Vol. 34 Issue 3
Designing a Q Sample for a Study with Adolescent Foster Children
Ingunn T. Ellingsen, University of Stavanger
Over recent years, we have witnessed an increasing focus on including children in research. In this article I share some experiences about including adolescent foster children in a Q study exploring what 'family' means for children in foster care. The main focus is on challenges in designing a Q sample to represent different aspects related to the research topic, in which making use of a Fisherian balanced-block design is central. The participants were invited to make comments about their Q sorts, and articulate to what extent they felt that the Q sort provided an accurate picture of their perception of family. The participating adolescents felt that the Q sort captured the different aspects of what family meant to them. Q methodology is shown to provide the flexibility that is necessary when including children in research. It offers a reasonably valid and concise way for children to express their perspectives.
Young Children's Participation in a Q Study with Visual Images: Some Comments on Reliability and Validity
Ingunn Storksen and Arlene Arstad Thorsen, University of Stavanger
In this study we discuss various aspects of the participation of young children as informants in research relating to their own adjustment and behavior. We ask whether it is meaningful to include young children as participants in this kind of research, and if Q methodology using visual images is a suitable research method that may give reliable and valid results. An example is given through a study of 20 children aged five. The conclusion is that this may be a suitable approach, and that there are indications that the results are both reliable and valid. However, more research is needed to explore the usefulness of Q methodology with visual images in studies of very young children.
Q Methodology and Its Position in the Mixed-Methods Continuum
Susan E. Ramlo, University of Akron & Isadore Newman, Florida International University
volume 32 of this journal, Paul Stenner suggests that Stephenson was resistant to Q methodology being placed within other theoretical frameworks. Yet in this same piece, Stenner states that it is time for Q methodology to be brought into a greater dialogue with contemporary social theory and research practice. This article seeks to demonstrate how Q fits into the contemporary research practice of mixed methods and argues that this perspective is not in conflict with Stephenson's positions on Q as a methodology. Further, our position reflects recent calls for the development of new techniques and procedures to be used in mixed-methods research. Those making the call will find interest in what Q has to offer the social and behavioral sciences now, 75 years after it emerged in Stephenson's 1935 letter to Nature, and even though the term mixed-methods research has only emerged in last couple of decades. Q methodology is shown to fit well methodologically into the mixed-methods continuum as described by prominent mixed-methods scholars, which further supports a position that Q represents a mixed research methodology.
Vol. 34 Issue 2
In Memoriam: Donald J. Brenner (1932-2010)
Robert A. Logan, Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism (Emeritus) & U.S. National Library of Medicine
In Don Brenner's memory, a news-style obituary is provided. This is followed by a few remarks about Don's intellectual contributions and some personal memories. Following this, Don speaks for himself in an edited version of his remarks to the 2009 ISSSS convention. While his talk concentrated on William Stephenson, Don also provided some career self-reflections. It was Don's last public address.
What Educators Learn When They Evaluate Students
Lennise J. C. Baptiste, Kent State University
Many reports emphasize that the main aim of education reform has been improved student performance. Reform efforts have focused on curricula content, the professional development of educators, the development of non-traditional teaching and assessment methods and giving parents more choice in their children's educational experiences. Yet, after 20 years of reforms, it remains unclear what actually works to raise student achievement. Student achievement is measured using different types of assessments. Because they use the results of these assessments to evaluate their students, and have evaluation information available to them, educators are able to learn from the process of evaluating their students. Q methodology was used to investigate such 'process use' and to understand how educators gain lessons from the evaluation process that can contribute to the success of education initiatives. The four perspectives which emerged were shaped by student qualities, the educators' relationships with their stakeholders, the relationships among colleagues, the purpose or stakes associated with the evaluation activity, the relationships among the stakeholders in the teaching context and the assessment approach employed.
Vol. 34 Issue 1
The Q-Block Method of Indexing Q Typologies
Albert D. Talbott, University of Iowa
William Stephenson's Q methodology has a marked advantage of bringing both system and depth into communication studies. Some communication researchers have been dismayed by its use with relatively small numbers of people, in some cases with only one person. This has raised the question of how the system and enrichment of Q can be combined with the precision of properly applied sample survey research methodology. Stephenson devoted a chapter in his book The Study of Behavior to such considerations. Direct applications of Stephenson's Q techniques may not be economically feasible for large sample survey research due to their complexity and time needed for administration and analysis. However, Stephenson suggests "that certain kinds of facts which questionnaires may seek to study can be reached along Q technique lines." He outlines one method. This paper presents an elaboration in detail of such a method. Specifically, the paper examines and presents a questionnaire technique which has utility in assigning people to Q typologies. It is a technique which can be readily applied in large sample survey research. The method involves the construction of "Q blocks," which are comparable in one sense to a series of small individual Q sorts. Detailed knowledge of a stable Q typology factor structure is necessary for construction of these Q blocks. This knowledge can be derived from direct application of Q techniques to a smaller, usually structured sample from the population in which the researcher is interested.
Estimating Agreement between the Q Block and the Q Tool
Hung Kyu Kim
The purpose of this paper is to explore the agreement or consistency between the Q Block and the Q Tool, both of which were constructed to identify typologies based on the factors found initially with Q methodology. Both tools are very useful to examine the characteristics of people who belong to a specific type, and to test the difference by types in terms of demographics and other related variables. This study adopted two examples to test the agreement rate, which is defined by the percentage of people indicated as having the same type by both tools. The first example, with three factors, showed 62.20 percent agreement, while the second example comprising four factors showed 70.08 percent agreement. Researchers should be aware of the advantages and limitations of each tool when they choose one.
Connecting Q & Surveys: Three Methods to Explore Factor Membership in Large Samples
Rachel Baker, Glasgow Caledonian University, & Job van Exel, Erasmus University, & Helen Mason, Newcastle University, & Michael Stricklin, University of Nebraska Lincoln (Emeritus) & Federal University of Piaui
Q methodology has been employed to great effect in studies addressing questions which are qualitative in nature. Techniques associated with Q methodology can also be used to explore quantitative research questions. Where a number of shared accounts around a particular topic have been identified and described using Q methods, it may also be of interest to examine the extent and distribution of those views. Such quantitative questions can be explored using Q-survey methods. In this paper we describe a range of approaches to such Q surveys and identify areas of future methodological development and research.
