1 / 15

Q Methodology

Q Methodology. Charles C. Sule M.A.Sc. Ph.D. Candidate - Environmental Applied Science & Management. Presentation Overview. Origins and history of Q Method Differences between ‘Q’ and ‘R’ methods and the q-sort What Q means by ‘subjectivity’ Participant and sample selection

sonya-price
Download Presentation

Q Methodology

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Q Methodology Charles C. Sule M.A.Sc. Ph.D. Candidate - Environmental Applied Science & Management

  2. Presentation Overview • Origins and history of Q Method • Differences between ‘Q’ and ‘R’ methods and the q-sort • What Q means by ‘subjectivity’ • Participant and sample selection • Data analysis with PQMethod • Factor interpretation • Summary • Questions

  3. Origins of Q Methodology • Conceived by William Stephenson (pictured), who had Ph.D.s in both physics and psychology • Assistant to Charles Spearman, pioneer of factor analysis • ‘Technique of factor analysis.’ Nature, 1935, 136(3434), p.297 http://qmethod.org/images/WSpix1.jpg

  4. Q Sort • Typically statements written on cards • ‘Forced distribution’ to a standard curve

  5. ‘R’ Methods • Simple data matrix • Pearson’s ‘r’ • r = 0.80 r = -0.80 r = 0.00 Persons

  6. Operant Subjectivity • According to Watts (2011: 39) an ‘operant’ behaviour possesses two qualities: • an operant is produced and emitted naturally, without need for special training or any other form of artificial induction. • an operant is defined by the relationship it establishes with, and the impact it makes upon, the immediate environment.

  7. Operant Subjectivity • Subjectivity is NOT some part of our consciousness • “It is not ‘inside’ us” (Watts, 2011: 39), Q is not a kind of phenomenological account • An expression of operant subjectivity can be recorded in a ‘Q-sort’

  8. Q Method • Participants are called the ‘p-set’ • Who are they? • How many? • Statement sample is called the ‘q-set’ • Concourse theory – the ‘universe’ of possible statements • Select a representative sample from the concourse – the q-set

  9. Q Method

  10. Factor extraction

  11. Factor rotation

  12. Factor scores

  13. Factor interpretation Factor Scores -- For Factor 1 # Statement Z-SCORES 3 Organic is beneficial to biodiversity 1.804 47 Org farming returns material to the soil 1.801 40 For org to be fair, animals need well-being 1.695 33 Fertilizers shall not harm the environment 1.424 28 Eating food grown in a particular way 1.172 1 No consistent scientific evidence of better nutrition -1.381 19 Animal health on org not necessarily better -1.518 4 No nutritional differences between org and conv -1.627 45 There are no safety differences between org and conv -1.798 46 An animal has good welfare if not diseased or ill -2.264

  14. Q-Summary • Measures expressions of subjectivity • Suited to exploratory, small n studies • Q-bie, q-munity… • Kent State listserv just turned 22!

  15. References • Stephenson, W. (1935). Correlating persons instead of tests. Journal of Personality, 4(1), 17–24. • Watts, S. (2011). Subjectivity as operant: a conceptual exploration and discussion. Operant Subjectivity, 35(1): 37–47. • Watts, S. & Stenner, P. (2012). Doing Q methodological research: theory, method and interpretation. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Ltd.

More Related