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Methodological Implications

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The Structure of Digital Partner Choice

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Abstract

In the first section of this chapter, Bourdieu’s relational methodology will be outlined. It will be shown that the principle of relation is constitutive for this research program, and manifests itself in an emphatically empirical constructivism. In a second step, the data which will be used for empirical analyses is discussed. The data are derived principally from a single database, comprising (1), data derived from a questionnaire of the users of a major German dating website (2), user profile data from the website’s users, and (3), observed data, especially regarding real-time interactions, from the same site. Further information was gathered from (4) qualitative interviews. This chapter will describe the methodological principles underlying the data of types (1)-(3), representing the core data basis for the various analyses, and their resulting strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, the processes by which the data were collected and integrated at database level, and the potential for complementary and supplementary data integration, will be discussed. The chapter will end with an overview of the methods used in the empirical analyses. The statistical analyses applied in this work follow the quantitative traditions of methodological individualism (generalized linear and non-linear mixture modeling), methodological relationism (geometric data analysis and network analysis), and propose an integration of both (a new model of dyadic classification).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In doing so, the two terms ‘methodology’ and ‘method’ are used separately, with the former term referring to the overarching principles that can be derived from a particular theory, and the latter to the concrete techniques of data analysis. The widespread practice of equating ‘methodology’ and ‘method’ corresponds to the use of ‘methodology’ in the singular, and ultimately to the orthodoxy of a particular theory. Only if one believes in the plausibility of a mono-cultural theoretical landscape does the question of various methodologies not arise. The fact is that different methodologies will suggest using different methods.

  2. 2.

    A comprehensive sample description of the initial survey is given by Zillmann (2016).

  3. 3.

    A comprehensive overview of the process data is given in Schmitz 2009.

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  1. Sociology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Andreas Schmitz

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Schmitz, A. (2017). Methodological Implications. In: The Structure of Digital Partner Choice. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43530-5_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43530-5_6

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