Developmentally Oriented Thematic Analysis (DOTA): A qualitative research method to explore meaning-making processes in cultural psychology

In this article, we introduce developmentally oriented thematic analysis (DOTA) as a possibility to study the process-oriented aspects of qualitative data analysis when undertaking the intra- and inter-individual analysis of case studies. We describe the main methodological considerations of this approach as a method to study the multi-layered nature of affective processes, which can recall both experiential and existential layers of meaning-making. We do so by analyzing the diary entries of study participants who attended a course taught at a Norwegian university and who used journals to reflect upon their experiences in class, such as the “silent time” they embraced each morning. Process-oriented narratives give account of the coexistent directionalities of higher psychological functions, and the degrees of differentiation or undifferentiation of the affective processes involved in them. One aspect that facilitated such amplification of the multiple layers of affective processes was the focus on silence-phenomena, due to the contrast they induce, and the way in which they promote attentional shifts.