What is reason and analysis is case?
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Answer:
If all the proper steps of a reason analysis have been followed, can the causes of an action be determined from reasons given by actors? There are two related problems here: the validity of subjective responses and the validity of causal assessment when only actors (or nonactors) are analyzed.
The paramount position of subjective materials in reason analysis may make some researchers uneasy: actors may not know the “real” reasons for their actions, and the researcher may thus be collecting a set of mere rationalizations. Further, there may be additional reasons behind the ones collected, so that the researcher becomes involved in an infinite regression.
If interviews are properly conducted, however, it is the analyst’s job to interpret the answers; as Freud (1916–1917) pointed out, whatever a person says must have some meaning. For example, in a study of reasons given by some college graduates as to why they did not choose to go on to graduate school (in the face of the expectation of 80 per cent that they would go on), it was found that lack of motivation was mentioned more often than low grades (Davis 1964). Yet a cross-sectional analysis showed that those who were not going to graduate school had, in fact, lower grades than those who chose to go on. Which finding is the “real” reason? Did not students with low grades “rationalize” them and say they were not interested? Actually, low grades do lead to low motivation, and low motivation leads to low grades, although a panel study would be necessary to determine which came first [seePanel studies].