Contextual analysis: CONTEXT (SOCIOS), a data processing system

Abstract

This article A first approach has already been published in this journal (see Anuario de Psicología, 37(3), 277-297, 2006), suggests that language must be studied as a first order phenomenon in order to advance research and knowledge in the humanities and social sciences. We review the tradition of content analysis and operationalize the concept of psychosocial context, as a necessary reference in the collection of the set of personal and social meanings it conveys. We present ConText, a computer application among the modules of the system SOCIOS, specially designed in the Laboratorio de Psicología Social of the University of Barcelona for the treatment of social interaction data. In this case ConText applies to contents of verbal data from the perspective of ”Textual Analysis” or “Text Mining”. We provide the theoretical and methodological criteria for its use and detail some of the software characteristics and main procedures, trying to show their usefulness for research. Exemplification is made on the basis of a corpus of personal definitions of the “Happiness” notion in a casual sample of 160 university students. Finally we reflect on the importance of considering the analysis of language from a multidisciplinary perspective and criticism, in line wuith van Dijk’s “Analysis of Discours”.