The Q-Block Method and an Alternative: Benchmarking the Australian Discourse of Democracy
Simon Niemeyer, Australian National University
This paper uses a set of overlapping statements between a 1993 study on Australian discourses of democracy performed by Dryzek (1994) and a more recent Q study in association with the Citizen's Parliament held in 2009 to explore the relative merits of using the Q-block method, proposed by Talbott (1963; reprinted in this issue) and a simpler 'z-score method' for indexing the relationship between individuals and a pre-existing set of factors established by the Dryzek study. The results reveal a stronger correlation with the original study factor loadings using the z-score method than using the Q-block method, which tended to systematically underestimate associations with factors. Although the Q-block method remains the easier of the two methods for obtaining data, the z-score method produces more accurate results as a proxy for individual Q-sort factor loadings.
Vol. 33 Issue 3/4
Experiences and Ideals of Forgiveness
Tammy Stewart, Nancy DeCourville, Kathryn Belicki Brock University
There has been a call to examine whether or not people forgive in the way that has been conceptualized in the literature (Rye et al., 2000). This issue was addressed using Q methodology to examine participants' perspectives on their experiences and their ideals of forgiveness. Thirty community members (20 women) ranging in age from 25 to 68 participated in this research, which involved sorting 66 statements about forgiveness according to the level of agreement with each statement. This process yielded three factors describing experiences of forgiveness, labelled Unresolved Forgiveness, Compassionate Forgiveness, and Forgiveness Motivated by Religious Beliefs, and two factors representing ideals of forgiveness, namely the Christian Model of Forgiveness and the Humanistic Model of Forgiveness. Our participants' experiences and ideals of forgiveness tended to differ from the definitions proposed in the literature.
The Ideal Female Body Image: A Q Approach to the Third-Person Effect
Yun Jung Choi Ewha Womans University
The third-person effect was examined using Q methodology. The participants were asked to sort images of women according to their ideal image and their perception of others' ideal image. The participants' own ideal Q sort loaded on one factor, whereas their Q sort representing their perception of others' ideal image loaded on another. The participants' own body image differed from their perception of others' ideal body image resembling the media's portrayal of ultra-thin models. In addition, an intensive study of a single subject was conducted to examine the influence of social distance on the third-person effect. The results suggest that increased social distance reinforces third-person effects.
Dropout and Academic Achievement Perceptions of Middle and High School Students of Mexican Descent: A Q-Methodology Study
Kathryn G. Swetnam Walden University
The dropout rate for Mexican-descent students enrolled in the U.S. public school system is among the highest of any race or ethnicity. These students may be functionally illiterate in both English and Spanish. The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of at-risk, Mexican-descent, adolescent students who expressed personal opinions towards academic success or failure, rather than to test a predetermined trait or a priori hypotheses. Thirty-two students from an independent school district in a Houston, Texas, suburb participated in this study. The male and female students were enrolled in school in grades 8-10 but were identified as at-risk learners. Their viewpoints were examined through Q methodology. Factor analysis of their Q sorts yielded three distinct attitudinal factors: (a) internally motivated perceptions, (b) family-motivated perceptions, and (c) disaffected perceptions. Distinguishing statements that represent each factor are discussed and compared against demographic data. The findings of this study support the contextual-ecological view of influences that affect minority cultures and impact school accomplishment. The relationship between academic success and dropout perceptions was multifaceted, comprising social ecological and commingled contextual influences on an individual's perceptions. Results of this study may assist educators and parents in understanding how to increase minority scholastic achievement and decrease dropout rates. This study increases the understanding of the perceptions of Mexican-descent adolescents toward academic success and dropping out of school in order to provide a basis for social change through communication and dialogue between Mexican-descent students and families and school administrators and faculty.
Vol. 33 Volume 1/2
Investigating Students' Perceptions of E-Learning within an Occupational Therapy Program
Roshni Khatri University of Northampton
Because of the increasing use of technology to enhance learning in higher education, particularly in the professions, the aim of this study was to explore student perceptions of electronic learning (e-learning) within one module of the occupational therapy curriculum at a university in the United Kingdom. Twenty participants sorted 30 statements taken from the literature by indicating how much each statement reflected their own experience of the e-learning component of their program. Following analysis, two factors were identified indicating two distinct perceptions of e-learning. One factor was interpreted as a preference for traditional lectures along with a perception that technology hindered students' learning. The other factor revealed a view that the use of technology was beneficial and a part of students' learning. Using Q methodology showed the interconnectedness of the issues in e-learning. Ways to improve the instructional design of the module to enable students of both views to engage interactively with the content are discussed.
Assessment Research in Nursing Education: The Case for Q Methodology
Odessa Petit dit Dariel University of Nottingham
Despite the rhetoric emphasizing the need to become evidence-based practitioners, most nursing educational practice is still not based on comprehensive, cumulative, or robust evidence. The reasons for this are multiple and involve both methodological and pragmatic issues. Applied research in the fields of nursing education takes place in real time and in changing contexts, over which full control is impossible. The purpose of this discussion is to present the key challenges facing educational outcomes-assessment researchers and to call for the increased use of Q methodology in nursing education scholarship. Q methodology is able to tease out prevalent discourses and subjectivities and provide invaluable insight into the various views held by stakeholders. Indeed, it might invite an opportunity to include a largely forgotten voice in nursing educational outcomes-assessment research: the patient. Following a brief review of Q methodology in educational research, research is proposed that would include Q methodology to inform nursing curricula and build more active collaborations between academia and clinical practice.
Exploring Perceptions of Leadership for School Staff
Constance Oterkiil University of Stavanger
The study presented here uses Q methodology to explore the perceptions of teachers, paraprofessionals, administrators, and head teachers about leadership. Altogether, 84 employees from four different Norwegian primary schools were asked to rank-order 27 statements related to leadership. The aim of this study was to explore perceptions of leadership for the staff of a primary school. The results present two perspectives: Appreciates Faculty and Appreciates the School. Appreciates Faculty seems to prefer leadership that has a focus on individual staff development over management practices and setting directions. The people whose sorts loaded significantly on Appreciates the School, on the other hand, had quite the opposite view. These people saw management practices and setting directions as the most important leadership traits, as opposed to leadership with an individual staff focus which they saw as least important. The findings are discussed in light of research and theory on the topic of transformational and transactional leadership. This study contributes to the literature on subjectivity and school leadership by revealing the opinions about what leadership practices are important.
