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Volume 20, No. 2, Art. 27 May 2019

Developmentally Oriented Thematic Analysis (DOTA):

A Qualitative Research Method to Explore Meaning-Making

Processes in Cultural Psychology

Olga V. Lehmann, Kyoko Murakami & Sven Hroar Klempe

Key words: case

study; affect;

meaning-making;

microgenesis;

thematic analysis;

qualitative research;

cultural psychology;

journaling; silence;

developmentally

oriented thematic

analysis

Abstract: In this article, we introduce developmentally oriented thematic analysis (DOTA) as a

possibility to study the process-oriented aspects of qualitative data analysis when undertaking the

intra- and inter-individual analysis of case studies. We describe the main methodological

considerations of this approach as a method to study the multi-layered nature of affective processes,

which can recall both experiential and existential layers of meaning-making. We do so by analyzing

the diary entries of study participants who attended a course taught at a Norwegian university and

who used journals to reflect upon their experiences in class, such as the "silent time" they embraced

each morning. Process-oriented narratives give account of the coexistent directionalities of higher

psychological functions, and the degrees of differentiation or undifferentiation of the affective

processes involved in them. One aspect that facilitated such amplification of the multiple layers of

affective processes was the focus on silence-phenomena, due to the contrast they induce, and the

way in which they promote attentional shifts.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Towards a Developmentally Oriented Thematic Analysis

3. Case Study Research in Cultural Psychology

4. Developmentally Oriented Thematic Analysis: Insights From Microgenetic Approaches in

Psychology

5. Case Studies in Practice: Exploring Silence-Phenomena

5.1 Background of the study and research question

5.2 Tools for data collection

5.3 Study participants: First intraindividual movement

5.4 Study participants: First interindividual movement

5.5 Ethical considerations

6. Exploring Silence-Phenomena Through Developmentally Oriented Thematic Analysis

6.1 State- and process-oriented narratives: Second intraindividual movement

6.2 State- and process-oriented narratives: Second interindividual movement

7. Discussion

8. Conclusion

Acknowledgments

References

Authors

Citation

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

FQS 20(2), Art. 27, Olga V. Lehmann, Kyoko Murakami & Sven Hroar Klempe: Developmentally Oriented Thematic Analysis (DOTA): A Qualitative Research Method to Explore Meaning-Making Processes in Cultural Psychology

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Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research (ISSN 1438-5627)

1. Introduction

When it comes to psychology, researchers recurrently find it difficult to adequately

study the ambiguity, ambivalence and uncertainty that lie at the core of decision-

and meaning-making processes (ABBEY & VALSINER, 2005; LEHMANN, 2018).

This results in the need to "re-think the ways in which science can capture the

general features of the deeply affective subjective processes of intra-

psychological and inter-psychological kinds" (VALSINER, 2013, p.13). In practical

terms, there is a need for further methodological developments that support the

rigorous qualitative analysis of human phenomena. As qualitative researchers,

the most we can expect when collecting data is that our data are rich enough to

represent faithfully the experiences of our study participants. However, when

analyzing qualitative data such as interview transcripts or journal entries, it is

common to feel lost in the density of the pages one needs to summarize and

code to give an account of the complexity of the phenomena under study. It can

be difficult to categorize sentences that give an account of the coexisting layers

associated with said phenomena. According with previous research (LEHMANN,

2018), these sentences might evoke, for instance, the tension between the

diverse positionings of the self (e.g., I-as-a-good-student and I-as-a-mindfulness-

practitioner) that are simultaneously activated in the stream of consciousness.

They could also indicate the tension elicited by affective processes (e.g., I feel

frustrated but I also want to feel motivated). In other words, while linguistic

categories are sequential (e.g., a participant writes one word after another in a

journal), psychological processes are simultaneous (e.g., a plurality of processes

is occurring in the mind, and multiple layers of meaning are negotiated, both

consciously and unconsciously). Thus, with such a multi-layered quality of the

psyche that we aim to highlight, in this article we present a ground for

acknowledging and studying the aforementioned simultaneity, when textual data

are rich enough to acknowledge it. This multilayered nature of the mind gives

account of undifferentiated or nonarticulated aspects of cognition, meaning that

including a focus on the silent aspects of our experiences might be a possibility

for expanding the understanding of meaningmaking. [1]

We, the authors of this article, have been teaching qualitative research in

undergraduate and graduate programs. Good textbooks on research

methodologies address the fact that the research question the researcher is

attempting to address guides the selection of a method of analysis (SMITH,

2005). Thematic analysis is among the most used methods to analyze qualitative

data, as it provides an account of a process that all rigorous qualitative research

must undergo, that of identifying and developing categorizations that enable the

further understanding of the phenomena being studied (THOMAS & HARDEN,

2008). However, the paradox of thematic analysis, as far as our experiences

teaching and reviewing research articles for journals are concerned, is that it can

be mistaken as a shortcut that fragments the methodological cycle. Yet, instead

of being mistaken as a shortcut in the data analysis, thematic analysis can

facilitate the description and categorization of the data as a basis for further

interpretations and theoretical developments (BRAUN & CLARKE, 2006). [2]

20(2), Art. 27, Olga V. Lehmann, Kyoko Murakami & Sven Hroar Klempe: Developmentally Oriented Thematic Analysis (DOTA): A Qualitative Research Method to Explore Meaning-Making Processes in Cultural Psychology

http://www.qualitative-research.net/

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Qualitative researchers using thematic analysis can aim to convey connections

that are more explicit between a method of analysis and the methodology cycle.

