Chapter 4 Research Methodology
4.5 Analysis
Typically, the analysis stage of IPA has been described as an iterative inductive cycle (Palmer, 1969), which proceeds by drawing on the strategies outlined in Table 7 overleaf.
Although hermeneutics was employed as per the process outlined in Table 7, extant literature on IPA does not prescribe a single ‘method’ for working with testimonials. Consistent with many other approaches in qualitative social work research, the essence of IPA lies in its hermeneutical focus (Heidegger, 1999). As shown in the previous chapter, IPA’s focuses the researchers attention towards the grammatical and psychological aspects of the transcripts in order to make sense of a reported experience (Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2009). Using the hermeneutic circle, IPA can be characterised by a set of common processes and principles that are applied flexibly, according to the analytic task.
Within the repertoire of strategies outlined in Table 7, there appeared considerable room for manoeuvre. Therefore, in order to focus the on the specific method of analysis used in this study, the following sections provide a description of how this framework was applied. Given IPA’s idiographic commitment (Smith & Osborn, 2003), this study followed each step of the analytical procedure with each case in isolation before moving to the second, and so on. Choosing the first case to be analysed in the way that is described followed the advice of Smith (2009), and was based on the researcher’s assessment of the transcript that appeared to be the most detailed, complex and engaging.
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Table 7: The IPA iterative and inductive analytical cycle
1. The close line-by-line analysis of the experiential claims, concerns, and understandings of each person.
2. The identification of emerging patterns within this experiential material, emphasising convergence and divergence, commonality and nuance, usually for single cases, and then subsequently across multiple cases.
3. The development of a ‘dialogue’ between the researchers, their coded testimonials, and their social knowledge, about what it might mean for people to have these concerns, in this context leading in turn to the development of a interpretative account.
4. The development of a structure, frame, or Gestalt, which illustrates the relationship between themes.
5. The organisation of all this material in a format which allows for analysed data to be traced back through the process, from initial comments on the transcripts, through initial clustering of thematic development, into the final structure of themes.
6. The use of supervision, collaboration, or audit to help test and develop the coherence and plausibility of the interpretation.
7. The development of a full narrative evidenced by a detailed commentary on data extracts, which takes the reader through the interpretation, usually theme-by-theme, and is often supported by some form of visual guide (a simple structure, table or diagram).
8. Reflection on one’s own perceptions, conceptions, and processes. (Adapted from Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2009: 79-80)
Step 1: Reading and Re-reading
The first step of IPA analysis required the researcher to ‘actively engage’ with the testimonial selcted (Smith, 2007: 82). This process involved the repeated reading of transcribed interviews and regular reflection on the recorded interview. The aim of this process enabled the researcher to enter the reported ‘lifeworld’ (Husserl, 1999) of the speaker, and understand how the narratives were being used to bind certain sections of the interview together. This close reading also facilitated an appreciation
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of how a sense of rapport and trust was building across an interview , thus highlighting the location of richer and more detailed sections, or indeed contradictions and paradoxes. Finally, the researcher was enabled to reflect on his interview techniques more generally, and consider how the general flow or rhythm may have contributed to the overall interview process in order to develop his skills for subsequent interviews.
Step 2: Initial noting
Step 2 was the most detailed and time-consuming aspect of analysis. It examined the semantic content and language used on an exploratory level. This required the researcher to epochè presuppositions whilst noting anything of interest within the transcript (Palmer, 1969; Bailey, 1994; Clandinin & Connelly, 1998). This process ensured that the researcher developed a growing familiarity with the transcript, and began to identify a specific Gestalt (Heidegger, 1999), by which the speaker was seen to reflect, understand, and think about their experience of being in care. In recognition of the advice of Smith, Flowers & Larkin (2009) that a person’s lived experience is a complex and dynamic phenomenon, this stage of analysis was carried out with each separate transcript three times over a period of twelve months. Each time, analysis started off with a blank sheet. On completion of each analytical stage, notes were compared to previous analysis to develop an understanding of the core features of the transcript.