Second-Order Structure of Academic and Religious Personal Epistemologies
John D. Hathcoat, Diane Montgomery Oklahoma State University
It was the aim of this research to examine how subjective viewpoints toward the source, certainty, and justification of knowledge, known as a personal epistemology (PE), combine across learning in school and knowing about religion. Q methodology was used as a means to examine the higher-order structure of the results of two PE studies conducted with the same Q set, one in academic learning and another in religious personal epistemologies. Results indicate that not only are academic and religious personal epistemologies interrelated, but these viewpoints may be described by three higher-order perspectives, named Doubtful Knower, Truth Seeker, and Personal Truth. The Doubtful Knower is suspicious about the existence of an accessible truth and sees no criterion by which conflicting opinions may be evaluated. The Truth Seeker sees the process of knowing as uncertain, and it is this element of uncertainty that compels them to search for the truth. Personal Truth believes that truth is idiosyncratic and personal to individual knowing. These higher-order PE perspectives suggest that PE exists at both a domain-specific and general level. The study further demonstrates that Q methodology is an appropriate framework for illuminating the tacit nature of PE while subsequently avoiding the methodological and psychometric challenges faced by other research methods.
Ethical, Methodological, and Practical Reflections When Using Q Methodology in Research with Young Children
Arlene Arstad Thorsen, Ingunn Størksen
The objective of this discussion is to raise ethical, methodological, and practical issues concerning research with young children and the use of Q methodology through our experiences with a study of young children's feelings when in situations related to parental divorce. Q methodology was applied with 20 visual statements depicting a range of feelings for five-year-old children from Norwegian daycare centers to sort according to a "How do you generally feel?" condition of instruction. The issues resulting from this work are ethical considerations, methodological reflections, and practical concerns.
Vol. 32
Subjectivity, the Researcher, and the Researched
Amanda Wolf, Victoria University of Wellington
Stephenson’s work fundamentally blends a theory of subjectivity and a methodology for its study. However, in most Q studies, inquiry centres on perceptions, attitudes or discourses, not on subjectivity. A review of three exemplars of different uses of Q methodology concentrates in the purpose of the inquiry and the nature of that which is inquired into. Two terms each for inquiry and that-which-is-inquired-into are juxtaposed in an analogy: concourse is to Q sorting as subjectivity is to feeling. Q-methodology inquiry, conventionally conceived, privileges epistemology. However, that-which-is-inquired-into is not merely ontological, since it arises from Q sorting. Q sorting itself is an inquiry (loosely conceived) into some event or situation. Appreciating the extent of the common ground of subjectivity in various Q-methodology applications necessitates understanding that Q sorters both draw meaning from and put meaning upon in the act of Q sorting.
Social Constructionism Redefined: Human Selectionism and the Objective Reality of Q Methodology
Simon Watts, Nottingham Trent University
The main aim of this paper is to demonstrate how social constructionism can be used make sense of studies in the Q methodological tradition. In order to maximize the effectiveness of this demonstration, the paper seeks to clarify the term ‘social constructionism’ and to correct some avoidable misunderstandings. Social constructionism is presented as a realist ontology, the difference between constructionism and constructivism is discussed, and the new term ‘human selectionism’ is introduced. In the final section, a physical analogy is then employed to demonstrate the principles of human selection at work and in order to illustrate one possible interpretation of the Q methodological procedure. The tendency for distinct ‘groupings-of-individuals’ (and hence distinct factors) to be discernible in multi-participant Q methodological data is also discussed.
Q Methodology as a Constructivist Methodology
Paul Stenner, University of Brighton
Following a brief discussion of the meanings of constructivism an argument is made to the effect that Q methodology is a constructivist methodology in a sense that is compatible with the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. A brief comparison of the ideas of Stephenson and Whitehead is followed by a section outlining Whitehead’s notion of the ‘actual occasion’ as the core of a constructivist approach to nature. It is argued that a comparable conception of the event is at play in Stephenson’s thinking about Q methodology, and that this is key to understanding the quantum theoretical aspects of Q. Some of the procedures of Q methodology are then interpreted in the light of this conception. The conclusion uses the distinction between experience and expression to integregate the ideas of Stephenson, Whitehead and William James into a novel synthesis of potential use to Q methodologists.
Vol. 31
The Mutable Mandate: Crafting the Constructed Message, Meaning, and Strategic Subjectivity in the Post-Election Campaign for 2004
Dan B. Thomas, Wartburg College and Larry R. Baas, Valparaiso University
Taking it as axiomatic that, in the current historical context, aggregate results from American national elections rarely if ever “speak for themselves,” this research employs Q methodology to examine the subjective meanings toward the outcome of the 2004 presidential contest as these were formed and forged over the course of what we have termed “the post-election campaign” (Thomas & Baas, 1996). Based on recent historical experience and a handful of scholarly investigations, we argue that these ex post facto subjective accounts deserve to be regarded as not only alternative “political constructions,” but pending their narrative appeal as mythic mandates—“stories we tell ourselves about ourselves” (Levi-Strauss, 1978)—crucial manifestations of “politically strategic subjectivity” with profound implications as states of mind with the power to affect the course of action undertaken by like-minded leaders controlling the policymaking levers of the state. In this instance, two studies are reported: one undertaken at or near Bush’s second inauguration; the other conducted six months into his second term. What we find is consistent with Hershey’s (1992) proposition that the course of arriving at “conventional wisdom” on the meaning of a given electoral outcome, particularly the nature of the mandate it warrants, follows a “winnowing” pattern whereby an initial pool of plausible yet diverse constructions of the meaning of the vote undergoes simplification and consolidation over time, crystallizing eventually into a narrative—or small number of complementary stories—that gains acceptance as “conventional wisdom.” While our findings to a degree corroborate this claim, they fall short of a full-fledged confirmation. In light of electoral realities since, especially Democratic success in capturing both houses of Congress in the 2006 Midterms, there remains substantial contention over what can be concluded from the 2004 vote. Accordingly, we devote a Discussion to possible reasons for this, and what it may signify regarding current patterns of political debate and meaning-making in a politically polarized setting quite averse to detached, bipartisan compromise or consensus-building.
The Implementation of Contracting Out in Taiwan’s Local Governments: An Application of Q Methodology
Milan Tung-Wen Sun, National Chi Nan University
Contracting out has been practiced in Taiwan since 1993, and the recent reform efforts are to encourage its implementation at the local government level. To ensure the success of contracting out in Taiwan, it is argued that the practical experiences of local practitioners are more helpful in designing its implementation strategy. Q methodology is applied from a “bottom-up” approach through which street-level bureaucrats are invited to contribute their opinions and to perform the Q sorting. There are at least five discourses been revealed, each of them represents a distinctive perception of contracting out on the basis of personal experiences. It is argued that contracting out has been perceived as an administrative means through which public-private relationships can be promoted and ensured. Therefore, efforts to strengthen contract and network management capacities are needed to guarantee the success of implementing contracting out at local governments in Taiwan.