By understanding in theory and showing in practice, researchers could focus on

methodology as a whole and not a fragmented state. The methodology cycle

emphasizes the processual aspects of analysis and generalization. That is,

making faithful generalizations of phenomena happens at the edge of the status

quo of current theories, and the empirical aspects that the data evokes

(LEHMANN & VALSINER, 2017). We present thematic analysis as a resource for

analyzing qualitative data in cultural psychology, although some approaches to

cultural psychology (VALSINER, 2007; ZITTOUN et al., 2013) are strictly

developmental, involving an explicit focus on explaining processes. Thus, the

main objective of this article is to frame further what LEHMANN (2018) coined as

developmentally oriented thematic analysis (here onwards DOTA). DOTA is an

attempt to increase the flexibility of thematic analysis as an analytical method to

capture the process of meaning-making as it unfolds in time. We elaborate on the

methodological aspects of the approach by drawing on the first author's doctoral

thesis, while using empirical material to illustrate the method we are hereby

describing in relation to the key principles of cultural psychology. [3]

Cultural psychology claims that affect is at the core of human experience, being a

priori to cognition (VALSINER, 2007). Thus, affective processes are energy

forces that either orient or disorient our higher psychological functions and

therefore also influence our relationship and actions towards others or ourselves

(SALGADO, 2007; VALSINER, 2007). We propose a developmentally oriented

thematic method, which would offer a possibility to look into the multilayered

quality of meaning-making processes and their affective nuances. In other words,

we strive to understand the psyche as a compound that allows for the conscious

and (or) unconscious coexistence of different layers of affective forces and

positionings of the self, the dynamics of which can evoke tension. [4]

In addition, microgenetic analysis and case study research are par excellence the

approaches for studying human development in cultural psychology (VALSINER

& VAN DER VEER, 2000; WAGONER, 2009). However, conducting a

microgenetic study demands deep knowledge of the theoretical models in cultural

psychology, where complexity represents a challenge for researchers when

undergoing data analysis. We are thus presenting DOTA, a developmentally

oriented approach to thematic analysis as an interlude between microgenetic

analysis and thematic analysis. We focus on the ambiguous, ambivalent and

uncertain aspects of meaning-making processes- and highlight their dynamic and

multilayered nature. In the next sections, we expand on these premises, and we

provide an example of how to undertake such an approach to qualitative

research. We do so by studying diary entries written in an interdisciplinary

Master's course that the first author taught at a Norwegian university. [5]

2. Towards a Developmentally Oriented Thematic Analysis

Thematic analysis is an interpretative approach to qualitative research based on

categorizing data into particular themes, with the aim of grasping the complexity

of meanings of the phenomenon under study (SMITH, 2015). There are several

variants to thematic analysis, such as inductive, deductive or semantic

approaches and one of the main benefits of using thematic analysis is that it is a

highly flexible framework within which to work (BRAUN & CLARKE, 2006;

SMITH, 2015), as it "can be widely used across a range of epistemologies and

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research questions" (NOWELL, NORRIS, WHITE & MOULES, 2017, p.2). Some

of the elements of applied thematic analysis include identifying key terms that can

be subsequently used to improve general theoretical models, thereby improving

both the evidence-based and theory-driven interpretations produced during the

research process (GUEST, MacQUEEN & NAMEY, 2012). However, there is still

a need to produce literature that focuses on the pragmatic aspects of using this

method of analysis rigorously (BRAUN & CLARKE, 2006; NOWELL et al., 2017).

In addition, some of the limitations of traditional methods of conducting thematic

analysis might require reducing the data into codes, subthemes and themes, and

researchers might be implicitly treating meaning-making as a state or an

outcome, instead of looking at it as a process in the making. Indeed, this is the

dilemma of most scientific quests, as reduction might be necessary for analytical

purposes, yet:

"The core issue of all holistic perspectives is the decision to recognize differences in

quality between levels of analysis of phenomena. If such differences are denied, it

becomes possible to reduce complex phenomena to their elementary components,

and assume that such reduction gives the investigator a key to making sense of the

phenomena" (VALSINER & VAN DER VEER, 2000, p.86). [6]

Hence, psychology needs methodologies that grasp qualitative transformations

that occur through irreversible time and that look at individuals as wholes

(WAGONER, 2009). This counts as well for the process of analysis of data, in line

with the methodology cycle. For example, data such as those coming from

interviews often refer to processes of co-construction taking place in the context

of the research, as study participants might have never thought about the

questions asked by the researcher, and such questions may change the course

of meaning-making in their lives (KVALE & BRINKMANN, 2009). Following this,

thematic analysis could provide explicit links between themes and the whole of

the narrative, which goes far beyond choosing words that appear unambiguous in

the data (ALHOJAILAN, 2012). Indeed, narratives are attempts to make sense of

a rather chaotic and illogical world (MURRAY, 2015), and thus, ambiguity and

uncertainty are not necessarily to be overcome in the analysis, being in

themselves crucial aspects of meaning-making (ABBEY & VALSINER, 2005;

LEHMANN & KLEMPE, 2017). Ambiguity and uncertainty are an existential given,

and any attempt to study meaning-making processes might create strategies to

focus on these qualities of the human condition and the ways in which study

participants embrace them (LEHMANN, 2018). In this vein of thought, the DOTA

aims to convey the processual quality of meaning-making, as well as create an

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opportunity to qualitatively study the ambivalence, ambiguity and uncertainty that

are part of meaning-making. [7]

3. Case Study Research in Cultural Psychology

Science develops in the space between both the abstractness and concreteness

of particular phenomena that might have generalizable qualities (KLEMPE,

2014a). Indeed, WINDELBAND (1998 [1894]) suggested an interdependence

between the general and the particular in research, even if he did not explicitly

emphasize theoretical suggestions for how to reach generalizations by focusing

on such interdependence (CASSIRER, 1968 [1932]; MOLENAAR, 2004). What

the German philosopher did suggest is that it is not only possible, but also

necessary, to generalize from single cases, as "the opposition of the everenduring

and the unique is in a certain sense relative" (WINDELBAND, 1998 [1894], p.13;

see also VALSINER, 2016). [8]

