Thematic Coding

An example
Coding:
• Thematic coding is a form of qualitative analysis which
involves recording or identifying passages of text or
images that are linked by a common theme or idea
allowing you to index the text into categories and
therefore establish a “framework of thematic ideas
about it” (Gibbs 2007)
• Some basic questions to ask as you undertake this
intensive reading that will help you get started:
• What is going on?
• What are people doing? What is the person saying?
• What do these actions and statements take for
granted?
• How do structure and context serve to support,
maintain, impede or change these actions and
statements?"
(Charmaz, 2003, pp. 94–5, in Gibbs, 2007, p. 42)
Brief Example:
• This example is taken from a study of carers for people with
dementia and is an interview with Barry, who is now looking
after his wife, who has Alzheimer's disease. The interviewer
has just asked Barry, ‘Have you had to give anything up that
you enjoyed doing that was important to you?’, and he replies:
1. BARRY
2. Well, the only thing that we've really given up is – well we used to
3. go dancing. Well she can't do it now so I have to go on my own,
4. that's the only thing really. And then we used to go indoor bowling
5. at the sports centre. But of course, that's gone by the board now.
So
6. we don't go there. But I manage to get her down to works club,
just
7. down the road on the occasional Saturdays, to the dances. She'll
sit
8. and listen to the music, like, stay a couple of hours and then she's
9. had enough. And then, if it's a nice weekend I take her out in the
10. car
Description:
• At one level this is a very simple reply. In lines 2 to 6 Barry gives two
examples of things that he and Beryl used to enjoy together, dancing
and indoor bowling, then, without prompting, he lists two things
that they still do together, visiting dances at the works club and
going out for a drive.
• So a first idea is to code lines 2 to 4 to the code ‘Dancing’, lines 4 to
6 to ‘Indoor bowling’, 6 to 9 to ‘Dances at works club’ and 9 to 10 to
‘Drive together’.
• Such coding might be useful if you are analyzing interviews with lots
of carers and you wanted to examine the actual activities given up
and those still done together and compare them between couples.
• Then retrieving all the text coded at codes about such activities
would enable you to list and compare what people said about them.
Categorization:
• However, such coding is simply descriptive; there are usually
better ways to categorize the things mentioned and there are
other things indicated by Barry's text.
• In analysis you need to move away from descriptions,
especially using respondent's terms, to a more categorical,
analytic and theoretical level of coding.
• For example, you can code the text about dancing and indoor
bowling together at a code ‘Joint activities ceased’, and text on
works club dances and driving together to the code ‘Joint
activities continuing’.
• Assuming you have done the same in other interviews, you
can now retrieve all the text about what couples have given up
doing and see if they have things in common. In so doing you
have begun to categorize the text.
Analytic codes:
• Thinking about this suggests another way to code the text.
Both dancing and bowling are physical activities involving
some degree of skilled movement. Clearly Beryl has lost that,
so we could code lines 2 to 6 to the code ‘Loss of physical co-
ordination’.
• This code is now slightly more analytic than those we started
with, which just repeated Barry's descriptions. Barry does not
talk about loss of physical co-ordination, but it is implied in
what he says.
• Of course you need to be careful. This is an interpretation,
based, here, on very little evidence. You need to look for other
examples in Barry's interview of the same thing and perhaps
other evidence in what he says of Beryl's infirmity.
Analytic (Cont.)
• Another thing to notice about this text is the way Barry
changes from using ‘we’ about what they used to do together,
to saying ‘I’ when he turns to the things they do now.
• This suggests another pair of analytic codes, one about joint
activity with a sense of being a couple, the other about
activity where the carer is just doing things for his partner.
• You might code these as ‘Togetherness’ and ‘Doing for’. Note
that these codes do not simply code what happened, but
rather suggest the way in which Barry thought about, or
conceptualized, these things.
Analytic (Cont.)
• Other things you might have noticed about the passage that
might be candidates for codes include Barry's rhetorical use of
‘Well’ in lines 2 and 3. He says it three times.
• Is this an indication of a sense of resignation, loss or regret?
Again, from such a short passage it is not clear. But you might
code it ‘Resignation’ for now and later see if it is consistent
with other text of Barry's you have coded to ‘Resignation’.
• It is interesting to note that Barry says he still goes dancing,
on his own
Analytic (Cont.)
• A different interpretation of this use of ‘well’ and the fact that
it is the first thing that Barry mentions, is that dancing was a
key thing that he and Beryl did together as a couple. You might
therefore think that it is a kind of core or central activity of the
couple, something that was central to their life together as a
couple.
• Again, it would be useful to examine other carers to see if
there are similar defining activities and to see if this identifies
any differences between carers.
• Perhaps carers where the defining activities have been less
affected by Alzheimer's are different from those where it has."
Source: Gibbs (2007)