Academic Journal Article (Qualitative Research / Psychology). pp. 77–101.
After reading Braun and Clarke’s 2021 practical guide, I wanted to look back at their original paper to understand where their approach to thematic analysis began. The paper introduces thematic analysis as an accessible and flexible method for identifying and analysing patterns within qualitative data. Braun and Clarke also provide guidance for carrying it out carefully and consistently, rather than simply selecting interesting quotes from interviews.
What I found most useful is how suitable thematic analysis feels for the type of primary research I have collected. My interviews contain individual experiences and different levels of detail, so I need a method that allows me to recognise shared patterns without suggesting that every autistic participant experiences travel in exactly the same way.
The paper also reinforces that thematic analysis involves interpretation. I will need to make decisions about which parts of the data are important and how different responses connect to my research question.
Braun and Clarke outline six stages for carrying out thematic analysis:
Familiarise myself with the data
Read all of the responses carefully and make initial notes.
Create initial codes
Label useful or meaningful parts of participants' responses.
Search for themes
Look for connections between different codes.
Review the themes
Check them against the original interview responses and change them where necessary.
Define and name the themes
Decide clearly what each theme represents.
Write up the findings
Explain the themes, use participant quotes as evidence, and show how the findings connect to my research question.
The authors present this as a flexible process rather than something that must always happen perfectly in a straight line.
An important point is that thematic analysis is not simply about counting which words appear most often. A participant might describe an experience differently from another participant but still be expressing a similar underlying issue.
For example:
“I panic in security.”
“Security can be very overwhelming.”
“I need more time to process everything.”