Historically speaking, case study research has been an important methodology

used to explore the psyche (FREUD & BREUER, 2004 [1895]; VYGOTSKY, 1993

[1929]), and in this spirit, cultural psychologists have preferred both qualitative

research and case study designs as a path to understanding sociocultural

processes (MOLENAAR, 2004; VALSINER, 2013; ZITTOUN, 2017). Cultural

psychology studies human development by focusing on the historical conditions

that underlie the interaction and dynamics between the self and others (ZITTOUN,

2017), and in this manner, the discipline conducts research following the premise

that: "universality is necessarily present in the particulars. In other terms, the

absolute uniqueness of each and every, never to repeat itself, life experience is

generated by a universal mechanism that operates in every person and

guarantees their development" (VALSINER, 2016, p.6). [9]

With the aim of achieving an accurate understanding of the particular in the

universal and of the universal in the particular, cultural psychology recalls

PEIRCE's notion of abduction, which integrates premises from inductive and

deductive logic (SALVATORE & VALSINER, 2008). Yet, to illustrate the

crossroads between the universal and the particular qualities of human life is a

great challenge. Thus, understanding abduction as an integrative insight requires

explicit acknowledgment of the imagination and of the active logical reasoning of

the researcher (ZITTOUN, 2017). The main approaches to thematic analysis are

either inductive or deductive (SMITH, 2015), and we applied abductive logic to the

study presented here. That is, during the preliminary intraindividual analysis of the

journals written by the study participants, we induced theoretical premises that

were expected to serve later interindividual explanations, while we deducted the

analysis of the case on latter versions of analysis, based on theoreticallydriven

themes. [10]

Cultural psychologists, when studying the nature of human development,

emphasize process-oriented research and functional explanations that provide a

wider understanding of goal-orientation (VALSINER, 2014). The question then

becomes how we can apply these premises of a case study oriented in cultural

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psychology into research practice. Researchers could do so by following an

abductive logic that enables them to test models and theories in such a way as to

loop back and forth between the particular and the universal within the

phenomena in question, looking for patterns and variations that give the sense of

the cyclical flow between data and theory (ZITTOUN, 2017). One crucial strategy

for achieving this goal in case study research is the amplification of the variability

of cases, so that instead of homogenizing such cases, as is often done in

psychological research (VALSINER, 2016), the researcher can prioritize the

richness of individual differences over large samples (VALSINER, 2015).

Comparing and contrasting cases can not only provide empirical support for

theories, but also help in the further development of said theories (SALVATORE &

VALSINER, 2008). Before discussing the challenges of comparing and

contrasting various cases though, it is necessary to understand as much as

possible about the richness of each case in itself. Thus, idiographic approaches to

research in cultural psychology put intraindividual analysis first, and only on this

firm foundation is it suggested to move on to the exploration of interindividual

variations (MOLENAAR, 2004). Thematic analysis, we hereby argue, can enrich

both intra- and interindividual analysis by offering an asset of themes that might

be present or not in other cases, giving account of the crossroads between both

the universal and the particular. [11]

4. Developmentally Oriented Thematic Analysis: Insights From

Microgenetic Approaches in Psychology

Because cultural psychology has a strong developmental focus, DOTA was

created in order to follow the multilayered nature of the trajectories of the

meaning-making process, and not just the outcomes of it. We acknowledge the

simultaneous coexistence of I-positions, thoughts, feelings and emotions, where

awareness in the stream of consciousness evokes tension. Process-oriented

perspectives in qualitative research are an invaluable tool for looking into the

tensions involved in meaning-making (ABBEY, 2012). Indeed, VYGOTSKY, and

other developmental psychologists, including WERNER and SANDER, shaped

the microgenetic method to study human activity as a developmental sequence of

ever-unfolding processes; yet, the generality of such an approach complicates

any research efforts in microgenetic studies (VALSINER, 2001). One of the main

potentialities of microgenetic methods, at least as WERNER framed them, is that

they can enable researchers to focus on the polysemic, paradoxical and

ambivalent character of symbols and meanings, given their affective-dynamic

nature (WERNER & KAPLAN, 1984 [1963]). However, contemporary cultural

psychology still faces the struggles of how to approach affective phenomena

through language, whether theoretically or empirically (LEHMANN, 2018). Indeed,

microgenesis, when studied through verbal reports, provides only glimpses of the

resources that a person may use to adapt to a context (VALSINER & VAN DER

VEER, 2000). These resources can involve meaning-making, decision making

and value adding, which are developmental processes that give an account of

higher psychological functions such as attention, memory and imagination. Thus,

verbal reports and written accounts can be resourceful data for cultural

psychologists, only if providing future-oriented directions and multilayered content

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that conveys the dynamic nature of these processes and their affective quality.

Precisely, DOTA emerged as a methodological strategy to study not only the

polysemy of meanings associated with silence-phenomena, but also their

polyphony. By polyphony, we understand the coexistent layers of tension that

form affective phenomena and that emerge between different positionings of the

self when presenting diverging goal orientations (LEHMANN, 2018). Affective

processes result from perceiving somehow undefined forces in tension, and

polyphony brings in a vertical axis to explore the simultaneous coexistence of

these forces, be it in the form of I-positionings, beliefs, feelings, emotions or

values (LEHMANN & KLEMPE, 2017). Thus, the implicit or explicit degrees of

tension in the human mind shape a sort of polyphonic present, where multiple

layers of meaning appear in temporal opposition and in different degrees of

differentiation (LEHMANN & VALSINER, 2017). Furthermore, approaches to

temporality in cultural psychology intend to understand how immediate

experiences gain (or not) stability (SATO, KASUGA, KANSAKI & WAGONER,

2015). That is, following the trajectories of the meanings, their effects and their

value orientations can give an account of the fact that "from a developmental

perspective, dynamic concepts precede static concepts" (WERNER, 1912 in

MÜLLER, 2005, p.34). [12]

