Thematic Content Analyses: Nomothetic Methods for Using Holocaust Survivor Narratives in Psychological Research

The overwhelming majority of psychological research on Holocaust survivors follows an ldiographic model, which is concerned with studying and understanding individual personalities and how they have been affected by their experiences. Most such publications emphasize pathological characteristics, use psychodynamic theoretical formulations, and ignore criteria of rigorous behavioral science such as reliability, replicability, statistical significance, and safeguards against researcher and subject bias. This article describes a set of alternative research methods in which survivor narratives are randomly sampled and then analyzed according to established protocols. They thus provide quantitative data through means of acceptable scientific rigor. Such approaches can identify reliable, lawful patterns applicable to groups of individuals, and provide a suitable alternative to (not a replacement for) qualitative case or small-group methodology.