The systematic method used in the analysis was close to Heidegger’s (1999) description of ‘free textual analysis’. As there are no prescribed rules for this, only the aim to state what was going on in the text (ibid.), an attempt to stay close to the meaning inherent in the text, and that of the speaker, became paramount. Care was taken to avoid making conclusions, or value based judgements about what the speaker was saying or inferring, or not saying or inferring. In order to achieve this, analysis was conducted by using three different types of font to identify discrete focuses with each testimony. These focuses were:
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Descriptive comments focused on describing the content of what the person has said and the subject of the narrative within the transcript (Normal font);
Linguistic comments focused upon exploring the specific use of language (Underlined font); and
Conceptual comments focussed on engaging at a more interrogative and conceptual level (Italics).
(Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2009: 84)
What follows in Table 8, is a brief and curtailed extract of this stage of the analysis process. As the left hand column of Table 8 shows, each page and line of initial noting was formatted with a separate number to enable clearer referencing and coding. The hard copy of the transcript was also formatted with wide margins for initial comments on the descriptive, linguistic, and conceptual content of the transcripts to be made.
Once the transcript had been analysed and coded, a comprehensive exploratory commentary was made on similarities and differences that were identified in an attempt to recognise potential amplifications or possible contradictions in what the person was saying. This required reflective analytical dialogue with each line of transcript, asking what each word, phrase, and sentence meant. Whilst Flick (2009) recommends that this stage could also be completed with the speaker through a process of ‘member checking’, this option was not available to the researcher as each person declined the invitation to be involved in this process.
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Table 8: Stage two of analysis: initial coding
Exploratory Concepts Original Transcript
1. Handing Mary over, their precious jewel, and then parents dismissed. Attachment, separation and loss at the age of 4
2. she would be given a better life? Did they feel guilty about their own way of life. Their skills as parents. What about their position within the community. Were they successful and acting in Mary’s best interest?
3. Scrubbed
4. The act of being pushed into a bath, against her own wishes? What would be the
impact on mental health?
5. Being told she needed a wash because she was
culturally/spiritually/politically/socially dirty. How does this impact on mental health?
6. Carers cut off her cultural identity. Severing her ties? Cutting her out?
7. Being told her hair was dirty because it made her stand out as a Traveller. Being
made to feel dirty about herself and Traveller people?
8. Nuns, God’s servants on earth making her feel like they were right and she was in the wrong. Nun’s saving you from your culture, because your culture as a Traveller was wrong. Was offensive to God. How could this have conflicted with
her own religious mores as a Traveller female?
9. Being saved from herself as a Traveller. How could his make her feel about herself? In need of saving. The development of attachments.
10. Going to make you settled. Turning her into something else. What was she before?
11. Proud of the fact that the nuns were not able to achieve their aim of making her a settled person
12. Times when I could have. Was Mary in charge of this decision? Exercising the only bit of power she had. Meeting families but what about keeping contact with
her own family.
13. Meeting lots of different families. Feeling unwanted, masqueraded, as a chattel
for settled people.
14. Buying a dolls house. Being given gifts, or being bought by settled people
I remember as soon as they were gone I was pushed into a bath and scrubbed because they told me I was dirty because I was from a Traveller family...I had beautifully thick, long Black hair. If you stood me in a line with the other girls you could tell that I was a Traveller because of my hair. The care workers cut it all off, as short as yours, because they said it was dirty. The house was run by nuns and care workers, but the nuns were in charge and they made you feel like they were doing you a favour, and that they were saving you from and awful life because you were a Traveller, and they were going to make you into a settled...But they weren’t able to. They weren’t able to. There were times when I could have gone to live with a foster family. I met with a lot of families. I remember one family that I could have lived with buying me a large dolls house.