The Military Mind and American Public Philosophies: A Q-Methodology Approach
Darrell W. Driver, George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies
This article examines the veracity of longstanding claims that military leaders develop a coherent public ideology that is, first, distinct from the mainstream of their parent society and, second, that this military belief system is predictably conservative in character. In the American case, these claims depict self-selected and socialized military leaders as sharing in a conservative "military mind" that remains isolated from the mainstream of the American liberal tradition. Using a combination of Q-methodology public values sorting exercises followed by semi-structured, in-depth interviews, these arguments are tested through an intensive examination of the public philosophies of forty-five mid-level and senior U.S. Army officers and forty-five civilian community and business leaders. The result was the organic construction of four primary public belief systems, labeled here as Triumphant Individualism, Communitarian Democracy, Traditionalism, and Neo-Traditionalism. When these belief systems are matched to the conventional military mind wisdom, however, the basic claims of distinction, coherence, and conservatism are not supported. In place of ideological solidarity, one finds a diversity of value orderings and descriptions that do not easily fit the typical military-civilian categories and often belie the military respondents’ own self-identified political labels. These findings challenge existing shibboleths regarding the prospect of a "military mind," while questioning attendant claims regarding the capacity of military service to shape individuals' public values.
Obama-Clinton Nomination Struggle
James C. Rhoads, Westminster College and Dennis F. Kinsey, Syracuse University
The 2008 nomination battle between Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama was the closest in modern Democratic Party history, and attracted the close attention of the public. There seemed to be so little difference between the candidates in terms of issues and policy, and the split among voters appeared to be related to the perceptions of the candidates by these voters. Were voters motivated in their choice by Senator Clinton’s “experience,” Senator Obama’s “judgment,” ties to the administration of Bill Clinton, “post-partisanship,” gender, race, “electability,” or some other factors.? A strategy was thus employed to exploit the advantages of Q methodology in order to reveal a structure to these subjective viewpoints. Ultimately, a 45-statement Q sample was culled from internet blogs maintained by pundits and administered to participants in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania (27 respondents) and Syracuse, New York (24 respondents). Factor analysis revealed three distinct viewpoints in Pennsylvania and two distinct viewpoints in New York. A second-order factor analysis was undertaken to determine the degree of similarity between these factors.
Vol. 30 Issue 3/4
Consciring: A General Theory for Subjective Communicability
William Stephenson (1902-1989), University of Columbia, Missouri
A fundamental theory of communicability is proposed, covering all human communication in its subjective mode. It is correlative to information theory and communication in the objective mode of modern science. An equation for functional-information is provided, equivalent in importance to that for structural –information on which experiments in objective science are based. The theory leads to a scientific explanation for consciousness, or mind, and for all subjective communication.
Korean Public Relations Practitioners’ Perspectives on Integrated Marketing Communications Implementation
Ilchul Kim, Dongeui University
Since the appearance of integrated marketing communications (IMC) in the early 1990s, its differing characterizations as a ‘new marketing communication paradigm’ versus ‘nothing new’ or ‘management fad’ have not been fully settled. In practice, some organizations operating in Korea have adopted IMC and many marketing communication service agencies insist that their specialty lies in IMC. But from an academic perspective, the field does not seem to be that active here. Why is this? So far, most of the studies on IMC have utilized a quantitative research methodology and have focused primarily on enterprises and their advertising agencies in the areas of perception, implementation, barriers, evaluation and compensation and other individual elements. However, IMC depends as much on the cognitive and philosophical understanding of its practitioners as it does on their strategic or tactical capabilities. This study utilizing Q methodology sought to understand how public relations (PR) practitioners in Korea evaluate IMC in depth based on their experiences. Results show that Korean PR practitioners believe that IMC maximizes the communications effect and most advantageously takes into account changing market conditions. This study also confirmed that there are some barriers to optimum implementation of IMC in Korea such as low economies of scale, turf battles and insufficient top management involvement.
Vol. 30 Issue 1/2
Academic Procrastination by Undergraduate Students
Russell C. Hurd
Sixteen students participated in a study on reasons for academic procrastination. Sources of the concourse included free-writing by university students, academic literature, magazines, newspapers, web sites, and the researcher's personal experiences. The Q sample of 42 statements was structured around seven elements cited in the literature as influencing academic procrastination: task aversion, perfectionism/fear of failure, decision-making difficulties, self-handicapping strategies, emotions (e.g., defiance), pragmatic concerns, and time management skills. P-set members were undergraduates studying for teacher licensure at a regional campus of a large public university in the United States. They completed Q sorts and wrote explanatory responses to follow-up questions. Thirteen Q sorts became defining sorts in a four-factor solution. Data generated by PQMethod were interpreted in light of students' written comments. "Procrastinating for Pleasure" included students who were candid about preferring social activities to academic work. "Perfectionism at a Price" included students who wanted to do high-quality academic work but for whom procrastination exacted an emotional toll in anxiety and self-doubt. "Limited by Life" included students whose demanding family and work circumstances restricted their time for academic pursuits. "Delay by Design" included students who deliberately and positively built academic procrastination into their time management strategies. Interpretations of the data and implications for future research are presented.
Revealing Shifts in Attitude among Undergraduates Participating in Academic Service Learning Programs
Deborah Downing Wilson
Our research focuses on the design and implementation of collaborative learning environments. We use an academic service-learning model, the Fifth Dimension, to bring together resources from university and community organizations in order to provide practicum experience to university students and enriched learning opportunities to under-served children in the local community. One of the tasks that continually confronts us is the assessment of the impact of these interventions on our undergraduate participants. Q methodology, as it was designed expressly to study attitudes, perspectives, and world views, has proven to be particularly appropriate here. This paper describes our application of Q methodology in understanding the changes between pre- and post-term attitudes about teaching and learning in undergraduate students. It is our contention that practicum experience provides the opportunity for a holistic type of undergraduate development not possible in traditional classroom settings. Our results show that while marked shifts in attitude did occur during the class, the mindsets that the undergraduates brought with them into the program influenced the nature of those changes.
Student Views of Learning in a First Semester College Physics Course: A Study Using Q Methodology
Susan Ramlo, PhD
The purpose of this study is unique in its use of Q methodology to examine how students' personal epistemological views compared to how their instructor perceived their views. The ability to determine the differences and similarities in these epistemological views have implications for further research associated with learning (Halloun & Hestenes, 1998; May & Etkina, 2002; Schommer, 1993b) and instructor attitudes towards students. A variety of research methodologies have been employed to determine epistemology (Duell & Schommer-Aikins, 2001) including a number in physics (diSessa, 1993; Halloun & Hestenes, 1998; Hammer & Elby, 2003; Lising & Elby, 2005; Roth & Roychoudhury, 2003), but none have used Q methodology. This study demonstrated that Q is an effective way to reveal the multiple epistemological views in a classroom.
