Ok basically I have a study that looks for themes in a set of interview data. I have found themes A, B, C and D across all the interviews and have quotes etc to back these up. However, I also have a 'hunch' that there is factor E that is important for the outcomes of these interviewees. However, none of them say anything about it, so no quotes that illustrate it. I would say Factor E is a personality type - so they don't elude to it, i didn't test them on it, I can just say that I think its important!??

In my findings can I say that A, B, C and D were themes and I have a vague feeling that E might be important? - how do I phrase this! or do I just ignore E and pretend it doesn't exist?

omg I'm so useless! (turkey)

Hey Sneaks! I am only at the beginning of looking at my interview data so this is a very amateur reply! Clearly you can't put it in as a theme, but is there any way you could mention this factor in the discussion somehow? Is your hunch based on something specific or is it a complete hunch, if you get my drift? If it is based on something then perhaps you could explain in the discussion why you think this factor is influential, and maybe suggest that future studies could look at it? Or you could highlight it as a 'limitation' of your study and suggest a way forward for looking at this factor in more detail? I think you should mention it, and do it in a positive way whilst acknowledging that at the moment you don't have the data to back it up. I'm sure other people more experienced than me might be able offer you more help! KB

I know very little about themes etc but I think Keenbeen's approach sounds sensible. I'd be wary of putting it in as you could come under criticism for not measuring things like personality types if they turn out to be influential, but if it was included in the discussion with ideas for future work then I thnk you'll have covered yourself.

well my second study leads on from this - my first study is qual and then I quantify the findings in the second. I haven't technically measured factor E, but I have in a round about way.

I guess I'm just stuck on the wording of how to say its important. I'm not used to saying the word 'I'. I really want to say "I have a hunch this is important too" but can't say that!

something along the lines of .... although not explicitly mentioned by the particiapnts, their answers suggest that a fifth factor may also be important...

or something like that. i don't like using "I" either. In my ugrade report I got criticised for using "we" whihc suggests I don't have ownership of the work.

Hmmm...could you not sort of say that 'it is possible that A, B, C & D are also influenced by/interact with other factors, such as E and F'? Iis there anything in the literature that might offer some indirect support for your hunch, or any other researchers who have mentioned this possibility but not researched it yet? Then you could ponder this possibility in your discussion with some reasons why you might think this might be so? KB

basically I want to say that people who come across as having 'Factor E' seem to be more successful (although there is no actual measure that they are - its just a hunch) arrgh!

I think I may have to put something like "participants who were more satisfied with XYZ seemed to have Factor E, although this was not measured blah blah blah"?

If factor E is a mediatory factor that you have not directly measured can you assert and justify your insight using any supportive literature in the discussion? Sometimes, as I've found, qualitative data analysis is great for uncovering such insights but by the time you have it's too late to do anything about it. Hindsight...[insert cliche here].

Factor E is definitely all over the literature. The study was basically a load of interviews. I had to find the themes that people thought made them successful or unsuccessful. SO none of them mentioned Factor E (personality type), but some just came across more like they were Factor E type of people and I got the hunch that they were more successful - although objectively they were at the same success level as everyone else. The literature would say that Factor E people are more successful. But I don't want to say, 'cos the literature says' cos my whole argument thus far has been - everything so far has just tried to confirm what the literature says and no one has actually qualitatively looked at this to find the actual underlying stuff!

Then perhaps you could discuss your thoughts about factor E in the discussion (in the context of 'there may be other factors which influence blah blah') refer to other research which has supported this hunch, state that your research to date hasn't specifically addressed this question although there is some evidence that your hunch might be the case, and highlight the need for future research (maybe of your own) to examine this factor in more detail, and perhaps suggest how one could go about doing this research. Then you get to write about your hunch in a positive, moving forward sort of way...maybe? KB