is thematic analysis an individual analysis technique or it falls under grounded theory (As some literature says) or it is merely a technique that can be used under any of the 5 common approaches to qualitative research. (If possible, can anyone relate the two with quantitative terminologies for easier understanding?)
Secondly, the grounded theory also involves coding, thematic analysis also involves coding etc, how are these two distinct (if they are)
I presume that your assumption that there are five approaches to qualitative research comes from Creswell and Poth's book on five traditions. I do not believe that their book was meant to be exclusive, i.e., that there are precisely five and only five ways to do qualitative research.
Instead, I think that a combination of semi-structured interviews with thematic analysis is probably the single most common approach to qualitative research, even if does not have a precise label.
I presume that your assumption that there are five approaches to qualitative research comes from Creswell and Poth's book on five traditions. I do not believe that their book was meant to be exclusive, i.e., that there are precisely five and only five ways to do qualitative research.
Instead, I think that a combination of semi-structured interviews with thematic analysis is probably the single most common approach to qualitative research, even if does not have a precise label.
Dear Syed Sohaib Zubair ,
This is an interesting and important question. I think people have different definitions but I wouldn't say that thematic analysis falls under grounded theory. Instead, I would say that the grounded theory approach to qualitative analysis has some similarities with thematic analysis but it requires doing parts of the analysis in a certain way. I would view thematic analysis as a more general technique that could be applied with other theoretical approaches to qualitative data analysis.
David L Morgan thank you for your input, I didnt mean that those 5 approaches are exclusive or exhaustive. Yes, for the sake of the question, I took the said assumption.
Some say that thematic analysis can be used to analyze semi-structured interviews.
What I inferred from your answer is that, a specific term might not exist (like the ones in Quantitative research) but the process should be focused.
"Secondly, the grounded theory also involves coding, thematic analysis also involves coding etc, how are these two distinct (if they are)"
"Coding" is a very general term, and serves different purposes depending on the specific method used. You can imagine coding to be equivalent to the word "calculating" in mathematics. Generally speaking, coding involves labelling some part of a text (though non-textual elements can also be coded) with some unit of meaning. These units of meaning are later considered together in such a way (depending on your method) as to lead to a conclusion/argument of some kind. Coding in thematic analysis involves assigning labels to units of text in a way that subsequently makes it possible to categorize the said units of text under broader themes. I'm not an expert in GT, but my understanding is that coding serves a similar function there. The principal difference between TA and GT is (1) in the general epistemological stance on social knowledge and the way that it can be 'created', and (2) in the intervening process responsible for transforming units of coded text into broader theoretical insights. Typically (though not always) TA begins with some kind of theoretical framework or sets of assumptions, which feed into the themes that end up being used to categorize coded text (this is more the case in theory-driven and prior-research-driven TA - and somewhat less so in inductive-TA). GT, on the other hand, begins with little to nothing by way of prior theory (though I understand that there are some variations in GT approaches, some of which make more space for prior theory in the analysis process).
Thematic analysis is just an analysis technique independent from any philosophical or methodological approach.
Liran Morav one of the major differences between Grounded Theory and Thematic Analysis is that GT alternates data collection with data analysis in a continuing cycle, while TA waits until all the data is collected before beginning coding.
thank you all for contributing .... David L Morgan Tayyab Amjad Liran Morav
The most common form of qualitative research, in health care professions, at the moment is descritive exploratory (some call it free form). It uses generic principles and adopts either content or thematic analysis - mostly thematic. 'Traditional' methodologies, such as GT, phenomenology, ethnography etc are perhaps currently most common with HDR students. The attached chapter - pages 95-96 = may assist.
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