The thesis, the analysis was not solely concerned with extracting the essential features of accompanying spouses’ experience from research data, it also
considered the participants’ attempts to make sense of their experience (Brocki & Wearden, 2006; Eatough & Smith, 2008). With the use of IPA, the emphasis was directly on understanding the sense participants tried to make of their experience. In alignment with the IPA guidelines presented by Smith et al. (2009, pp. 82-103), my analysis developed from the descriptive to the interpretative through a series of stages. Given that the data from the participants and conference attendees represented two different phenomenological perspectives on the accompanying spouses’ phenomenon, they were treated as two different data sets and were analysed separately. All the verbatim transcripts were dealt with coherently, one at a time, thoroughly and equally. I began with the first interviews, following the IPA’s guidelines, as outlined below.
Repetitive reading and initial noting
Firstly, I repeatedly read each transcript several times without any interpretations or judgements to familiarise myself with the data and find a general sense of the participant’s account as a whole. It was worthwhile listening to the audio-
recording of interviews as well as reading the transcripts. This helped me form a more complete analysis as it reminded me of the sequence of the interviews and nuances of expressions.
Thereafter the original transcript was placed into a table format with two columns on the right-hand side and what I perceived as important words, parts of sentences or whole sentences underlined. Any significant comments and preliminary
interpretations were noted in the first column. The intent was to encapsulate idiographic and descriptive comments of what concerned the participant, how it did so, and the explicit meanings for the participant (Smith et al., 2009). While moving through the transcript, I also kept looking for strongly apparent common themes and attempted to check what they meant for the participant. This enabled
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me to generate a comprehensive set of comments along with my preliminary interpretations, which included similarities and differences, echoes, amplifications and contractions in the participant’s narrative (Smith & Osborn, 2008). The comments on the first transcript were used as a basis for the analysis of subsequent transcripts, thus the analysis was cumulative.
Developing emergent themes
At this stage, I mostly reviewed initial comments rather than transcripts to capture any emerging themes. Smith and Osborn (2008) advise that researchers unearth the ‘essential quality’ of what was found when transforming the initial comments into concise phrases. I attempted to identify emergent themes involved in the hermeneutic circle, what Smith et al. (2009) refer to in the paragraph:
…analysing exploratory comments to identify emergent themes involves a focus, at the local level, on discrete chunks of transcript. However, it also involves a recall of what was learned through the whole process of initial noting…the original whole of the interview becomes a set of parts as you conduct your analysis, but these then come together in another new whole at the end of the analysis in the write-up. (p. 91)
Accordingly, I repeatedly came back to the whole transcript to interpret pieces as part of the whole. I created concise themes underpinned by a cluster of initial comments, considering their theoretical connections and patterns in relation to the whole interview. I listed the emergent themes in the second column of my
analysis table. The emergent themes were normally described using the participants’ language in order to ensure the inductive nature of analysis. This process of analysis involved a close interaction between the researcher and the text which entailed attempting to understand what the participant said, but also drawing on the researcher’s own interpretative resources (Smith et al., 2009). The emphasis of this stage was on the interpretative demands of IPA.
Table 6 (page 111) resents an example of how I processed the data analysis
containing exploratory comments and the emergent themes. I coloured passages in the original transcript that I thought important. The exploratory comments’
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conceptual comments (underlined). It also shows the process of my immersion into the data throughout the process of IPA analysis.
Table 6 An example of developing emergent themes
Original transcript Exploratory
comments
Emergent themes I: So, travelling to conferences, to you, seems to
bring a lot of opportunity?
R: Yeah. It’s just an opportunity to travel for me. It certainly … it has nothing to do with learning anything about what the conference is about. Although I will sometimes look at his programme and we talk about was it a good meeting and he’ll say ‘Ah, you know, so and so gave a really good talk on this or that’. So, we do discuss sort of what’s happened at the meeting or, he’ll say ‘Ah, no, that was a pretty wasted morning’, yeah [laughs].
I: Ok. What does travel to his conferences with your partner mean to you?
R: It’s quite important because we both work a lot and we don’t tend to get away, um, by ourselves. So, it’s just a nice opportunity to spend some time
with [name] really, because it’s probably the only time we ever do goaway. We’ve just had a holiday,
but that’s unusual.
I: And why is that important to you?
