Measuring Meaning Structures

Soc. 294 — Spring 2000

John Mohr

The goal of this seminar is to introduce you to the use of computers in textual analysis. This involves three things. First, we will spend time talking about how to acquire textual material in such a way that it can be made computer readable. We will talk about gathering textual material from web-pages, on-line chat rooms, CD-ROMS, as well as other paper-based sources that can be scanned. Here our goal will be to think about the range of materials that might be investigated in this manner and to discuss the ways in which computer assisted analysis of these data would facilitate the research process.

Second, we will talk about how to use the computer to manage this information. For example, we will look very closely at a variety of approaches to content analysis, including recent developments in syntactic grammar analysis. As part of this effort, we will focus on learning how to use the statistical analysis software SAS as a basic tool for content analysis of textual data.

Third, we will discuss some of the ways in which textual data can be formally analyzed in order to measure and visualize basic structures of meaning which operate in discourse. This part of the course will lead us to explore questions such as what is meaning and how does interpretation operate? We will also focus here on a range of methods that can be used to study the relational patterns that are embedded within textual material. Included here are techniques such as factor analysis, multidimensional scaling, correspondence analysis, network analysis, lattice analysis and Boolean algebras.

My first concern is teaching you the practical skills that you will need to apply these techniques in your own research projects. This means that the better part of each class session will be devoted to “hands-on” instruction on computer usage. Most of this time will be spent learning how to use SAS to read and analyze texts. Because SAS is effectively identical on the PC and Mac platforms, classroom instruction should be broadly applicable to whichever platform you choose to use.

However, I also want to spend time in the class thinking about the broader theoretical issues associated with this style of sociological research. To accomplish this I will try to spend the first hour or so of class time discussing these matters. I have listed assigned and suggested readings for each session below (these readings will provide the basis for class discussions). We will work through these topics by tracing the emergence of meaning measurement practices historically and by substantive (disciplinary) focus.

The Following readings are included in the course reader available at Grafikart (6547 B Pardall Road) in Isla Vista (Phone # 968-3575).

Week 1 (April 7) Course Introduction and Overview.
Theoretical Topic: Meaning, Measurement, and Sociology

Readings:
Mohr, John W. 1998. "Measuring Meaning Structures." In Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 24:345-70.

Practical Focus: Basic Introduction to SAS

Week 2 (April 14) Theoretical Topic: Content Analysis: Its Origins, Uses, and
Recent Developments.

Readings:
Carley, Kathleen. 1993. "Coding Choices for Textual Analysis: A Comparison of Content Analysis and Map Analysis." Sociological Methodology 23: 75-126.

Additional Readings:
Weber, Robert Philip. 1990. Basic Content Analysis. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.

Brent, Edward. 1995. "Disambiguating Verbal Comments in Social Interaction: A Computer Model of Meaning." Journal of Mathematical Sociology Vol. 20(2-3):109-125.

Roberts, Carl W. 1989. "Other than Counting Words: A Linguistic Approach to Content Analysis." Social Forces 68(1):147-77.

Practical Focus: Basic Input and Programming Rules.

Week 3 (April 21) Theoretical Topic: Meaning Measurement in Cognitive Psychology (Early Origins and Recent Trajectory).

Readings:
Osgood, Charles E., George J. Suci, and Percy H. Tannenbaum. 1971. "The Semantic Differential as a Measuring Instrument." Chapter 3 in The Measurement of Meaning. Urbana, IL: The University of Illinois Press.

Additional Readings:
DiMaggio, Paul J. 1997. “Culture and Cognition.” Annual Review of Sociology 23: 263-87.

Rosch, Eleanor. 1978. "The Principles of Categorization." In Cognition and Categorization, Eleanor Rosch and B. Lloyd (eds.) Hillsdale: Earlbaum.

Swede, S. W. and P.E. Tetlock. 1986. "Henry Kissinger's Implicit Theory of Personality: A Quantitative Case Study. Journal of Personality. 54: 617-646.

Practical Focus: Advanced Input and Array Programming

Week 4 (April 28) Theoretical Topic: Meaning Measurement in Historical Sociology (Early Origins and Recent Trajectory).

Readings:
Mohr, John W. 1998. “Using a Computer to ‘Find Meaning’ in Historical Texts.” Newsletter of the Comparative & Historical Section of the American Sociological Association. Vol. 10, No. 4

Tilly, Charles. 1997. “Parliamentarization of Popular Contention in Great Britain, 1758-1834.” Theory and Society 26(2-3):245-273.

Additional Readings:
Tilly, Charles. 1986. "European Violence and Collective Action Since 1700." Social Research 53: 159-181.

Franzosi, Roberto. 1989. "From Words to Numbers: A Generalized and Linguistics-Based Coding Procedure for Collecting Textual Data." Sociological Methodology 19: 263-298.