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Step 3: Developing emergent themes
Although the interview transcript retained its central place in terms the human voice, the comprehensive exploratory commenting of stage 2 meant that the amount of information and analysis grew substantially. In developing emergent themes, the researcher attempted to reduce the volume in detail whilst maintaining complexity of the testimony by mapping the interrelationships, connections, and patterns that were seen to exist between the stage 2 exploratory noting. This involved an analytical shift to working primarily with initial notes rather than the transcript itself. However, the exploratory commenting completed in stage 2, enabled all notes to be closely tied to the original transcript.
In line with the advice of Clandinin & Connelly (1998), the main task during this stage was to turn notes into emergent themes in an attempt to produce a concise statement of what was important in the various comments written in the left hand margin. Themes were expressed as phrases, which reflected the psychological and social essence of the reported experience by focusing on the need to capture what was crucial, not only to each specific part of the text, but in relation to the whole testimony. This process was closely linked to the hermeneutic circle described by Heidegger (1962), where parts of the transcript are interpreted in relation to the whole. A working example of this is shown in the right hand column of Table 9.
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Table 9: Stage three of analysis: Developing emergent themes
Exploratory Concepts Original Transcript Emergent Themes
1. Handing Mary over, their precious jewel, and then parents dismissed. Attachment, separation and loss at the age of 4
2. she would be given a better life? Did they feel guilty about their own way of life. Their skills as parents. What about their position within the community. Were they successful and acting in Mary’s best interest?
3. Scrubbed
4. The act of being pushed into a bath, against her own wishes? What would be the impact of this on mental health?
5. Being told she needed a wash because she was
culturally/spiritually/politically/socially dirty. How does this impact on mental health?
6. Carers cut off her cultural identity. Severing her ties? Cutting her out? 7. Being told her hair was dirty because it made her stand out as a Traveller.
Being made to feel dirty?
8. Nuns, God’s servants on earth making her feel like they were right and she was in the wrong. Nun’s saving you from your culture, because your culture as a Traveller was wrong. Was offensive to God. How could this have conflicted with
her own religious mores as a Traveller female?
9. Being saved from herself as a Traveller. How could his make her feel about herself? In need of saving. The development of attachments.
10. Going to make you settled. Turning her into something else. What was she before?
11. Proud of the fact that the nuns were not able to achieve their aim of making her a settled person
12. Times when I could have. Was Mary in charge of this decision? Exercising the only bit of power she had. Meeting families but what about keeping contact with
her own family.
13. Meeting lots of different families. Feeling unwanted, masqueraded, as a chattel
for settled people.
14. Buying a dolls house. Being given gifts, or being bought by settled people
I remember as soon as they were gone I was pushed into a bath and scrubbed because they told me I was dirty because I was from a Traveller family...I had beautifully thick, long Black hair. If you stood me in a line with the other girls you could tell that I was a Traveller because of my hair. The care workers cut it all off, as short as yours, because they said it was dirty. The house was run by nuns and care workers, but the nuns were in charge and they made you feel like they were doing you a favour, and that they were saving you from and awful life because you were a Traveller, and they were going to make you into a settled...But they weren’t able to. They weren’t able to. There were times when I could have gone to live with a foster family. I met with a lot of families. I remember one family that I could have lived with buying me a large dolls house.
Precious jewel
Washing away identity Washing away human rights
Self-perception Cutting away identity Verbal abuse Ridiculed
Penalty of Philanthropy Conflict of Values Religious confusion
Power over the nuns Power in self Power over potential foster carers.
Power over other children
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Step 4: Searching for connections across emergent themes
By reaching stage 4, the analytical process established a set of themes within the transcript. Once established, these themes were ordered chronologically, that is in the order that they emerged from the transcript.
The next stage of analysis involved the development charting and mapping of how the researcher saw the themes fitting together (Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2009). Reflecting on these themes, the researcher attempted to identify any common links between them, and then re-order them in a more systematic way using ‘analytical and theoretical reflection’ described by Langdridge (2007:111).
