Math Forum Discussions

Burger

Posts: 6
Registered: 1/30/06

cluster and content analysis
Posted: Jun 2, 2006 2:21 PM

Plain Text

Hi,

I am relatively new to cluster and content analysis and working on a project
for which I think both are necessary. I hope to receive some advice on what
procedure to follow for the analysis of my data.

I have two pieces of data:

1) A couple of hundred answers to an open question of a questionnaire. The
question asks the respondent to describe the most important problem they
encountered over the last 12 months.

2) Subsequently, the respondent rates his description on 8 attributes
(bipolar 7-point Likert scales).

Now I want to develop a categorization of problems that the respondents
face. My question is: what is the best way to do develop such a
categorization?

I had the following in mind:

Step 1) Cluster analyze the open answers on the 8 attributes.

Step 2) Apply some form of content analysis on the clusters.

Step 2 is necessary because the clusters that result from step 1 need to be
corrected by incorporating some kind of judgment from me as the researcher.
A correction is necessary because: (a) the 8 attributes are insufficient to
differentiate sufficiently between the open answers and (b) the scores on
the 8 attributes are also affected by respondents' subjectivity and context
and not only by the content of the open answers. Therefore, cluster analysis
needs to be supplemented with another (probably more subjective and
qualitative) technique.

My question:

With what technique and how should I complement cluster analysis to develop
the classification? By the way, I cannot use the respondents again to do for
example a card sorting exercise because I cannot bother respondents again
with this study.

Any help would be very much appreciated.