Content analysis

What content analysis is

Content analysis turns qualitative material into quantitative data by counting how often categories appear. For example: how many acts of violence occur in an hour of children's cartoons, or how often women and men are shown in caring roles in adverts.

It is a form of indirect observation: the researcher observes media or documents rather than people.

How to carry it out

1. Decide the aim and hypothesis, and choose a sample of material (e.g. 20 adverts shown between 4pm and 6pm).

2. Familiarise yourself with the material.

3. Create coding categories (operationalised), e.g. 'physical violence: hitting, kicking, using a weapon'.

4. Work through the material, tallying each time a category occurs.

5. Analyse the tallies with descriptive statistics and, if comparing groups, a test such as chi-squared.

Using two coders and comparing their tallies checks inter-rater reliability.

Evaluation

• Strengths: material is often publicly available, so few ethical issues; easy to replicate because the material stays the same; high ecological validity because the material is real.
• Weaknesses: choosing categories is subjective, so researcher bias is possible; counting loses meaning and context (why something happens); it describes rather than explains.
• Compared with thematic analysis: content analysis counts categories (quantitative); thematic analysis looks for patterns of meaning and stays qualitative.

Worked example

A researcher wants to compare violence in video games rated for children and adults. Outline a content analysis.

1. Sample: 10 minutes of gameplay from 10 child-rated and 10 adult-rated games.
2. Coding categories: e.g. shooting, hitting, killing a character, verbal threats, each defined.
3. Tally each category for each game, ideally with two coders to check reliability.
4. Compare totals for the two ratings using descriptive statistics and a chi-squared test.

Answer: Sample material, define categories, tally, check reliability, analyse.

Check yourself

1. Content analysis mainly produces which kind of data?
   • Brain scan images
   • Reaction times from an experiment
   • Quantitative tallies of categories
   • Only open-ended quotes
   Show answer

   Quantitative tallies of categories. It counts categories.

2. Which is the best coding category for a content analysis of TV aggression?
   • One character hits another
   • Nasty scenes
   • Unpleasant atmosphere
   • Bad role models
   Show answer

   One character hits another. It is specific and countable.

3. Why does content analysis usually raise few ethical issues?
   • It always uses animals
   • Participants are deceived
   • It often analyses public material rather than people directly
   • It is done in a laboratory
   Show answer

   It often analyses public material rather than people directly. No participants are directly studied.

4. Why is content analysis easy to replicate?
   • It has no categories
   • The same material can be analysed again by other researchers
   • It uses a different sample every time
   • It relies on memory
   Show answer

   The same material can be analysed again by other researchers. The material does not change.

5. How does content analysis differ from thematic analysis?
   • Thematic analysis always uses numbers
   • Content analysis can only be used on interviews
   • They are identical
   • Content analysis counts categories; thematic analysis identifies themes of meaning
   Show answer

   Content analysis counts categories; thematic analysis identifies themes of meaning. Counting versus meaning.

6. Explain one weakness of content analysis.
   Show answer

   Deciding the coding categories is subjective, so the researcher's own views may bias what is counted, and counting categories loses the context and meaning of the material.. Subjectivity or loss of meaning.

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Sources

• Pearson Edexcel International Advanced Subsidiary/Advanced Level in Psychology specification, Issue 5 (February 2021)
• Pearson IAL Psychology component guide: WPS02 (Issue 2, November 2024)
• Edexcel iA Level Psychology revision site: Qualitative data analysis

Last updated 8 November 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.