Content analysis

Question 1

Definition of content analysis

Answer 1

An indirect form of observation that examines forms of media that people produce.
It is a technique for systematically analysing various kinds of qualitative data (e.g. texts).
The data is placed into categories and counted using coding i.e. it’s a way of quantifying qualitative data

Question 2

How is coding done?

Answer 2

Information is categorised into meaningful units, this may involve counting up the number of times a particular word of phrase appears in the text to produce a form of quantitative data

Question 3

A description of how thematic analysis is done

Answer 3

Main process involves and identification of themes.
A theme in content analysis refers to any idea, explicit or implicit, that is recurrent.
Likely to be more descriptive and may be developed into broader categories.
When the researcher is satisfied that the themes they have developed cover most aspects of the data they are analysing, they may collect a new set of data to test the validity of the themes and categories.

Question 4

Strengths of content analysis

Answer 4

Can circumnavigate many ethical issues normally associated with psychological research as most material being analysed already exists within the public domain
High in external validity
Flexible as may produce quantitative or qualitative data

Question 5

Weaknesses of content analysis

Answer 5

There is a danger that the researcher may attribute opinions and motivations to the speaker or writer that were not intended originally
May lack objectivity, especially when more descriptive form of thematic analysis are employed

Question 6

How to conduct a content analysis (coding)

Answer 6

1. Choose the sample (the type of media) – what material to sample e.g. adverts, magazines, song lyrics, TV programmes. Be specific e.g. which TV channels, how many programmes, which times of day etc.
2. Choose the sampling method – how the material should be sampled (e.g. time sampling, event sampling).
3. Watch/read the sample that you have (e.g. watch video clips, read the diary entry, transcript of the interview etc.). Even if you have two psychologists, they should do this separately. From the sample, identify potential categories which have emerged from the data.
4. The two psychologists should then compare the categories and use the ones that they have both agreed on.
5. Give examples of the categories that they would be looking for.
6. The psychologists should carry out the content analysis separately using the same data and the same categories, watching the clip/reading the diary entry etc. again and counting the number of examples that fall into each category to provide quantitative data. This is coding.
7. The psychologists should then compare their answers to look for agreement and use an appropriate statistical test to analyse the reliability of their results (+0.8 or above suggests they are reliable).

Question 7

How to conduct content analysis (thematic analysis)

Answer 7

1. Researchers initially use coding to analyse the data (as above).
2. Watch/read the sample that you have (e.g. watch video clips, read the diary entry, transcript of the interview etc.). Even if you have two psychologists, they should do this separately. From the sample, identify potential implicit or explicit themes/ideas (that are recurrent) which have emerged from the data. These are called emergent themes, and they may emerge after the data has been coded.
3. The psychologists then collect a new set of data (by re-watching/reading the sample) to test the validity of the themes. Assuming that the themes represent the new data appropriately, the researcher will write up the final report. Typically, they use direct quotes from the data to illustrate each theme. Therefore, this produces qualitative data.

Question 8

What is inter-rater reliability

Answer 8

the two psychologists could carry out the content analysis of the films separately (they watch the clips and create the categories separately, agree on them and then do the analysis separately using the same data and same categories) and compare their answers looking for agreement (correlation of +0.8 or above = reliable).

Question 9

What is test-retest reliability

Answer 9

the psychologist could conduct the content analysis (including watching the clips and creating the categories) and then repeat the content analysis on a second occasion using the same data (e.g. Films) and same categories at a later date and compare the two sets of data looking for agreement (correlation of +0.8 or above = reliable).

Question 10

Strengths of thematic analysis

Answer 10

Don’t have to be present, avoids ethical issues e.g. needing consent as they have already opted to post the lonely heart ads publicly

Question 11

Weakness of thematic analysis

Answer 11

Lack of objectivity due to researcher bias - researcher may unconsciously select certain parts of the ads to analyse to fit their aim, or they may attribute meaning that the writer didn’t intent