Statistics for Sport and Exercise Studies

CHAPTER 17

CLUSTER ANALYSIS

INTRODUCTION

Traditionally, research in sport and exercise has used methods based on the assumptions of the normative or the interpretive paradigm (Cohen et al., 2007: 7–26). The human nature assumptions of these paradigms motivate different approaches to data analysis. The normative paradigm assumes that human behaviour is deterministic and can be characterized by an average human being. The interpretive paradigm, however, assumes that human behaviour is voluntaristic with individual responses to situations. There are occasions where neither of these approaches is satisfactory due to the nature of the behaviour being investigated. There may be too many participants to analyse as individuals, but there may be different ...