Qualitative_data_analysis

PRODUCING AN ACCOUNT 271
analysts to identify the context in which their inferences are made. This can provide
a key to elucidating the conditions under which a generalization can be expected to
hold.
For example, it is hardly surprising to find artistic stereotyping in an article titled
‘If the Impressionists Had Been Dentists’. However, we also found evidence of
gender stereotyping, and as this is less ‘context-specific’ it is more likely to be located
in other areas of Woody Allen’s humour. The use of transpositions of occupation
and temperament are likewise ‘context-specific’, but the underlying use of
incongruity may be less so. The same is true of the relationship we observed between
incongruity and cathartic humour, which we might also expect to hold in other
contexts. Indeed, we could formulate this as a hypothesis which we could test
through further research. For example, we could suggest as a hypothesis that
incongruity is a necessary (but not sufficient) condition of cathartic humour. Or,
less ambitiously, we could confine ourselves to the hypothesis that cathartic humour
is often associated with an element of incongruity.
In producing an account, it is important to acknowledge the conditions under
which our generalizations may hold true. As a basis for generalizing beyond our data,
qualitative analysis is more likely to be suggestive than conclusive. On the other
hand, in so far as our inferences are well grounded in our analysis of the data, at
least we can be more confident that our suggestions are worth pursuing.