Futuro de la disciplina. Algunos campos discursivos y temáticas emergentes

As Krueger and Casey (2000) state, the analysis is a sequential and evolving process, which enables getting verifiable results that will reflect on what was shared within the group during the actual interview situation. The analysis of the data from focus groups is different to, for example, the analysis of numbers, since it already begins with the first focus group interview session, where then every following session is analyzed and compared to earlier groups. (Ibid., pp. 128-129.) By taking these factors into

consideration, I reflected on certain aspects beforehand, which I would specifically consider prior to the interview sessions. Therefore, I took significant factors, such as body image, status and specific emotions into consideration, as these are of high

importance for my research questions. Since these factors were a topic of discussion during the first interview session, I kept my focus on them throughout the following group sessions and consider these as major aspects.

For the concrete analysis process, I chose the content analysis, which allowed me to gain a deep understanding of the specific content of the data. This form of analysis was especially useful when processing the large amounts of text that I have gained from the interview sessions. The content analysis consists of three basic forms that can be broken down into summary, explication and structuring. While the summary aims to reduce and summarize the text material won through the data collection, the explication takes the material to the parts within the text that contain certain words or sentences, which should be broadened, explained and interpreted in order to allow a full understanding of the text. Lastly, the structuring filters out certain aspects of the material. (Mayring, 2002, p. 115.)

In order to approach analyzing the data, I first transcribed the interviews into text in order to make it easier to handle the material. By doing so, it enabled me to go through every line of the text to summarize the content and narrow it down, which reduced the amount of text tremendously. With the condensed text material, it was easier to find and highlight certain words or sentences that carried significant meaning. Especially the final step of structuring helped to further shorten the material by filtering out the relevant aspects of the text. According to Mayring (2008), the further process consists of the paraphrasing of the text and putting it into single code units, which should be kept short and reduced to their descriptive content. By doing so, the relevant parts of the text are rephrased, while other parts that do not carry the desired content are being crossed out or dropped. The categories are narrowed down further, by translating and

transforming text parts into grammatical short forms, which is followed by generalizations and an increase in the level of abstractions. In order to continue to reduce the material, the limitations and summaries of the categories are included. (Ibid., pp. 60-64.)

After having completed the predetermined criteria of selection, I proceeded to paraphrase the selected text, in order to create different categories. By narrowing the text further down, I was able to build categories by transforming pieces of text into a more general and abstract category. Mayring (2002) explains that building categories represents a deductive element, which needs to be explained by theoretical thoughts that address the subject and goal of the analysis. Therefore, a category is constructed when a matching part is found in the text. If a single word or sentence stands in close relation to the data material, it can be used to describe a certain category. (Ibid., pp. 116-117.)

However, there are certain demands that are tied to the building of categories, as they need to be formed in a selective manner. Not all particular details can be found in the text, but also in the differentiations of the schema of categories, which further does not need to contain all of the content that appears within the text. They must differ in a way that all dimensions of meaning are included, but also allow comparisons between the different text units. This means that the categories need to be related to the relevant dimension and have a precise definition, which makes text elements clearly classifiable for the distinct categories. The schema of categories further needs to derive from a consistent principal of classification, which should only refer to one dimension of meaning and exclude the single categories from one another. This grants a high degree of clarity for the different categories and subcategories, which also ensures their independence. (Kromrey, 2009, pp. 314-315.)

By using the thematic analysis on the previously built categories, the focus lies on identifying and describing, both implicit and explicit ideas, as themes within the data. In this regard, codes are developed that represent the identified themes that are linked to the data as summaries for the later analysis. Hereby, reliability is of a greater concern than with word-based analyses, due to the requirement for a higher degree of

interpretation, as well as in applying the specific codes to the text itself. (Guest et al., 2012, pp. 10-11.) The first step consists of segmenting the text, which is understood as a technique to bind text together, in order to assess and document the general quality of the data. This further facilitates the exploration of the thematic elements, as well as their similarity, dissimilarity and relationships. Because only very little qualitative analysis is

done without relying on some degree of segmentation and abstraction of text, this is a rather important step, where the researcher is constantly confronted with questions regarding the beginning and end of meanings and how these meanings intersect and interact with one another. (Ibid., pp. 50-51.)

By using the thematic analysis, the researcher codes the data either by hand or with a software program. Usually, every two or three lines of text are coded, where key words, concepts, images and reflections are identified and handled. The coding can be

understood as an explicit and iterative process, which allows the researcher to alter and modify the analysis as it reflects on the data and lets ideas emerge. A qualitatively good code is able to capture the richness of the phenomenon and at the same time be clear and concise, stating what it stands for, its boundaries and how to recognize it when it occurs. These codes build the foundation for the themes used by the researcher.

(Komori, n. d.)

The most critical component of the thematic analysis is the codebook. Its development can be understood as a discrete step in the analysis where the meaning that is observed in the text is systematically sorted into different categories, types and relationships of meaning. The text is then reread and analyzed through the process of segmenting and coding into these categories, types and relationships. Hereby, the ‘messiness’ of the text is minimized by the use of code definitions and with the degree of maximizing the coherence amongst the codes in the codebook. The codebook describes a structured compendium of codes that includes a description of how the codes are related to one another. (Guest et al., 2012, pp. 50-52.)