However, conducting a microgenetic analysis of meaning-making, decisionmaking

and value-adding processes—which are in themselves processes that clarify

one's identity (LEHMANN, 2012)—requires that the data give an account of the

unfolding co-construction of psychological functions through time. In addition, a

profound understanding of specific theoretical models of high psychological

functions in cultural psychology might be a requisite for a rigorous analysis of

such data. Therefore, similar to the case of thematic analysis, few pragmatic texts

in the field demonstrate how to conduct a rigorous microgenetic study, especially

when analyzing writing processes. DOTA attempts to facilitate a microgenetic

focus on narratives, when possible. [13]

5. Case Studies in Practice: Exploring Silence-Phenomena

5.1 Background of the study and research question

The research question of the first author’s doctoral thesis, used here to illustrate

how to conduct a developmentally oriented thematic analysis (DOTA) is: What are

the possibilities for the theoretical integration of affect, as a core element of

human existence, into the heart of cultural psychology? Indeed, it is both the

nature of such a question, and the richness of the data collected that required a

different approach for analysis. DOTA emerged as a strategy to reveal the

polysemic and polyphonic nature of meaning-making processes (LEHMANN,

2018). That is, we understand the psyche as a multilayered compound of diverse

I-positions (HERMANS, 2001), whose dynamics can evoke tension. While the

notion of polysemy can indicate multiple meanings associated with statements

given by study participants, polyphony can give an account of the diverging

directionalities of their positionings or, even more, of the affective processes of

which the study participants are trying to make sense while writing about their

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lives in the journal entries. To explore these multilayered aspects of human

experience and existence, we used silence-phenomena (i.e., different

experiences associated with the word "silence") as magnifying glasses to look into

the tensions that form affective processes. These tensions cannot always be

articulated in linguistic categories, and sometimes a linguistic category might

reflect the plurality of meanings that a person is simultaneously making sense of,

while talking or writing. That is, silence-phenomena were used as tools to unveil

the polysemy and polyphony of affective processes. The premise underlying the

choice of these tools, is to expand the possibilities of language as a source for the

exploration of affect (LEHMANN, 2018). [14]

In particular, the first author of this article taught a class at a Norwegian university.

She taught this class twice, in 2015 with 23 students and once again in 2016 with

25 students. In addition to the experiential activities planned in the curriculum, she

created a silent time, where she and her students embraced diverse silent

experiences (e.g., poems about silence-phenomena, songs about silence-

phenomena such as a performance of 4:33 by John CAGE, which

(ZOOMOOZOPHONE, 2008 has made available). Following this, the students

were asked to reconstruct their experiences by journaling about them and then

asked to re-write their experiences using a poetic style, if possible. The students

also used their journals to reflect upon other experiences of the class related to

teamwork, and they wrote multiple times a day. [15]

5.2 Tools for data collection

Journaling was the main tool for data collection. By emphasizing that the writing

acts occur in irreversible time, students were asked to investigate their own

experiences during silent time immediately after it was over, in order to add a

developmental perspective to the data collected. In addition, the act of writing in

itself again occurs as a process, being future oriented. To follow such a

developmental focus more explicitly, students were advised to write without

thinking too much, as there were no "right" or "wrong" thoughts or feelings. They

were also advised not to erase anything, but to re-write sentences if necessary.

[16]

While analyzing the data, we prioritized the selection of journal entries that gave

an account of the processual character of writing acts to address meaningmaking

as it was unfolding while writing non-stop and without erasing. Examples of these

process-oriented narratives appear in Tables 2 and 3, in the data analysis section.

The choice of such an immediate and future-oriented reconstruction of

experiences came about from premises from the Würzburg School of studying

processes of thought through self-observation (BENETKA &

JOERCHEL, 2016; HUMPHREY, 1951; HOFFMANN, STOCK & DEUTSCH,

1996; WAGONER, 2013). This school focused on methodologies that prioritized

the active process of thinking, instead of merely looking at the products of

thinking, and they did so by means of analyzing rich quantitative data within the

interdependence between study participants and researchers (WAGONER,

2009). Precisely, in her doctoral dissertation (LEHMANN, 2018), the first author of

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this article used the themes of the internalization of silence-phenomena and

poetry and the meanings and effects of silence-phenomena to look into the

process of thinking among the students as it evolved in the context of the class,

given that the teacher-researcher was expecting that the students recognized the

presence of silence-phenomena and poetry in their daily lives and estimated the

impact of these experiences. [17]

Furthermore, from a developmental approach, journaling is a suitable method for

generating qualitative data of a developmental type, as "the text is principally

embedded in time as it is occurring to the participant; It is only retrospective in the

limited sense of recalling events shortly after they have occurred rather than

months or years later" (SATO et al., 2015, p.269). In addition, diaries enable

selfexploration and inner dialogue (LEHMANN, 2018). Diaries are an effective

methodological tool for accessing aspects of everyday life that are tacit and that

people usually take for granted or do not stop to reflect upon (ALASZEWSKI,

2006). This is the case for silence-phenomena, as researchers often

misunderstand them as failures of thought or speech that need to be overcome

(POLAND & PEDERSON, 1998). Thus, by journaling, study participants have the

opportunity to gain access to and reflect upon aspects of their everyday lives that

they take for granted. At the same time, by reading and analyzing journal entries,

researchers can gain access to the aspects of the inner speech and inner

dialogues of their study participants. When describing the use of personal

documents in research, ALLPORT (1942) explicitly linked their usefulness to case

study research. He suggested that either intentionally or unintentionally, the

author of such a document reveals information about the structure and functions

of mental life. So, highlighting that awareness is a highly individual process and

that it is experienced at different levels of intensities (HUMPHREY, 1951), the

richness of the books of reflections in the classroom are a uniquely helpful

instrument for collecting material for the case studies. Journals have repeatedly

been shown to be an effective tool for the study of the ways in which persons

interpret and give meaning to particular situations (ALASZEWSKI, 2006).

