Finding Themes

(draws heavily on paper by Ryan and Bernard)

Approaches & Techniques

KWIC

• to understand a concept, see how it is used. grab the paragraph in which the word is embedded

Compare & Contrast

• take pairs of text and figure out how the are similar and how different from each other.

Looking for key elements

• theoretical variables
• salient words
• non-mentions
• metaphors
• binary oppositions
• frames/scripts
• relations
• domains
• transitions

Coding & Netting

• low level codes
• super codes
• selective coding -- core category

Pilesorts & MDS

• snippets of text
• codes

Factor Analysis

• text ratings (true codes)

Things to look for

Variables of theoretical interest

• have in mind certain areas that are always important issues, or which are predictably interesting given the data
• in "hooking up" dataset
  • how does it start and end?
  • what functions does it serve?
  • what are the social consequences?
• in general
  • conflict
  • control/power
  • contradictions
  • legitimacy
  • environment
  • agency
  • obstacles to change
  • socially significant personal attributes

Salient words

• drawing connections among frequently repeated words: what is salient to the respondent?

Non-mentions

• looking for what's missing. sometimes tells you what is most sensitive.

• for both interviewing, which is real-time analysis, and analyzing texts
• metaphors, schemas, scripts, binary oppositions

Metaphors

• marriage -- seeing marriages as journeys, trials, rocks,
• organizations -- seeing organizations as families, machines, organisms, information processors, societies, ecosystems, etc.

• republican / democrat

frames, schemas, scripts

• hooking up (has some sequential elements, like a script)
• crime (frame)
• restaurant (script)
• sexual harassment (both frame and script)
• signaled by: "the"; implicit reference (things unstated but necessary for understanding)
  • John went to a restaurant. He asked the waitress for coq au vin. He paid the check and left
    • the use of "the" when neither waitresses nor checks have previously been discussed signals the assumption of a shared schema or script. The speaker assumes the listener expects a waitress and a check to be present in a story about a restaurant visit.
  • John wanted to do well on the exam, but his pen ran out of ink and his pencil broke. He tried to find a pencil sharpener, but there wasn't one in the room. Finally he borrowed a pen from another student. By then he was so far behind he had to rush, and the teacher took off points for poor penmanship
    • to understand this story, the listener needs to know some basic stuff -- otherwise the final sentence is a complete non-sequitur
• see
• Schemas

• cause & effect
• similarity
• association
• part of
• signaled by connector words like
  • causes: because, since, as a result
  • conditionals: if, instead
  • taxonomic categories: a, kind of

• lists
• attributes
• relations

Taxonomies

• dendrograms of part whole relationships

transitions

• pauses, changes in tone, recurrent phrases signal thematic shifts. So helps to identify themes

Example

• Jehn and Doucet use a number of these techniques in their papers. For a summary, see this handout