CLUSTER-ANALYSIS IN COMMUNITY RESEARCH - EPISTEMOLOGY AND PRACTICE

Cluster analysis refers to a family of methods for identifying cases w ith distinctive characteristics in heterogeneous samples and combining them into homogeneous groups. This approach provides a great deal of information about the types of cases and the distributions of variable s in a sample. This paper considers cluster analysis as a quantitative complement to the traditional linear statistics that often characteri ze community psychology research. Cluster analysis emphasizes diversit y rather than central tendency. This makes it a valuable tool for a wi de range of familiar problems in community research. A number of these applications are considered here, including the assessment of change over time, network composition, network density, person-setting relati onships, and community diversity. A User's Guide section is included, which outlines the major decisions involved in a basic cluster analyse s. Despite difficulties associated with the identification of optimal cluster solutions, carefully planned, theoretically informed applicati on of cluster analysis has much to offer community researchers.