QualBuddyA fictional worked example
IPA analysis,
one case at a time.
From a participant’s words to experiential statements, personal experiential themes and the write-up.
Alex is a fictional participant returning to university. The interview extracts and interpretations below were written for this example. They illustrate a possible reading of a short account, rather than a complete IPA study.
01 / Stay with the words
Begin with a close reading.
In interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), the focus is how a person makes sense of their experience. Here, Alex has been asked what the first seminars felt like after returning to study.
“I had a question ready, but I kept thinking everyone else would find it obvious, so I stayed quiet.”
Descriptive
Alex had a question ready, anticipated how others might receive it, and did not ask.
Linguistic
“Everyone else” places Alex apart from the group. “Obvious” makes the question seem risky before it has been spoken.
Conceptual
Could staying quiet be a way of protecting a sense of competence? What might asking expose? Return to the wider account to examine this reading.
02 / Develop an interpretation
Put the experience into words.
An experiential statement (ES) brings the passage and your interpretation together. For this extract, one possible statement is:
Holding back questions to protect a fragile sense of competence
This reading connects silence with protecting competence. It goes beyond the topic “seminar participation”, but it remains open to revision. Alex may also be describing unfamiliar group conventions; the surrounding account would help examine that possibility.
A question for your reflexive notes
Am I reading Alex’s silence through my own experience of university? What in the account supports this interpretation, and what might unsettle it?
03 / Look for connections within the case
Develop personal experiential themes.
A personal experiential theme (PET) connects experiential statements within one participant’s account. In this fictional example, four statements sit within two tentative PETs.
PET 1
Trying to belong without exposing uncertainty
- Holding back questions to protect a fragile sense of competence
I had a question ready, but I kept thinking everyone else would find it obvious, so I stayed quiet.
Fictional interview · line 2 - Experiencing others’ silence as a challenge to belonging
When nobody answered my comment, I went home wondering whether I belonged there at all.
Fictional interview · line 3
PET 2
Finding steadiness through preparation and recognition
- Making preparation an anchor before entering the group
Reading my notes on the bus gave me something to hold on to before I walked into the room.
Fictional interview · line 5 - Feeling recognised makes speaking feel more possible
The tutor remembered what I had said the week before. After that, I found it easier to speak.
Fictional interview · line 6
The first PET connects two moments when participation feels precarious. The second links preparation with feeling recognised. That second grouping deserves a closer look: does it hold together, or are preparation and recognition doing different work for Alex?
Two other statements remain unassigned in the map. Keeping them open lets you reconsider their relationships instead of forcing every statement into a theme.
A little space to think
Ideas, connected.
Drag a bubble. Explore a quote.
Give an ES a theme—or leave it open.
Unassigned
About this example & full text
This is a simplified browser example using fictional interview material. It is not a screenshot of the desktop app. PETs group experiential statements; unassigned statements remain open for interpretation. No GETs are shown for this single participant.
Drag to arrange. Select an ES to change its theme. Keyboard: Enter selects; arrow keys move. List view offers the same relationships and quotes. Changes stay in this example and Reset restores the starting arrangement.
ES 1 · Holding back questions to protect a fragile sense of competence
“I had a question ready, but I kept thinking everyone else would find it obvious, so I stayed quiet.”
P01 · line 2 · Initial theme: Trying to belong without exposing uncertainty
ES 2 · Experiencing others’ silence as a challenge to belonging
“When nobody answered my comment, I went home wondering whether I belonged there at all.”
P01 · line 3 · Initial theme: Trying to belong without exposing uncertainty
ES 3 · Making preparation an anchor before entering the group
“Reading my notes on the bus gave me something to hold on to before I walked into the room.”
P01 · line 5 · Initial theme: Finding steadiness through preparation and recognition
ES 4 · Feeling recognised makes speaking feel more possible
“The tutor remembered what I had said the week before. After that, I found it easier to speak.”
P01 · line 6 · Initial theme: Finding steadiness through preparation and recognition
ES 5 · Feeling caught between familiar routines and a new student identity
“At home I knew exactly what was expected of me. At university I was still working out who I could be.”
P01 · line 7 · Initial theme: Unassigned
ES 6 · Making space for study feels like claiming something for oneself
“That hour in the library was the first bit of the week that felt like it belonged to me.”
P01 · line 8 · Initial theme: Unassigned
04 / Keep the evidence close
Bring it into the write-up.
Keep the extract, its reference and your developing interpretation together. These editable Word resources give you a starting point and a look at the app’s output. No signup is needed.
Blank worksheet · DOCX
A space for your own case.
An editable IPA analysis worksheet with prompts for exploratory notes, experiential statements and a PET table. Created for this guide; it is not an app export.
Download the worksheetActual app export · DOCX
See a QualBuddy analysis table.
A one-page export of the opening exchange from the app’s separate fictional demo study, with prewritten notes and a statement. It uses different interview material from Alex’s example above.
Download the sampleThe sample contains fictional data and prewritten analysis. The software arranges the recorded work; it does not establish the interpretation. Adapt the worksheet to your study and methodological guidance.
Beyond this example
What about GETs?
Group experiential themes (GETs) come from working across cases, examining similarities and differences after detailed attention to each participant. This single-case example cannot demonstrate that comparison.
Explore the workspace.
QualBuddy keeps exploratory notes, experiential statements and themes alongside your IPA work, with maps and Word-ready exports.
See the IPA workspace ↗Download QualBuddy →