A psychology researcher is conducting interviews with individuals who have experienced significant life changes. She wants to analyze the data to uncover common themes regarding how these changes impact mental health. Which of the following best describes how she should approach her thematic analysis?

The researcher should first read all transcripts carefully to become familiar with the data, then create initial codes that capture meaningful units of meaning. She then collates similar codes into potential themes, reviewing and refining them so they accurately reflect patterns across participants. After defining and naming each theme, she should write a narrative that links the themes back to the research question and supports them with illustrative quotes. For example, if several participants describe “loss of identity” after a career change, that becomes a theme illustrated with a participant’s statement about feeling “different from who I used to be. ” Finally, she reports the themes, their relationships, and the evidence that supports them.