Attitudes toward Gender Equality: A Q Methodological Study
Youseop Shin
Attitudes towards gender equality are usually dichotomized. Those who say they support (or oppose) gender equality, however, may actually have different opinions on gender equality. When using traditional methods such as surveys and interviews in which respondents are asked to select one choice from limited choices that were prepared by a researcher, various subjective attitudes towards gender equality may not be well identified. This article uses Q methodology to identifying five different attitudes towards gender equality. This diversity of attitudes towards gender equality suggests that conventional measures of attitudes towards gender equality can be improved. Future researchers could extend the research to additional groups of respondents, thereby gaining a better understanding of attitudes towards gender equality and of gender equality itself.
Vol. 29 Issue 3/4
Tribute to Melanie Klein
William Stephenson
The Western Historical Manuscript Collection, at the University of Missouri-Columbia, houses the Stephenson Collection-over 70 document cartons the size of standard file-drawers. Among this material is Tribute to Melanie Klein which, from evidence in the text, appears to have been drafted for The Journal of the Melanie Klein Society in about 1988. While it is evidently not a finished piece, I have elected to leave the manuscript essentially intact. It provides strong indication that, near the end of his life, Stephenson was actively revisiting his unpublished books, Intimations of Self and Psychoanalysis and Q-methodology. In a 1985 note accompanying a gift of 10 unpublished book manuscripts to the Journalism School library at Columbia, Stephenson indicated that these two were not yet ready for readers. Stephenson envisaged that Tribute to Melanie Klein would include 10 "segments," five of which are reproduced here: Segments I-IV for the first time, and Segment X, 'Intentionality: or how to buy a loaf of bread', which is reprinted from Operant Subjectivity, 16(3/4), pp. 69-90.
Intentionality: Or How to Buy a Loaf of Bread
William Stephenson
Parallels are drawn between the action-plans and basic-actions of intentionality advanced by Boden (1973) and the quantized factors of Q methodology. Concluding that intentions are complex is distinguished from making complexity itself the object of inquiry, and what this implies is made the basis of an experiment focused on the transitory thought in Boden's essay. Of the three operant factors which result, two correspond to Boden's own conclusions, but the third is suggestive of a greater complexity, as found in the quantum theory of Prigogine (1980). A second study reveals three feeling states relative to Boden's problem about shopping for a loaf of bread, indicating that intentionality extends from the simplest to the most complex of events. The conclusion is reached that the assumption of unity, present since the Middle Ages, must give way to complementarity and multiple intentionalities.
The Meaning of 'Heritage': Mapping Discursive Perspectives with Q Methodology
Emma Waterton
Heritage' is not a fixed, unchanging 'thing', but is something that is constructed, created, constituted and reflected by discourses. This contingency of 'heritage' upon discourse means that policy is not simply a neutral domain within which 'heritage' problems and solutions are mapped. Rather, policy becomes a site for analysis or a means by which to explore through discourse the social realities of heritage management, particularly in terms of the power relations that monitor and sustain social hierarchies and social change. This article maps a range of heritage perspectives using Q methodology. Key here is the idea that while expressions of heritage may be vocalised in similar ways, the meanings underpinning those vocalisations may be directed by different motives and underlying assumptions. Q methodology is thus used here to offer a way by which to recognise not only the natural or commonplace definitions of heritage privileged in national legislation, but those alternative perceptions understood and adhered to by other, and often subaltern, groups. As such, this article presents an overview of the different ways in which 'heritage' is perceived, examining both the nuances of the dominant perspective embedded in heritage policy, as well as a range of alternative experiences and perspectives that exist in tension with that dominant - and authorised - discourse.
Using Q Methodology as a Strategy to Explore Cultural Opinions toward Health Care
Chris M. Ray, Jerilyn Thorman, Diane Montgomery, Yan Yang, Jovette Dew
The need for this study relates to the health disparity problem facing racially, ethnically, and socio-economically diverse people who may not seek or receive the necessary care to maintain their health. Describing the ways that underrepresented groups view wellness using Q methodology may lead to improvements in the quality and equity of health care delivery by increasing the cultural competency of providers. The Q sample was an expansion of one used previously (Sylvester, 2000). This study utilized Q methodology to identify attitudes about healthcare access of African Americans. Statements were added to broaden the range of opinions that might be expressed by other groups, including low-income and other ethnic groups. Of the 43 Oklahomans from various ethnic groups who sorted the 47-item Q set, three factors defined by 27 of the sorts were interpreted to be related to types of health care priorities. Care through Prevention view preventative health care most important, with an emphasis on a well-balanced lifestyle. Participants defining Care through Relationships place a particular focus upon developing strong relationships with caretakers. Participants defining Care for All recognize the need for all Oklahomans to have access to quality health care regardless of socioeconomic status. Implications for further research are discussed.
Vol. 29 Issue 1/2
Segmentation of Public Perceptions on Romania's Accession to the EU
Vlad Tureanu, Dragos Iliescu
European Union (EU) enlargement and integration generated intense debate almost immediately following the first wave of discussion on expansion. Now that the EU border has reached the line of the former Soviet states, the topic is less hypothetical and more significant than ever, especially because the entire EU project's success seems to depend heavily on favorable public opinion. In Romania most of the quantitative measures of public opinion on European issues, like those of the Eurobarometer series, have been run since the beginning of the '90s. Yet, a study concerned with measuring the individual, subjective opinions about EU accession, as well as the formation of these opinions, was still much needed. Q methodology is highly suitable for such an endeavor. As a consequence, concourse statements about EU enlargement and integration were gathered after qualitative discussions with individuals. A Q deck of 46 statements was generated and administered to a sample of 170 individuals. Five factors emerged in the analysis, covering rather surprising and often bleak attitudinal structures. Some of those perceptions were identified as being part as a deeper cultural heritage rooted in Romania's recent history. Some others should be attributed to an often wrong and incoherent framing of the issues by the media and politicians.
Metaphorical Representations of the HR Consultant
Dragos Iliescu, Vlad Tureanu
Metaphors are among the most important means of constructing an organizational reality and, as such, are one of the foci of scientific research in the organizational arena. That this focal point has failed to develop more fully is probably due to the methodological difficulties involved in studying metaphors. Q methodology, with its fundamental accent on the scientific study of subjectivity, brings with it both an epistemic orientation and the technical means to tackle the problem. The present study adopts a Q-methodological frame in order to investigate common metaphors applied by human resources (HR) specialists to the HR consultants they work with. A qualitative wave identified 14 metaphors, with active meanings in seven areas of construction. From these, 57 statements were selected and sorted by 41 HR managers and general managers in top Romanian companies. Four factors emerged, covering rather unexpected constructions that, in some ways, diverge from the classical metaphors known to organizational consultants.