However, even if diaries enable researchers to learn about daily life practices and

experiences, they can also result in a reflection style influenced by the

expectations of what "should" be written for the researcher (KENTEN, 2010).

Discourses involve implicit or explicit addressees who might or might not

understand the content of what is being disclosed (GROSSEN, 2015), so the

researcher/psychologist might sense the dialogical nature behind the personal

entries of participants (ALLPORT, 1942). Keeping a diary is a dialogical process

that involves the reflections of the writer being mirrored back to the writer him- or

herself, and routine writing itself becomes part of the life world of the diarist,

facilitating meaning-making (MURAKAMI, 2014). The participants' journal entries

reveal the dialogical tensions that participants often disclose in a diary, including

both internal and external addressees, as it is possible to have auto-dialogues

that inform the researcher about changes within the self (GROSSEN, 2015). That

is, in the data, this tension can appear in the form of different I-positions, feelings,

emotions, values or beliefs that appear as opposing or contradicting and that

make a person turn to the quest of a decision to make, a meaning to make or a

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value to prioritize, while still acknowledging the other possibilities that could be

actualized. [18]

5.3 Study participants: First intraindividual movement

Eight students voluntarily donated their diaries for this study once each course

was over and after they had received their grades. Conducting a literature review

of the research theme (i.e., silence-phenomena) and creating new theoretical

models to approach it enabled the first author to give the basis for the codes and

themes to each of the eight cases individually. Some examples of these

theoretically driven modes of coding are: 1. silences in communication, such as

turn taking and what persons are thinking or feeling while attending to their turns

to speak (BRUNEAU & ISHII, 1988); 2. silence-phenomena as interdependent

with noise, sound, movement or language (KURZON, 1998); 3. the affective

arousals and (or) I-positions activated while experiencing silence-phenomena

(LEHMANN, 2018). This first round of coding was done manually by highlighting

and writing notes from the printed transcripts and transcribing the preliminary

codes and themes into a Microsoft Word file having separate columns for the data

excerpts and analytical remarks. Then, the word files were printed and the

preliminary codes and themes were revisited to achieve greater abstraction of the

categorization before moving towards the interindividual analysis. Whilst

undertaking the preliminary thematic analysis and abstraction of codes, the

teacher-researcher collected another set of data to address the question of how

enduring the impact of the class was a year after each of the courses was

finished. She contacted those study participants via e-mail to follow up in this

regard, and to also clarify information arising from the preliminary thematic

analysis. [19]

5.4 Study participants: First interindividual movement

Having created preliminary intraindividual codes and themes for each of the eight

cases under study, and due to the richness of the data, the study focused on the

four cases (two diaries per class) whose narratives diverged the most in terms of

making sense about silence-phenomena and poetry in the context of the class.

One strategy for achieving generalizations in case study research is focusing on

the richness of individual differences, and thus, amplifying the variability of cases

(VALSINER, 2015). As shown in Table 1, 128 of the entries written by Karin,

Dana, Dario and Marcia (these pseudonyms were used to refer to the

participants) were considered for analysis among the total entries that these

students wrote at class over the 15 days of the course, plus e-mail

correspondence. In the present study, the students filled out the diaries in the

mornings during the silent time, in the afternoons as part of the structure of the

course, and sometimes during the day as the result of the students' own

initiatives. These entries were categorized by frequency, independent of their

length. Some questions that guided this selection were: Which study participants

present more contrasting experiences? Which cases diverge the most in terms of

meaning-making processes and the meaning outcomes? Which cases diverge the

most in the ways in which feelings and emotions are portrayed? The preliminary

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codes and themes from the selected cases were transcribed into separate Excel

sheets at this point.

Occasions Study

participants class 2015

Study

participants class 2016

Karin Dana Dario Marcia

Silent time 12 14 14 14

Poems in silent time 10 1 0 6

Day reflections 3 4 8 9

Afternoon reflections 6 8 3 8

E-mail follow ups 1 3 2 2

Subtotal 22 30 27 30

Number of entries

selected for analysis

(out of total entries)

128

Table 1: The number of journal entries selected for analysis [20]

After selecting these four cases, the preliminary codes were revisited and themes

derived from the journal transcripts were examined through the lenses of these

theoretically driven themes: the internalization of silence-phenomena and poetry

and the meanings and effects of silence-phenomena. The main goal was to

explore the affective processes that appeared in relation to these themes, and

more specifically, whether these themes purposefully evoked a process

orientation. The first theme regards the internalization of silence-phenomena and

poetry through exploring the process of the co-constructive negotiation of

meanings (VALSINER, 2009). This is about the ways the students made sense of

their experiences within the context of the teaching goals of this university course.

The second theme concerns what happens after the students embrace and reflect

upon silent experiences in contrast with their own expectations and imagination,

which conveys a sense of directionality to the meanings they gave to

silencephenomena. In addition, we generated theoretically-driven subthemes after

working with the preliminary codes from the data. Some of these included

silencephenomena and self-exploration, silence-phenomena and the acceptance

of the uncertainty of life and silence-phenomena as room for affective experience.

[21]

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5.5 Ethical considerations

Informed consent in writing was obtained by the first author prior to conducting the

study. Confidentiality and anonymity of the participants' identities were ensured.

The coordinators of the course (that the first author was teaching) approved data

collection, given that the data were related to the class topics, that students

already used journals for reflecting on the context of these courses. Following the

teacher-researcher's information session, the students voluntarily signed a

consent form and agreed to donate their journals after the class was over and

after they had received their corresponding grades. In addition, this research

project received approval from the Norwegian Centre for Research Data (NSD) on

12 November 2014. [22]

6. Exploring Silence-Phenomena Through Developmentally Oriented

Thematic Analysis

6.1 State- and process-oriented narratives: Second intraindividual

movement

When conducting the intraindividual analysis of the four case studies in focus,

based on the journal entries of the study participants, we identified both

stateoriented and developmentally oriented narratives. We did so by writing the

data analysis from each case study separately, following the theoretically driven

themes, as well as any other emergent themes. For example, these are some of

the state-oriented narratives in Dario's case. This one corresponds to the theme

of the internalization of silence-phenomena and poetry.

