Kate Gerrish

PhD MSc BNurs RGN RM DN Cert

Senior Research Fellow in Nursing

Shef®eld Hallam University

Shef®eld, England

Transforming Qualitative Information±

Thematic Analysis and Code Development

by Richard E. Boyatzis. Sage, Thousand

Oaks, California, 1998, 202 pages, £14á99,

ISBN 0 7619 0961 3.

It is refreshing to read an account of a very

practical approach to the perennial debate

in social research about qualitative versus

quantitative methods. Boyatzis, a social

psychologist, does not seek to debate the

merits of one paradigm over another, and

says that this is not a book to convert the

`qualiphobe or quantiphobe'. Instead, he

outlines how data gathered using qualita-

tive methods can be transformed into

quantitative formats. A well written pref-

ace outlines the content and genesis of the

book. The ®rst chapter deals with the

`codable moment' and discusses how

competence may be gained in thematic

analysis via the stages of sensing themes,

developing reliability, developing codes,

and interpretation, with a neat analogy to

the process of learning a foreign language.

Chapter 2 turns to the subject of develop-

ing themes and codes in more detail, with

a useful discussion of theory-driven, prior-

research-driven and data-driven coding

schemes. Chapter 3 discusses sampling

issues, while chapters 4 and 5 compare the

use of an existing code with the inductive

method of code development. Chapter 6

turns to the translation of themes into

quantitative data, and chapter 7 looks at

issues of reliability in thematic analysis.

The book concludes by highlighting some

of the potential personal and profession-

wide problems and challenges raised by

thematic analysis.

A major strength of the book is the use

of examples from a wide range of disci-

plines, such as dream analysis, as well as

some longer illustrations from Boyatzis'

own ®eld of organisational behaviour

research. Several chapters contain mate-

rial, such as interview transcripts, which

has been selected for use as practical

exercises.

The book contains an unspoken

assumption that thematic analysis is the

missing link between the worlds of qual-

itative and quantitative research. Whilst

it is certainly an important communica-

tion channel, it is not the only or the

ideal means of translation. Furthermore,

Boyatzis assumes that qualitative

research ®ndings must be translated in

order to be understood and accepted in

the positivist paradigm. Far from aiding

the integration of the two paradigms,

overuse of this method could lead to a

diminution of the appreciation of the

inherent value and richness of qualitative

data. The challenge to qualitative

research must be how to interpret data

without diluting its richness, and the

reader is left unconvinced that thematic

analysis can achieve this. The book

would have been considerably enhanced

by a discussion of this issue.

Whilst the die-hard qualitative

researcher should not assume that

thematic analysis provides all the insight

they need into the foreign country of

positivist tradition (or vice versa), this

book provides some excellent material to

get researchers talking to one another. This

text is not one for the novice researcher,

but would be a useful and inexpensive

purchase for nursing researchers or those

planning to undertake postgraduate

studies.

Josephine M.E. Gibson

MSc BSc RGN

Vascular Nurse Practitioner

Southport and Formby NHS Trust

Southport, England

Special Research Methods for Gerontology

by M. Powell Lawton & A. Regula Herzog.

Baywood Publishing Company, Amity-

ville, NY. 1989, 332 pages, $39á95, ISBN

0 89503 061 6.

This book, nearly ten years old, appeared

recently in a catalogue undated and was,

therefore, ordered for review. However,

this reviewer, who works in the ®eld of

gerontology, was very glad to receive it

and cannot ®gure out why he never saw it

before Ð particularly in view of the editors

who are very well known. Without

hesitation, I can recommend this book to

anyone carrying out research with older

people because it is very comprehensive,

scholarly and useful. The book is helpfully

divided into two parts with two sections in

part 1 and three sections in part 2. Part 1 is

on general methods applicable to geronto-

logical research and part 2 is on longitu-

dinal research which is a much neglected

area in most research books. The sections

cover, broadly speaking, the issues of

sampling, speci®c methods of data collec-

tion, maintaining subjects in longitudinal

research, advanced multivariate statistical

techniques and a conclusion. Each section

is prefaced by a useful introduction but

one fault of the book is that it lacks an

index.

A fundamental problem in gerontologi-

cal research is obtaining a representative

sample. This is a problem in any area but

is much greater in older people due to the

diversity of circumstances, health, cogni-

tive function and attrition. Some of the

standard techniques of obtaining data are

also more problematic with older people

and these are reviewed, as are some tech-

niques which can speci®cally enhance

data collection.

The section on longitudinal research

contains a description of the ambitious

and successful Baltimore longitudinal

study of ageing which was initiated in

1958. There is a clear description of what

the study is concerned with and the types

of data collected. Frankly, reading this

material and then the problems inherent in

longitudinal research of any type it is truly

remarkable that the Baltimore study has

been such as success. The statistical meth-

ods are hard going for the uninitiated but

do demonstrate that, if one is getting into

this area of research, especially using

longitudinal designs, then some of these

techniques have to be mastered.

Roger Watson

BSc PhD RGN CBiol MIBiol

School of Nursing,

University of Hull,

Hull, England

Media reviews

Ó 1999 Blackwell Science Ltd, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 30(3), 769±773 773