Theoretical Incompatibilities in Teachers' Selfunderstandings of Educational Practice: An Examination Using Q Methodology
Geoffrey Madoc-Jones, Natalia Gajdamaschko
This study uses Q-methodology to investigate teachers' and student teachers' theoretical perspectives concerning educational practice and their possible incompatibilities, based on work by Kieran Egan. Q methodology, as a small-sample, intensive methodology, assists in obtaining understandings concerning the subjectivity of participants that are not possible through more traditional means. It may also, as demonstrated in this paper, provide evidence in support of theoretical work. Four factors, though highly correlated, map closely to Egan's descriptions of varieties of educational practices. The findings are considered in the light of Charles Taylor's work, which provides a way to theorize the relationship between thought and action. Taylor maintains that there is always a pre-theoretical understanding concerning what is happening in a social practice, such as teaching, that requires the participants to have self-descriptions that are constitutive of their involvement. Our findings challenge teachers to reflect more deeply on their practices.
Vol. 28 Issue 3/4
A Sentence from B. F. Skinner
William Stephenson
A sentence by Professor B.F. Skinner, 'It occurred to me to go for a walk,' provides an opportunity to give it a framework of quantized subjectivity, as distinct from Skinner's approach of contingent reinforcement. Skinner's analysis of 'cognitive thought' is sustained, but this in turn has to be rejected by post-Einsteinian theory with respect to subjectivity, ignored in cognitive psychology and Skinnerian Behaviorism alike. Modern science begins with the complexity of events, as in theories of chaos and turbulence, and it is from this standpoint that the growing science of subjectivity made its beginnings in Q-methodology, as concourse theory. Self-reference is crucial in this development, and is advanced in terms of the everyday communicability of a culture, largely as verbal behavior. Skinner's well-known achievements in this matter remain in the determinative framework of Newtonian science. It is time for recognition of the indeterminateness of nature, and for acceptance of a science for subjectivity.
Co-leader subjectivity in an educational setting
Ragnvald Kvalsund, Eleanor Allgood
The study focuses on the subjectivity of co-leadership as it is experienced in certain counselling, guidance and leadership courses in higher education in Norway. The learning process is always facilitated by two leaders who work together. In this intensive study, six experienced co-leaders sorted the sample six times with the different conditions of instruction focusing on various perspectives of the co-leadership relation. Rogers' ideal and real selves and Laings' direct and meta-perspectives are among the conditions of instruction. The experimental design was constructed around three effects ? relation, role and activity. A 3-factor solution was chosen that revealed different views of the co-leader relation. Role effect played a minor part in the factors and activity was not operational. The finding that some leaders had difficulty seeing their co-leader as different from them was an interesting discovery that prompts further investigation.
Eight quantum realities redux: Finding David Bohm
Michael Stricklin
This paper addresses a basic component of Q methodology, namely, how judgmental rotation of centroid factors empowers the researcher to more thoroughly investigate communicability. A Q study of eight interpretations of quantum facts, genuinely worldviews in themselves, is the vehicle for the exposition, and two rotations, both theoretical, are examined. The first rotation is an exercise in intellectual curiosity (intellectual play) that was carried out in 2001; the second ensued from work published by Simon Watts and Paul Stenner in 2003 and from comments and responses to them by Steven Brown.
Vol. 28 Issue 1/2
An End to Ideology
Leonard J. Barchak
A trilogy of ideologies is haunting the modern world-the trilogy of Marxist socialism, unencumbered individualism, and fascist religiosity. Should all the social scientific powers of old and new Europe as well as those of the Americas and their progeny enter into an alliance to hunt down and exorcise this trilogy? Perhaps it is high time that Q methodologists should openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, their tendencies, and meet these nursery tales with a manifesto of their own. To this end, the collected works of William Stephenson and Steven Brown and those of the growing number of Q researchers, present and afoot, might be assembled and published in the major languages of the world. Now that would be a class struggle.
Theory and Methodology for Esthetics
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Female Executives in Biotechnology: A Contextual Approach to Understanding Their Work Environments
Daun R. Anderson
This research study used Q methodology to uncover the perceptions and experiences of 25 women at the vice president level and above in 21 biotechnology companies in Massachusetts. Through personal interviews, web-based interviews, and Q sorts the women provided a range of views regarding their work environments. The study contributes to the literature on subjectivity and organizational behavior by revealing the participants' views of specific individual and group behaviors that facilitate career advancement for women. It extends social role and structural theories by adding to the literature on the role of context in shaping professional experiences. The women identified teamwork and integrity, politics and barriers to advancement, or expertise and opportunity as being most characteristic of their organizational cultures and environments.
The Future of the Q Methodology Movement
Russell C. Hurd, Steven R. Brown
Concern about the future of Q methodology is examined by drawing a concourse from contributions to the Q-Method electronic discussion list, N=40 of which comprise a Q sample that is administered to n=42 participants, resulting in four factors. Those on Factor A (Orthodoxy Upheld) express a desire to maintain Stephenson's original conception of Q methodology and are concerned about intellectual leadership. Members of Factor B (Orthodoxy Applied and Promoted) are likewise supporters of the Stephenson tradition, but wish to vouchsafe Q's future through practical application to significant social issues and presenting the results in professional (non-Q) settings. Those on Factor C (Orthodoxy Reinforced) distinguish themselves from the previous two groups by virtue of their demand for greater material and non-material resources in support of the Q movement. The group on Factor D (Beyond Orthodoxy) expresses a desire to break with the past and encourage Q's accommodation with contemporary technical and conceptual developments, such as web-based Q sorting and qualitative research. Discussion focuses on the implications of these perspectives for the future of Q methodology.
Vol. 27 Issue 4
Civil-Religious Ideation and American Exceptionalism: Negotiating National Identity in a Contentious Time
Dan B. Thomas, Bruce McKeown & Larry R. Baas
In this research with college students and faculty in three private religiously-affiliated schools, we undertake an examination of the contemporary relevance of civil-religious ideation to the subjective understanding Americans have about the meaning of being American. In one sense this project constitutes an extension of earlier studies designed to discern the range of meanings within America civil religion (McKeown & Thomas, 1985; 2003). At the same time, we are seeking to appraise the argument recently advanced by Huntington (20041; 2004b) that the only hope of preserving national unity in times of trial is by renewing commitments to the American Creed. He deems this project infeasible without an energized revivification of Anglo-Protestant civil-religious culture and discourse. Crucial empirical questions lie at the heart of the larger debate over the appeals and perils of framing national identity in religious terms. Mostly these questions pertain to matters of measurement and, heretofore, have been addressed inadequately in large-sample surveys. Foremost among these is the simple yet elusive notion of national identity. Is there, in our politically and culturally polarized setting of "red states" vs. "blue states," a distinctive, non-divisive answer to the national identity question? If so, which is its relationship to civil-religious symbolism and sentiment? The present project addresses these larger questions.