R: Um … I think it’s important to any relationship, friendship, or other, to be able to spend some time together that’s away from the usual humdrum of work and housework, and study and kids, and all the rest of it. So, it’s a good opportunity to do that.
Opportunity to travel - The main purpose for Chloe to accompany.
PROMPT- MEANING OF CONFERENCE TRAVEL It’s just a nice opportunity to spend some time with. PROMPT- RELATIONSHP Having time together is important to maintain and/or enhance the quality of relationship. Giving support Developing shared interest Uniqueness of the conference travel experience The importance of time spent together on the satisfaction in relationship (CL 8, 159- 178)
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Connecting themes across emergent themes
Each emergent theme within the transcript was noted on a ‘Post-it’ note in the order it came up. I attached these notes to a larger piece of paper. This enabled me to explore how emergent themes related to each other. I moved the themes around according to conceptual similarities in representations or understandings
(Shinebourne & Smith, 2009). Some of the emergent themes were clustered together, when their connection made sense. Such clusters were given descriptive labels to easily form sub-themes. A table listed clusters, their names and sub- themes with identifiers, such as ‘prompt’ in Table 6 (p. 10), indicating where the themes could be found in the original transcript. Clusters and themes were checked with the primary transcript to clarify if the connections could also be made from what the participant actually said (Smith et al., 2009). During this process themes were discarded if they did not fit into the emerging structure or were not evidentially rich in relation to the research question.
At this stage, I could have used a software program such as Nvivo or AtlasTi which would have helped me to code themes as it looked for convergences and divergences across all cases (Bernard, 2013). However, I wondered about the use of a software program in an analytical process dependent on phenomenology and the iterative hermeneutic circle. Learning the program would have required much time investment, which I was reluctant to make if it would not enhance my analysis. Boland (2011) used NVivo 8 software on data during his IPA study of coping with multiple sclerosis. He reported that, although a useful tool to help organise the data and collect themes, such software could not be a substitute for his engagement with the data in a continued process of interpretation and
reflexivity. Thus, I chose not to use any such program with my study. I found that the traditional method I used yielded considerable detail, specifically during the circular interpretative back and forth between parts of the text and the whole.
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Looking for patterns across cases
Once I finished analysing the first interview transcripts, I set to work analysing the subsequent transcripts using the same process. In each analysis, I focused on the transcript’s individuality without fitting it into any prescribed or particular formula; thus I maintained the detailed and nuanced individual experience which is demanded by IPA (Smith, 1999a). I had fifteen interview transcripts, so my emphasis was to identify the key emergent themes for the whole group. Once two transcripts had been analysed, I began to cluster the most prominent emerging sub-themes into broad subordinate themes. This involved comparing and
understanding the convergences and divergences of emergent themes in the two transcripts. I found that some ‘second’ transcripts produced more themes than others, depending on the richness of the interview. Smith (2004) describes this process as cyclical in the sense that new emerging themes should be tested against earlier transcripts. Newly emergent themes thus enlightened, modified, or became sub-themes to previously elicited themes (Smith et al., 2009).
Recurrence of themes across cases was measured to decide which themes’ foci were important. Themes were not selected purely on the basis of their prevalence within the data but also on other factors, including the richness of the passages that highlighted a theme and how the theme helped to illuminate other novel or surprising aspects of the account (Smith & Osborn, 2008). Shared themes containing lower level themes were categorised in the form of consistent and meaningful statements implying the core meanings and essences of the
participants’ experiences grounded in their own words (Smith & Osborn, 2008). However, I still concentrated on particular individual examples, which helped develop new themes.
This process of inductive movement, shifting from the particular to the general and revising, led to the emergence of three key themes. Table 7 (page 114) presents an initial version of a master list of themes. I modified themes a number of times as a result of the development of my understanding during the analysis of data. The final version is presented in the findings chapter.
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Table 7 Initial version of a master list of themes
Key themes Sub-themes
Relationship The nature of the relationship Shared experience or memories Giving support/show of devotion Intimacy/togetherness
Own time Self-sufficiency/ ability to be on one’s own Social relations
-The importance of VFR -Building relationship Changing roles
-Social inclusion vs. social exclusion -The dilemma in status
- The chance to know spouses’ work Uniqueness of the
conference travel experience
The sense of luxury Serendipity
The availability of own time Ethics