"I find it really romantic, almost poetic (...) to take a look at the vastness of the

universe, helps me putting in context how futile and meaningless are certain

problems of the mankind :) And I would say, the outer space is quite silent" (Dario,

follow up, pp.12-13). [23]

Let us explore another example. One morning we watched a video of the

performance of 4:33 by John Cage (ZOOMOOZOPHONE, 2008). Here, the

musician stays still in front of a piano, without playing, for four minutes and

thirtythree seconds. Dario wrote:

"Only the movements of the spectators make the scene more real (...) it gives the

audience the possibility to focus on the background noise, highlighting the

importance of looking around what surrounds us. Silence is awkward and

overwhelming because we are attending to something new and for some reason

unexpected (...) time is subjective and few minutes can seem an infinite time when

living in an awkward moment" (Dario, silent time, Day 3, p.4). [24]

This excerpt was categorized into the theme the meanings and effects of

silencephenomena and the subtheme silence-phenomena and self-exploration. In

both excerpts, Dario is providing some philosophical reflections on the silent and

poetic qualities of the human condition. [25]

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In addition to a state-oriented analysis of the data, when the narratives of the

study participants conveyed a process-oriented insight into meaning-making, we

proceeded to put the excerpts into a table, listing the sentences in the order in

which the study participants wrote them by separating them with letters (e.g., [t1],

[t2], [t3], [t4], [t5], [t6]). This facilitated the analysis of the data, as one can refer to

each time sequence when interpreting or theorizing the results. The first author of

this article wrote down her analytical remarks of the data in a separate column.

Table 2 shows one of Dario's developmentally oriented narratives corresponding

to the theme the meanings and effects of silence-phenomena and the subtheme

silence-phenomena as a room for affective experience. As the excerpt continues,

Dario's writing process appears to be an effort to make sense of a silent

eyegazing experience with one of his classmates for four minutes. For instance,

Dario noticed how his attention was shifting outwards towards the other person or

the noises of the environment [t3], as well as inwards by engaging in a

selfexploration process of his impulses and somehow undifferentiated affective

categories, such as "quite uncomfortable" or "sense of imperfection" [t2, t4, t5].

This sense of imperfection appears, as well as a somehow undifferentiated

description of his own self-exploration process, which gives an account of the

implicit realizations of the unfinished and imperfect nature of the human condition.

That is, as soon as Dario noticed he felt "quite uncomfortable" [t2] and sensed a

"sense of imperfection" [t5], he is implicitly recalled not only existential layers of

meaning-making, but also their affective significance.

Participant's entry Analytical remarks

[t1] Staring at each other's eyes was

completely unexpected in today's silent

time.

Rupture of expectations

[t2] At the beginning, I found it quite

uncomfortable and I felt the need to do

something else with my hand as

movements.

Wanting to avoid engagement in the

experience due to uncomfortable feelings

[t3] Environmental noises and laughter

easily distracted us and changed our

experience. There were a few moments

like this.

External noise as distractor

[t4] I tried to read her through the eyes but

it was hard. I felt like her eyes were deeply

penetrating and could read my thoughts.

Self-consciousness about the interaction;

imagining the other

[t5] I felt a sense of imperfection. Experience of vulnerability

Table 2: Dario's reconstruction of the eye-gazing experience (Silent time, Day 7, p.6,

emphasis added) [26]

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6.2 State- and process-oriented narratives: Second interindividual

movement

To follow the interindividual analysis of the cases, we revisited the theoretically

driven and the emergent themes from all the cases, looking for possibilities for

reorganization. After having revisited all themes and subthemes, we moved on to

a further theorization of the data analysis, looking at the implications of the data

and possible generalizations. We did so by "braiding" each of the cases in the

interindividual analysis one by one. That is, we interweaved the intraindividual

analysis of the second case with the first one; the third one with the second and

first; and the fourth one with the third, second and first. However, due to the

length limits of this article, we exemplify just the comparison between Dario and

Dana's cases. Table 3 presents an excerpt from Diana's diary entry, in which she

provides a process-oriented description of her experiences while watching 4:33's

performance (ZOOMOOZOPHONE, 2008):

Participant's entry Analytical remark

[t1] Our own thoughts can make the world

and our life enough colorful and full of

emotions, even in the absence of noise and

external distractions.

Contrast between external and internal

stimuli

[t2] Silence helps to get closer to ourselves

and to get to know ourselves in a better

way.

Silence-phenomena as self-exploration

[t3] I felt disappointed that I didn't hear

anything and I had to think about my own

stuff instead of enjoying the good music.

Contrast between external silence and

internal noise/voices

[t4] Expectations ≠ reality Contrast between expectations and reality

Table 3: Example of Dana's self-exploration of silence-phenomena (Silent time, Day 2,

pp.1-2, emphasis added) [27]