During this process, some themes, which closely followed the questions on the research schedule, appeared to cluster easily together, whilst others required additional review and consideration. In the case of the latter, themes that appeared to be subordinate, or subsuming others, were not cast aside, but used throughout the process of analysis to re-order and re-code themes. An example of the resultant table of emerging themes is presented in Table 10, overleaf.
This process also required the researcher to reflect repeatedly on the original testimonial to check the emerging analysis and the accuracy of interpretation. Langdridge (2007) describes this stage of analysis as the point when the researcher is able to produce a table of themes in a coherent order. As shown in Table 10, the themes that appeared through analytical and theoretical reflection were appropriately named and each theme linked directly to the originating text through reference to specific key words highlighted through page and line numbers.
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Table 10 Emerging superordinate themes and themes from one person’s interview
Themes Page/Concept No Key words
1. A Rite of Passage Separation
Ceremonious preparation Washing away identity Cutting away my identity Isolation Transition Internalisation of stereotypes Loss of self-esteem Ashamed Powerless Complete vulnerability Dependency on abusers Blame Incorporation
Loss of Traveller Values Diluted identity Shame 2. A Will to Power Fighting incorporation Power Self-sacrifice Choice Unity in Adversity Hope Relationships Identify Love Mental health Power of identity Being a survivor Self-Harm
False promise of education
Vindication Stoical resilience Independence 4.26 5.27 5.30 7.41 8.50 7.41 7.42 4.21 13.75 13.75 10.63 7.41 17.113 10.61 6.35 12.70 11.68 14.85 14.88 14.87 15.92 17.110 16.100 16.100 13.77 18.120 15.94 getting ready scrubbed cut it all off
didn’t know your family
embarrassing settled values no expectations
unable to make a choice dog’s life
humiliated Systematic abuse
making a fool of myself losing culture
crying to go home
smashed it up I was bold I wouldn’t talk
with other children close friends feel normal love
nobody wants you difficult to live with I cut my breasts
supposed to educate me
Fuck them Make choices
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Step 5: Moving analysis to the next testimonial
As this study collected information on the lived experience of ten people, the next step of the analytical process involved moving to the next testimonial, by repeating steps 1 to 4. Here, Smith, Flowers & Larkin (2009) advise that within IPA it is important to treat all cases in their own terms in order to do justice to their own sense of individuality. This meant as far as possible, analysing each testimony separately so that the ideas and themes that had emerged from the preceding analysis did not influence the hermeneutic process (ibid.).
Step 6: Looking for patterns across testimonials
Once every transcript, letter, email, and poem had been analysed, the next stage of analysis involved looking for patterns across all cases (Heidegger, 1999). This required the researcher to reflect on the connections between the lists of themes identified in stage 4, including those that appeared to be the most powerful. This was achieved by identifying the themes which could illuminate different cases (Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2009).
Table 11 shows this process in the form of a ‘table of themes’ by illustrating the themes for each person. Here secondary questions became useful to enable the researcher to recognise, for example, themes or super-ordinate themes, which were particular to individual testimonials, but which were also representative of higher order concepts that people shared. In order to establish a set of individual superordinate themes that could be representative of the whole, analysis was not completed in a linear process, but rather a hermeneutical circular one (Palmer, 1969). The researcher achieved this process by moving backwards and forwards through the text and continually reflecting on the original testimonial.
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Table 11 Recurrent Themes
Through entering and re-entering the hermeneutic circle, the researcher reflected on the primary research questions. To answer these questions assuredly, the researcher continuously followed the advice of Smith (2004) who encourages the researcher to read, and re-read the testimonials and resultant analysis. The aim of this technique serves to ensure that the answers provided to the questions were in keeping with peoples own experiences and articulations of their meanings as honestly as possible. By remaining committed to this advice, the analysis process allowed the researcher to access deeper levels of the hermeneutic circle, and
Super-Ordinate Themes Pseudonyms Present in half the Sample M a ry J os e ph in e M ic ha e l Sa rah Em m a Li s a Hel e n Ruth Pe te r La ura Social intervention
Yes No Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes