Analytic induction is a research strategy in

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...

aimed at systematically developing causal explanations for types of phenomena. It was first outlined by

Florian Znaniecki Florian Witold Znaniecki (15 January 1882 – 23 March 1958) was a Polish philosopher and sociologist who taught and wrote in Poland and in the United States. Over the course of his work he shifted his focus from philosophy to sociology. H ...

in 1934. He contrasted it with the kind of enumerative induction characteristic of statistical analysis. Where the latter was satisfied with probabilistic correlations, Znaniecki insisted that science is concerned with discovering causal universals, and that in social science analytic induction is the means of discovering these. Analytic induction begins by studying a small number of cases of the phenomenon to be explained, searching for similarities that could point to common factors. Once a hypothetical explanation has been developed further cases are examined. If any one of these does not fit the hypothesis, either the hypothesis is reformulated so as to match the features of all the cases so far studied, or the original definition of the type of phenomenon to be explained is redefined, on the grounds that it does not represent a causally homogeneous category. Further cases are then studied until no more anomalies seem to be emerging. The approach was further refined and applied by

Alfred Lindesmith Alfred Ray Lindesmith (August 3, 1905 – February 14, 1991) was an Indiana University professor of sociology. He was among the early scholars providing a rigorous and thoughtful account of the nature of addiction. He was a critic of legal prohi ...

in a study of opiate addiction and Donald Cressey in an investigation of financial trust violation (embezzlement). Later it was applied by

Howard S. Becker Howard Saul Becker (born 1928) is an American sociologist who teaches at Northwestern University. Becker has made contributions to the sociology of deviance, sociology of art, and sociology of music. Becker also wrote extensively on sociologic ...

in a study of marihuana use. This method has been subjected to considerable criticism, notably by W.S. Robinson who argued that it could only discover necessary not sufficient conditions for the production of the phenomenon being investigated.Robinson, W. S. (1951). The logical structure of analytic induction. American Sociological Review, Vol 16, no 6, pp. 812–818. The term has also come to be used in a variety of ways, some of them bearing little relationship to its original sense. There are some similarities with, but also important differences from, other approaches, notably

grounded theory Grounded theory is a systematic methodology that has been largely applied to qualitative research conducted by social scientists. The methodology involves the construction of hypotheses and theories through the collecting and analysis of data. G ...

and

qualitative comparative analysis In statistics, qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) is a data analysis based on set theory to examine the relationship of conditions to outcome. QCA describes the relationship in terms of necessary conditions and sufficient conditions. The techn ...

. Perhaps analytic induction's most distinctive and important feature is recognition of the potential need to refine and develop the initial categorisation of what is to be explained in the course of producing explanations.

References

{{reflist Sociological theories

Further reading

References