Analytic induction

Analytic induction refers to a systematic examination of similarities between various social phenomenain order to develop concepts or ideas. Social scientists doing social researchuse analytic induction to search for those similarities in broad categories and then develop subcategories. For example, social scientist may examine the category of 'marihuanausers' and then develop subcategories for 'uses marihuana for pleasure' and 'uses marihuana for health reasons'. If no relevant similarities can be identified, then either the data needs to be reevaluated and the definition of similarities changed, or the category is too wide and heterogenousand should be narrowed down.

In the earlier sociological papers (from 1940s and 1950s) this term could also be used to mean the search for "universals" in social life, where "universal" meant an invariant, complete, positivisticpropriety (i.e. "all black males between 35 and 40 vote for Democrats").

References

• Charles C. Ragin, 'Constructing Social Research: The Unity and Diversity of Method', Pine Forge Press, 1994, ISBN 0803990219

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It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytic+induction Wikipedia article Analytic induction.