In [t3], Dana provides an account of the simultaneous coexistence of layers of

meaning-making and the affective processes that form them. That is, she is

feeling disappointed in a twofold sense. On the one hand, she is disappointed

because she did not listen to any sounds in the musical performance. On the

other hand, she is also disappointed because of the attentional shift that such a

silent setting catalyzed and by the awareness of her "own stuff" or the inner

speech she was undergoing. Similar to Dario, such a silent experience also

enabled Dana to engage in a self-exploration process. In this process, she moves

from interpretations about silence-phenomena ([t1] and [t2]), to the specifics of the

video ([t3]) and from there to the generalization that expectations differ from

reality ([t4]). This, at the same time, enables her to acknowledge other settings

where the feeling of uncertainty guides her to stay quiet until she finds her way. It

is possible that the contrast between her expectations and her actual experience

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at class have elicited memories of different experiences of uncertainty, as well as

memories of the way Dana has silenced herself to solve them in the past, as she

specified in other entries of her journal. Such a self-exploration also indicates that

the video of CAGE's silent performance (ZOOMOOZOPHONE, 2008) enhanced

an attentional shift. Yet, while for Dario, such a video promoted a turn of the

attentional foci outwards—towards external noises and movements—for Dana, it

promoted a shift inwards—towards inner speech and memories. When recalling

statements about the ways she related to uncertainty and the contrast between

expectations and reality, Dana is also pointing implicitly towards the human

condition and, in doing so, towards existential and not just experiential layers of

meaning-making. [28]

7. Discussion

Journal entries and other types of qualitative data might be rich enough to

evidence both state-oriented and process-oriented nuances of meaning-making.

As our data suggests, focusing on process-oriented narratives gives account of

different levels of differentiation of affective processes. These levels of

differentiation vary from the perception of an affective arousal, to the

categorization of emotions, or the recognition of the impossibility to label such an

arousal into specific words (BRANCO & VALSINER, 2010). In particular, the

journal entries indicate degrees of ambiguity and (or) ambivalence in such

process of differentiation (e.g., "quite uncomfortable," "sense of imperfection,"

"awkward," or "overwhelming"). That is, rather than identifying with a particular

emotion, the participants indicate the directionalities of such affective arousals,

and the ways in which these directionalities appear in tension or not with different

positionings of the self or belief systems. There are at least two aspects of these

findings to be considered further. First, such tension between positionings of the

self gives account of the multi-layered quality of affective processes, which we

have introduced theoretically in this article. Second, the directionalities of such

mental activity in relation to affective processes resemble notions such as

polyvalence (BOESCH, 2007) or polyphony (LEHMANN, 2018). In a nutshell, the

polyvalence of actions indicates the plurality of intentions or directionalities that

coexist, while polyphony indicates the tension that emerges when the

directionalities are opposing or have diverging trajectories. Further theoretical

developments could address better integrating these notions in relation to

affective processes, and their implications for meaning-making and decision

making. [29]

Process-oriented accounts also show the development of self-exploration that

human beings might undergo when making sense of an experience that brings in

contrast and uncertainty. For instance, Dana uses linguistic labels such as

"awkward" or "overwhelming" to describe silence-phenomena and aspects of

affective processes that evoke tension. Indeed, silence-phenomena can be

experienced as awkward or overwhelming, as they open up a phenomenological

space of possibilities for the future. When relating to the unknown,

silencephenomena can amplify the perceptions of tension and uncertainty, which

are at the same time an existential given (ibid.). Thus, while engaging in a

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process of self-exploration through silent time, Dario and Dana are making sense

not only of silence-phenomena, but also of the human condition, such as

recognizing the uncertainty of life, they are implicitly recalling some existential

layers of meaningmaking, such as enlarging one's perspective on problems or

relating to uncertainty by also contrasting one's own expectations (ibid.). This is

so since ambiguity is not something one needs to resolve, but rather something

with which one can learn to coexist (DE BEAUVOIR, 2011 [1947]). In a similar

vein of thought, the ambiguity and the overwhelming quality of some silent

experiences can relate to the levels of differentiation of the affective arousals in

the stream of consciousness. That is, recognizing an affective arousal and

actually being able to identify with an emotional category are different levels of

semiotic regulation of affect (BRANCO & VALSINER, 2010). We further interpret

the ambiguity that might characterize narratives that are alike in terms of the

uncertainty that characterizes meaning-making processes and that demonstrate

the limitations of linguistic systems to clarify the multilayered quality of affect

(LEHMANN, 2018). It is possible that such ambiguity and uncertainty actually give

account of the simultaneous coexistence of affective arousals and I-positions in

the stream of consciousness, of which the participant is trying to make sense

while journaling (ibid.). [30]

In addition, we identified that silence-phenomena, due to the contrast they induce,

promote attentional shifts. Both the narratives of Dario and Dana reflect their

efforts to make sense of the unexpected aspects of such a silent setting by

becoming aware of the attentional shifts taking place in their stream of

consciousness (e.g. towards external noises in Dario, or towards inner speech in

Dana). In this sense, one of the main functions of silence-phenomena is that of

enhancing attention (ibid.), which is a higher psychological function not sufficiently

investigated in cultural psychology, as much as others such as creativity,

imagination or memory (WAGONER, 2017; ZITTOUN & GLAVEANU, 2016). [31]

8. Conclusion

In this article, we provided an overview of the use of thematic analysis, case study

research and microgenetic analysis in cultural psychology and offered a

developmentally oriented approach to thematic analysis as an integrative

approach to study journal entries among other types of qualitative data. This is

because DOTA provides room to explore both state-oriented and processoriented

aspects of qualitative data. In doing so, we have shown that when the intra- and

inter-individual analysis are incorporated into thematic analysis, can be a viable

method for cultural psychology due to its explicit developmental and idiographic

orientation to the phenomena in question on a research process. In a

similar vein, we have also attempted to make the microgenetic analysis, which

appears theoretically as the most faithful approach to studying human

development in cultural psychology, more accessible for researchers. We suggest

that this allows room for a more explicit focus on the methodology cycle, when

conducting analysis of data similar to that which we illustrated in this article. In

addition, we have highlighted some possibilities for integrating affective processes

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and meaning-making in their processual and multi-layered nature, which, in close

connection with developmental theories, helps researchers represent and analyze

the complexity of psychological functions. We hope that more researchers

befriend premises of cultural psychology and case study research by using DOTA

as a method to study the process of meaning-making. [32]

By means of presenting silence-phenomena as a magnifying glass to study the

tensions that form affective processes, we have suggested pathways for cultural

psychology to advance the theoretical exploration of affective processes, in

different degrees of differentiation, which reflect the possibilities and boundaries

of linguistic systems to give account of the complexity of psychological functions.

