription of the data.
Stage 1 Reading and re-reading.
Stage 2 Initial noting - write descriptive, linguistic and interpretative comments on the transcript initial noting tables.
Stage 3 Develop emergent themes and write these in the left column of the transcript initial noting tables.
Stage 4 a. Type a chronological list of emergent themes and develop
superordinate and subordinate themes by moving themes on paper.
b. Create tables of emergent themes for participant one for each data set (interview 1, audio diary, interview 2).
c. Create an overall table for each participant with the themes for all their data sets.
Stage 5 Repeat stages 1-4 for each separate participant.
Stage 6 Cross case analysis of participants looking at convergence and divergence for each data set.
Firstly, the audio data needed to be transcribed into a verbatim line-numbered transcript.
IPA aims to interpret the meaning of the content of the participant’s account so it requires a transcript with all the words spoken by the participant and the researcher.
There is no necessity to record prosodic aspects of recording but notes were made regarding non-verbal utterances, significant pauses and hesitations (Smith et al., 2009) and the conventions for these can be seen in Figure 3.10.2.2.
… to indicate a short pause [pause] to indicate a definite pause
[long pause] to indicate a prolonged pause
() within the text to indicate researcher comments e.g. (mmm)
All audio recordings were transcribed in this way by the researcher for each participant before analysis. Appendix 22 shows an example transcript.
The data analysis process was completed on a participant-by-participant basis. The first stage of analysis outlined by Smith et al. (2009) of reading and re-reading was
completed and this had also occurred whilst the researcher was in the process of transcribing, which strengthened familiarity with the data.
The second stage that was completed was ‘initial noting’ which involves making descriptive, linguistic and interpretative comments. The descriptive comments focused on describing the content of what the participant was saying, the linguistic comments focused on exploring the specific language used and the conceptual comments focused on a deeper and more conceptual level of interpretation. Comments are often enmeshed and are difficult to separate from one another, so this noting method was used as a framework. Figure 3.10.2.3 and Appendices 23 and 24 show examples of this process.
Figure 3.10.2.3: Example of initial notes- descriptive, linguistic and interpretative comments
The third stage involved developing emergent themes and reducing the data into meaningful and discrete pieces of data. The process of developing emergent themes reflects “ a synergistic process of description and interpretation” (Smith et al., 2009) as the researcher draws on her interpretation of the participant’s experience, as gained through the initial noting of stage two, to select meaningful interpretations of the data.
To assist the researcher’s selection of meaningful data, the researcher kept a note of key concepts. An example of this can be seen in Figure 3.10.2.4.
Figure 3.10.2.4: Example of graphic organiser of meaningful data
The emergent themes were written into the left hand column of the initial noting sheets (Figure 3.10.3) and then a table was made of the emergent themes for each participant’s data set as can be seen by Table 3.10.2.5.
Table 3.10.2.5: Example of emergent themes
Emergent themes Line
number
Quote
Struggles with self expression
8, 29 Art [pause] Science, Tech. Food tech… things like that…
Dunno Difficulty connecting
concepts
9-11 R: What sorts of things do - are the same about them? Is there anything that’s the same?
P: No
Inability to differentiate 18 It’s all like the same
Difficulty with friendships 22-24 R: Ok thank you for telling me. Erm…what…what are friendships like for you?
P: Hard.
Lack of awareness about what is hard in friendships
31-35 R: Ok. I was just wondering because you said they were hard I was wondering what was hard?
P: [pause]
R: It’s sometimes difficult to know isn’t it?
P: Yeah
Feeling misunderstood 39 It’s like hard coz people don’t know like, they don’t understand.
Having autism is hard 42-47 P: It’s like hard
R: Mmm. Is it hard at home and school?
P: Yeah
R: Or is it different?
P: It’s hard.
Autism is different in different contexts
52 It feels like, it doesn’t feel the same at school, coz like, it’s different.
Difficulty expressing feelings
53-54 R: Do you know what’s different?
P: No
Feeling isolated 57-59 P: It’s hard, because you don’t know who to tell.
Stage four involved searching for connections across the chronological list of emergent themes. This allowed the themes to be mapped into a structure and clusters of related themes to be brought together. At first, the researcher typed a chronological list of the emergent themes from the initial noting transcript tables and then wrote the emergent themes from the initial noting tables onto post-it notes. These post-it notes were then moved around on a large piece of paper so that the themes could be explored in terms of spatial representation to create the table of themes. After doing this for one participant and finding the need to cross reference the participants’ comments from the initial noting sheets, the researcher decided it would be more practical instead of post-it notes to use a cut up version of the chronological emergent themes table which had the line numbers listed (Figure 3.10.2.6).
Themes that were similar were placed together, whereas opposing themes were placed at opposite ends of the paper or on different pieces of paper. Figure 3.10.2.6 and 3.10.2.7 show examples of this process.
Figure 3.10.2.6: Example of stage four- mapping themes with post-it notes
Figure 3.10.2.7: Example of stage four- mapping themes with word-processed themes
Patterns were identified in the emergent themes using a number of processes:
abstraction, subsumption, polarisation, contextualisation, numeration and function.
Abstraction involves putting emergent themes into a superordinate theme so that a new term emerges to describe these themes (for example, in Me’s analysis, themes of
‘nobody can help’, ‘feeling unheard’, ‘it just happens’ and ‘I can’t’ developed the superordinate theme ‘perceptions of helplessness’).
Subsumption occurs when an emergent theme becomes a superordinate theme and brings together a number of related themes (for example, for Jack’s analysis, ‘pleasing others’ became a superordinate theme).
Polarisation requires examining the transcripts for oppositional relationships by looking for differences rather than similarities (for example, Me spoke of difficulties her ASD caused, but also of its benefits).
Contextualisation identifies connections between the emergent themes and the key events described by the participants (for example, the worries spoken about were contextualised in terms of their relation to the future or past).
Numeration involves noting the frequency of emergent themes throughout the
transcript. These were not counted formally, but a high frequency of comments related to the same theme was noticed (for example, Me spoke a lot about being
misunderstood).
Function concerns how the emergent themes reflect how the participant positions themselves within their narrative (for example, Jack felt he was victimised by others).
The use of these analytical strategies created a representation of the emergent themes for each participant for each separate data set (interview 1, audio diary, interview 2) as can be seen in Figure 3.10.2.8.
Once each data set had been analysed in this way, the researcher created an overall poster of the main themes for each participant. The researcher colour-coded the themes according to the data set (interview 1, audio diary, interview 2) which can be seen in Figure 3.10.2.9 and Appendices 25-28.
The fifth stage moved on to analyse the data of the next participant, therefore repeating stages 1-4 as described above. The researcher analysed each case in depth to allow emergent themes to appear, in keeping with IPA’s commitment to idiography. Smith et al. (2009, p.101) suggest that following their recommended stages will ensure a
rigorous and systematic approach and allow in depth and good quality analysis to take place.
The sixth stage of the analytical process was to look for patterns and divergences in the emergent themes across cases to create a master table of themes for the group
(Appendix 29). This allowed higher order qualities of similarities to be recognised but also identified areas of idiosyncrasy.