Vol. 27 Issue 3
Reserving a Key Place for Reality: Philosophical Foundations of Theoretical Rotation
Steven R. Brown & Richard Robyn
Factor rotation has been a controversial topic in the history of factor analysis, and preference has always been for a solution that is determinate, such as the simple-structure solution approximated by varimax. Stephenson's preference for judgmental rotation, available in Q methodology software packages such as QMethod and PCQ, is little used, due in part to lack of understanding of its philosophical bases in the writings of Egon Brunswik (psychological cues), J. R. Kantor (specificity), Charles S. Peirce (abductory logic), and Michael Polanyi (tacit knowledge). The philosophical justifications for theoretical rotation are summarized, and concrete examples are presented as illustration designed to encourage acceptance and more widespread use.
Theoretical Rotation as a Tool for Identifying Points of Leverage in People's Perspectives for Program Improvement
Brett Kramer & Virginia Gravina
This paper's main objective is to provide a specific example of a research context in which theoretical rotation (also referred to as judgmental, geographic, or hand rotation) was justified and pursued. The paper specifically illustrates 1) how the authors determined theoretical rotation criteria; 2) the process by which these criteria guided the rotation; and 3) why this was more statistically, theoretically, and pragmatically satisfying than using varimax rotation. The case focused on the social, economic, and contextual reasons why some farmers in Uruguay declined to participate in a dairy herd improvement project, called the genetic registry. Q methodology was used to cast non-participating farmers' perspectives in relation to those of program planners. Because the unrotated factor matrix supported program planners loading on the same factor, theoretical rotation was used to retain as many program planners as possible on the same factor. By following this rotational scheme, one functional perspective was most heavily populated with program planners; the result was a data solution that contrasted the program personnel's viewpoint with that of the other three views that emerged in the rotation, all of which were populated entirely by farmers. Practical implications point to the suitability and power of theoretical rotation versus varimax rotation in Q methodology when the P set "matters". That is, it matters when Q methodology is used intentionally to keep one set of respondents on the same factor in order to contrast their shared perspective with other attitudes that emerge in the study. The result is contrasting functional perspectives and the identification of leverage points between the view that represent points of convergence and divergence.
The Bones of a Concourse
Amanda Wolf
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famously claimed that the "life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience (1881). Without experience, the law has no bones (Menand, 2001, p. 341). William Stephenson claimed, in essence, that understandings grasped through interpretations of factors are the "life" of the concourse. It follows that Q methodology puts the bones in a concourse as "conversational possibilities." New conversational possibilities flow from Q sorting, post-sort interviews, and factor interpretations. They may be distinguished from the "distinct feelings" (Stephenson 1983, p 81), or factor interpretations, construed as the bones of a concourse, which are examined at a remove from the concourse. To provide an example of the "life" of a concourse, a Q methodology study of the views of senior public policy officials and academics in New Zealand on the implications of diversity for policy is reported. The bones of the concourse are interpreted through three factors. One factor represents a view that adopts a "practical" orientation, in which government is interventionist. A second factor considers diversity as a fact to be accommodated through good policy analysis, not as a value to be actively managed. The third factor is distinctive in conveying a "passion" for diversity. Looked at differently, as if from within the concourse, these three factors are subtle variations on a theme, one emphasising process, once concept, and the third colour or feeling. This suggests that Q methodology serves to evoke study participants' responses as from a viewpoint, or perspective, in a flow of communicability on diversity and policy of which all have a part. This understanding, complementing that gained through factor interpretations, draws on the similarities as well as the differences among views. In the illustrative case, the understanding potentially may assist the concourse "owners" (strategic policy thinkers) to beeter address the challenges in New Zealand policy making.
Vol. 27 Issue 2
Teacher Attitudes Towards Misconceptions in Physics Learning
Nurulhuda Abd. Rahman
This is a study of the relationship between teachers' views about misconceptions in secondary physics learning and their classroom teaching practices. An in-depth exploration of individual teacher viewpoints was conducted using Q methodology. A 50-statement Q sample was sorted by 23 physics teachers (14 experienced and 9 novices). Items were obtained from the literature and were chosen after pilot testing with a group of trainee graduate science teachers. Results showed three distinct viewpoints that reflected the "conception of misconceptions" in physics learning of two thirds of the participant teachers. Factors found were: tolerant/positive acceptance, confrontational/non-acceptant or less aware/indifferent about the nature of misconceptions and how to address them. Little difference was seen between the views of novice and experienced teachers. Implications for the next stage of research are discussed.
Youth Perceptions of Bullying: Thinking Outside the Box
Kelly L. Wester & Heather C. Trepal
Bullying, aggression, and intimidation are common phenomena in U.S. schools and can lead to a decline in academic functioning, isolation, distress, and other symptoms of trauma. Although a plethora of research has been conducted on the types, rates, and effects of bullying, none asks students their perceptions of bullying behaviors. In this study Q methodology and interviews with fifth through eighth grade students found differing descriptions of the behaviors they perceive as "bullying". Q factor analysis revealed eight distinct perceptions of bullying behaviors including direct and indirect behaviors. Additionally, some of the youths in the sample did not identify with any of the factors, indicating that there are probably other perceptions of bullying behaviors as well. Recommendations are given for professionals who work with youths.
Experienced and Preservice Teacher Beliefs About How Best to Teach Beginning Reading
April D. Nauman, Arlene C. Borthwick & Terry Stirling
Q methodology was used to explore inservice and preservice teachers' beliefs about how to best teach beginning reading. Two separate studies and analyses were done; and the Q sorts from two P sets were subjected to second-order factor analysis. In study 1, 36 undergraduate and graduate education students at a Chicago-area university performed a Q sort of 39 cards describing common literacy activities. Q statistical analysis identified six factors, two consisting almost entirely of inservice teachers and four consisting mainly of preservice teachers. In study 2, 56 participants sorted the Q deck of literacy activities. This study population included teachers from many regions of Illinois with more varied academic backgrounds that the original sample. Q analysis identified five factors, one consisting only of experienced teachers, two consisting mainly of novices, and two split between inservice and preservice teachers. Second-order factor analysis revealed substantial concordance between the Study 1 and Study 2 solutions. Clear contrasts in beliefs about good reading instruction were noted between the expert and novice groups. In general, experienced teachers shared a similar perspective, despite the fact that their teaching environments and student populations varied greatly. The expert perspective was characterized by a view that reading is a multifaceted process; an emphasis on internal motivation; an emphasis on parent and teacher modeling of reading to enhance children's motivation and skill; knowledge of recent research, especially on balanced literacy approaches and the role of prior knowledge in comprehension; the importance of keeping young children engaged in learning and preserving their self-esteem; and rejection of older teaching techniques that seem developmentally inappropriate, autocratic, or dull. Conversely, the novice perspective heavily emphasized traditional phonics instructions and displayed a lack of knowledge of educational terminology, instructional practices and concepts, and young children. Implications are discussed.
