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Deconstructing the defense for quantification in social science: A content analysis of journal articles on the parametric strategy

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Abstract

This paper examines 16 methodological papers concerned with the adequacy of the parametric strategy. The parametric strategy is a core procedure in quantitative social science. It transforms ordinal variables into interval variables thereby permitting use of sophisticated statistics including regression analysis.

Parametric strategy papers address general problems in the use of quantitative methods. A content analysis reveals that parametric strategy papers use strategies of “next stepping,” the creation of literary lacunae and tensions, and recontextualization to create the appearance of resolving the problems inherent in the parametric strategy. Since the problems are not actually resolved, this content analysis provides further evidence for the argument that ‘the variable’ must be abandoned as the primary object of social science.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Organizational Analysis Faculty of Business, University of Alberta, T6G2RG, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

    Robert P. Gephart Jr.

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  1. Robert P. Gephart Jr.
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The author wishes to acknowledge the extensive comments and criticisms by the editors and anonymous reviewers ofQualitative Sociology. Thanks also to John VanMaanen, Meryl Louis, Roy Turner, Michael Lynch, Mansour Javidan, Alan Murray and Alan Richardson who provided comments and encouragement at critical moments, and to Carmen Plante, Ray Rasmussen and Merle Lobo for help in manuscript preparation.

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Gephart, R.P. Deconstructing the defense for quantification in social science: A content analysis of journal articles on the parametric strategy. Qual Sociol 9, 126–144 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01314412

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