Psychology21 papers
LLMs in qualitative psychology
Emerging applications of large language models in qualitative psychological research methodology as well as the critics.
ES
Evgeny Smirnov
All Reviews
PsychologyNiche
intermediate
Performing an Inductive Thematic Analysis of Semi-Structured Interviews With a Large Language Model: An Exploration and Provocation on the Limits of the Approach
Paoli, Stefano De (2023)
- Published
- Dec 7, 2023
- Journal
- Social Science Computer Review · Vol. 42 · No. 4
- DOI
- 10.1177/08944393231220483
At a GlanceAI
GPT-3.5 can recover most human-identified themes from interview data, suggesting a viable but bounded role for LLMs in inductive thematic analysis.
SummaryAI
This study tests whether an LLM can support inductive thematic analysis, a qualitative method traditionally grounded in human interpretation of explicit and latent meaning. Using two previously analyzed open-access interview datasets, the author finds that GPT-3.5-Turbo inferred most of the main themes identified by earlier researchers. The paper is notable for examining how Braun and Clarke’s six analysis phases can only partly be reproduced with an LLM, framing both the promise and limits of automated qualitative analysis. It offers practical recommendations for using LLMs in qualitative research rather than treating them as replacements for human analysts.
Method SnapshotAI
The study uses GPT-3.5-Turbo to conduct inductive thematic analysis on two interview datasets and compares its themes with prior human analyses.
BackgroundAI
Familiarity with qualitative research, semi-structured interviews, and Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis framework is helpful.
The limitations of the LLMs in thematic analysis, though it was performed on a very old model (and hence, the conclusions are not current)
— ES