Franzosi, Roberto. 1990. "Computer-Assisted Coding of Textual Data: An Application to Semantic Grammars." Sociological Methods and Research 19(2): 225-257.

Olsen, Mark and Louis-Georges Harvey. 1988. "Computers in Intellectual History: Lexical Statistics and the Analysis of Political Discourse." Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 28(3):449-464

Practical Focus: More Stupid SAS Tricks: Error Checking, Debugging, Auto-Programming.

Week 5 (May 5) Theoretical Topic: Meaning Measurement in Cognitive Anthropology (Early Origins and Recent Trajectory).

Readings:
Burton, Michael and Lorraine Kirk. 1979. "Sex Differences in Maasai Cognition of Personality and Social Identity." American Anthropologist 81: 841-873.

Gower, J.C. 1985. "Measures of Similarity, Dissimilarity, and Distance." Encyclopedia of Statistical Sciences, Volume 5, edited by S. Kotz and N. Johnson. NY:Wiley and Sons.

Additional Readings:
D'Andrade, Roy G. 1995. The Development of Cognitive Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Practical Focus: Introduction to Multidimensional Scaling.

Week 6 (May 12) Theoretical Topic: Meaning Measurement and the Study of Institutional and Organizational Fields.

Readings:
Mohr, John W. and Francesca Guerra-Pearson. 2000. "The Differentiation of Institutional Space: Organizational Forms in the New York Social Welfare Sector, 1888-1917." Forthcoming in Walter Powell and Dan Jones (eds). How Institutions Change. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Additional Readings:
Jepperson, Ronald L. and Ann Swidler. 1994. "What Properties of Culture Should We Measure?" Poetics: Journal of Empirical Research on Literature, the Media, and the Arts, 22, pp. 359-371.

Mohr, John W. 1998. "The Classificatory Logics of State Welfare Systems: Towards a Formal Analysis." Pages 207-38 in Public Rights, Public Rules: Constituting Citizens in the World Polity and National Policy, Connie McNeely (ed.). NY: Garland Publishing, Inc.

Practical Focus: Multidimensional Scaling (cont.)

Week 7 (May 19) Theoretical Topic: Structuralism, Semiotics, and Network Analysis: (I) Applying Structural Equivalence Analysis (Blockmodels) to the Study of Institutional Discourse.

Readings:
Caws, Peter. 1988. "Introduction." Pp. 1-7 in Structuralism: The Art of the Intelligible. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press International.

Mohr, John W. 1994. "Soldiers, Mothers, Tramps, and Others: Discourse Roles in the 1907 New York City Charity Directory." Poetics: Journal of Empirical Research on Literature, the Media, and the Arts, 22, pp. 327-357.

Additional Readings:
Carley, Kathleen. 1994. "Extracting Culture Through Textual Analysis." Poetics 22: 291-312.

Practical Focus: IML and Matrix Programming.

Week 8 (May 26) Theoretical Topic: Structuralism, Semiotics, and Network Analysis: (II) Applying Network Analysis to the Study of Social Narratives.

Readings:
Peter Bearman and Katherine Stovel, 2000. “Becoming a Nazi : A Model for Narrative Networks.” Poetics Vol. 27/2-3

Practical Focus: IML and Matrix Programming (cont.)

Week 9 (June 2) Theoretical Topic: The Duality of Culture and Practice.

Readings:
Mohr, John W. and Vincent Duquenne. 1997. "The Duality of Culture and Practice: Poverty Relief in New York City, 1888-1917." Theory and Society Vol. 26/2-3: 305-356.

Additional Readings:
Ortner, Sherry. 1994. "Theory in Anthropology Since the Sixties." Pp. 372-411 in Culture/Power/History: A Reader in Contemporary Social Theory, Nicholas B. Dirks, Geoff Eley and Sherry B. Ortner (eds.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Bourdieu, Pierre. 1990. The Logic of Practice. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Ann Mische & Philippa Pattison, 2000. “Composing a Civic Arena: Publics, Projects, and Social Settings.” Poetics Vol. 27/2-3.

Practical Focus: Introduction to Duality Techniques: Correspondence Analysis, Lattice Analysis, HiClas.

Week 10 (June 9) Theoretical Topic: The Duality of Culture and Practice (Part 2).

Readings:
Breiger, Ronald. 2000. “A Tool Kit for Practice Theory.” Poetics Vol. 27/2-3.

Additional Readings:
Rosenberg, Seymour. 1989. "A Study of Personality in Literary Autobiography: An Analysis of Thomas Wolfe's 'Look Homeward Angel'". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 56: 416-430.

Anheier, Helmut and Jürgen Gerhards. 1991. "Literary Myths and Social Structure." Social Forces 69: 811-830.

Practical Focus: Duality Techniques (cont.)