In this article we have argued for the multi-layered and processual nature of

meaning making, by also suggesting a process-oriented qualitative analysis. This

was done by means of highlighting that when studying the processes of

meaningmaking of experience, one is—either explicitly or implicitly—approaching

layers of existential meaning-making as well. Silence-phenomena enhance

attentional shifts, either outwards or inwards; therefore, they bring in possibilities

of selfexploration, where the ambiguity and uncertain character of the human

condition is also embraced. These multi-layered aspects of meaning-making on

which silence-phenomena shed light could also be further approached in the

development of qualitative methodologies, and theories in psychology as well.

[33]

We have given some methodological considerations for a developmentally

oriented approach to thematic analysis that can be used by psychologists or any

other researchers interested in the developmental nature of meaning-making

when analyzing narrative accounts, such as interview transcripts, pieces of

literature or journal entries. In some cases, the data we gather as researchers are

valid to answer our research questions, but they are not strictly as processual as

are others. DOTA enhances the quality of analysis with its developmental and

idiographic orientation, enabling researchers to assess both statements that

appear as outcomes of a meaning-making process, as well as those that

demonstrate the process in the making, which aligns with the theoretical tenets of

cultural psychology. Thus, DOTA emphasizes the possibilities of looking into the

process of meaning-making and its multilayered nature. Yet, a great part of the

success of this method of analysis comes from shaping theoretically driven

themes that evoke process-oriented aspects of meaning-making, decision making

or value adding. By evoking future-in-the-making and the intentionality of acts.

One of the limitations of this approach, as it is the case for a great part of

research focusing on affective processes, is that the written accounts from the

participants can oscillate between perceptions about personal reflections,

representations of affective processes and disclosure of affective processes in

themselves. One opportunity for improving this approach could be to better

theoretically integrate the notions of intentionality, directionality, polyvalence and

polyphony, which might give account of the multi-layered nature of the mind, and

the complexity of affective processes in relation to the tensions that such diverse

directionalities evoke in a person who is trying to make sense of a particular

experience, or of existence in general. Further research could consider

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alternating between journaling and interviewing, or even recording parts of the

class carried out in other settings. [34]

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Jaan VALSINER for his helpful feedback and suggestions on

the earlier versions of the manuscript. We are also grateful to Gabriela A.

ARCINIEGAS and Lars MANDELKOW for helping us with the translations of the

abstracts, and to Monique RICHARDS for proofreading the article.

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Authors

Olga V. LEHMANN, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow Contact: at the Department of Mental Health, NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Olga V. Lehmann

She also leads the Health and Compassionate Department of Mental Health programs at Pracademy. She is a poetess, Faculty of Medicine NTNU Norwegian teacher, psychologist and researcher interested in University of Science and Technology feelings and emotions, silence-phenomena, Olav Kyrres Gate 9, MFTS Building NTNU communication, poetic instants and wellbeing. She 7030, Trondheim, Norway has edited "Acompañar la finitud" (LEHMANN, 2014), as well as co-edited "Poetry and Imagined Tel.: +47 93804675 Worlds"

(LEHMANN, CHAUDHARY, BASTOS & E-mail: [email protected]

ABBEY, 2017) and "Deep Experiencing: Dialogues URL:

Within the Self" (LEHMANN & VALSINER, 2017). https://www.ntnu.edu/employees/olga.lehmann

Kyoko MURAKAMI, PhD, has worked as an Contact: associate professor in psychology at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Her research focuses Kyoko Murakami on social remembering, learning and identity, Department of Education examining language use and social relations in University of Bath practices of education and discourses of Claverton Down remembering. Her research draws on discursive BA2 7AY, Bath, United Kingdom psychology, cultural psychology and discourse analysis. Her recent educational research includes E-mail: [email protected] internationalization and a co-edited book titled "Dialogic Pedagogy" (SKIDMORE & MURAKAMI, 2016). Since 1998, she has been researching international reconciliation practices such as war grave pilgrimages by British veterans (e.g., MURAKAMI, 2014), family reminiscence (MURAKAMI & JACOBS, 2017), the materiality of memory (MURAKAMI, 2017) and the succession of memories of catastrophes and disasters in Japan (in progress).

Sven Hroar KLEMPE, PhD, is associate professor Contact: in psychology at the Department of Psychology NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Sven Hroar Klempe

Technology, Trondheim. His background includes Department of Psychology full professor in musicology, associate professor in media studies, teacher and journalist. His research Faculty of Social and Educational Sciences is

cross-disciplinary with an emphasis on the NTNU Norwegian University of Science and history

of psychology, culture and psychology, Technology theory of science, communication and music Edvard Bulls veg 1, Dragvoll, Bygg 12, 12.413

psychology. His recent books are "Kierkegaard 7491, Trondheim, Norway and the Rise of

Modern Psychology" (KLEMPE, Tel.: +47 73590956

2014b), and he also edited "Cultural Psychology of Musical Experience" (KLEMPE, 2016). E-mail: [email protected]

URL: https://www.ntnu.no/ansatte/hroar.klempe

Citation

Lehmann, Olga V.; Murakami, Kyoko & Klempe, Sven Hroar (2019). Developmentally Oriented Thematic Analysis (DOTA): A Qualitative Research Method to Explore Meaning-Making Processes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN2zcLBr_VM

http://www.pracademy.co/

https://www.ntnu.edu/employees/olga.lehmann

https://www.ntnu.no/ansatte/hroar.klempe

FQS http://www.qualitative-research.net/

in Cultural Psychology [34 paragraphs]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 20(2), Art. 27, http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/fqs-19.2.3190.

http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/fqs-19.2.3190