Vol. 27 Issue 1
Using Q methodology to Evaluation a Day Service for Younger Adult Stroke Survivors
Susan Corr, Ceri J. Phillips & Rose Capdevila
Q methodology was used in programme evaluation of the Cardiff Day Service, which was launched in July 1995 specifically for adult stroke survivors 18-55 years of age. The aim of the Service was to offer participants an opportunity to identify and pursue meaningful and realistic situations within the community that would enable them to meet their personal aspiration, and develop their full potential. The purpose of this student is its application as a tool for understanding, evaluating, and extending or redirecting this Day Service. A 41-item Q set pertaining to perceived benefits of the Cardiff Day Service were sorted by 18 Helpers, yielding five factors (psychological gains, social confidence, encourages communication, respite for careers, and sense of purpose). The Q set sorted by Users was reduced to 33 items, after pilot testing indicated that users could not concentrate long enough to complete the longer sort. Seventeen User Q sorts resulted in six factors (new experiences, feeling valued, social recovery, security, prevents isolation, and general recovery). The evidence from this aspect of the programme evaluation suggests that the Service is a welcome initiative, Reconsideration of its structure led to a suggestion to establish two distinct branches, one to provide social support and another for rehabilitation support., Q methodology can continue to provide important input into the evolution of the Service by addressing questions about how best to meet the needs of pre-retirement individuals after stroke.
Managing of Cancer and Hospice Among Health Service Providers: Conflict or Congruity?
Boon Han Kim, Jun Kyung Kim
This Q methodological study identified the subjective structure of the meaning of cancer and hospice and explored the relationship between the two concepts. Thirty-three participants completed a 33-item Q sort representing their understanding of cancer. And thirty-six participants completed a 30-iten Q sort representing their understanding of hospice. Four subjective factors for the meaning of cancer and five subjective factors for the meaning of hospice were identified. Factor interpretations are presented and compared. Several considerations for nursing educators and nurses involved in hospice care are discussed.
Vol. 26 Issue 3
Revisiting Student Writer Apprehension: A New Interpretation of the Riffe and Stacks's Writing Apprehension Measure
Mark Popovich, Nark Masse, Beverley Pitts
The goal of this study of entry level media writing students at a Midwestern university was to determine whether their attitudes toward writing changed during the interval from beginning to end of their first (100 level) college journalism class. A well conceived and tested empirical tool for measuring writing apprehension was adapted for use as a Q sort. An individual assessment of writing apprehension was obtained by using Q methodology to provide a personalized (subjective) measure of attitudes as opposed to analyzing group norms, thus confirming and extending previous research on the phenomenon conducted by Riffe and Stacks. The application of Q methodology provided a deeper understanding, that supported, but it some instances, altered, the interpretation of previous observations. Data from the Pre- and Post-Class Q sorts were compared to assess the impact of the class on student attitudes toward writing. This study demonstrates the realignment of student confidence and career goals that accompanies increasing acquaintance with the realities of the chosen profession provided by the initial professional class.
Instinctive Influence: An Exploration of the Influences of Opinion Leaders on Buyers of Original Fine Art
Maura Murphy Hoss, Dennis F. Kinsey
Forty-eight emerging buyers of fine art sorted a forty-seven statement Q sample representing motivations for purchasing contemporary, original, two-dimensional art. The Q sample was developed from the academic literature and from 17 in-depth interviews with opinion leaders. Two factors emerged from the factor analysis of the 48 Q sorts. Factor A participants look for meaning in art as it relates to them. Emerging Factor A buyers embrace opportunities to meet an artist. Knowledge of the artist's perspective broadens their understanding of the meaning of the piece. These less-experienced buyers rely on trusted friends, family, and colleagues to help them work through the process of making a purchasing decision. Factor B sorters are more interested in context of the art in their environment and in the larger art scene. Factor B members tend to go outside their peer group when making a purchase decision. Merely connecting with an interior designer, architect, gallery representative, or source of aesthetic confidence, Factor B individuals find the emotional support needed to help validate their choice of art to be purchased.
Vol. 26 Issue 2
Targeted Faculty Development and Program Administration Based on Subjective Structural Analysis of Academic Physician Needs
Ann S. Chinnis, Debra J. Paulson, Stephen M. Davis
Fiscal changes in the health care environment have placed increasing pressures on 21st century academic physicians. This situation has made it increasingly difficult for academic chairs and administrators to assess the multiple needs of academic clinician-educators. This study reports the use of Q methodology to assess emergency medicine physicians' faculty development needs. Among the physicians, three distinct viewpoints concerning clinician-educator needs emerged: physicians in search of workload balance, those happy with the status quo, and those in search of cohesive community. Needs common to multiple viewpoints were also identified. These findings helped the investigators create specific targeted strategies that took into account both individual and group needs. The structured approach to subjectivity, ad key feature of Q method, can assist academic decision-makers to identify and fulfill the needs of their faculty physicians in a more democratic and efficacious manner.
Vol. 25 Issue 3/4
Subjectivity and Behaviorism: Skinner, Kantor, and Stephenson
Bryan D. Midgley, Edward K. Morris
Since the founding of behaviorism, most behaviorists have stressed the importance of objectivity for a natural science of behavior. This does not imply, however, that they ignored or denied subjectivity. Skinner's radical behaviorism, for example, equated subjectivity with mainly events inside the skin; Kantor's interbehavioral psychology equated it with uniqueness; and Stephenson's Q methodology equated subjectivity with perspective or point of view. This paper clarifies these approaches to subjectivity and emphasizes their importance in a natural science of behavior, and places Stephenson's behaviorism within the context of the others, examining some of the similarities and differences among them.
Q Methodology and the Operant Construct
Dennis J. Delprato, Steven R. Brown
The Q methodology operant construct is examined in terms of some implications of operantcy for the comprehensive approach to psychological subjectivity. After briefly noting B. F. Skinner's operant and an early reference to the construct by W. Stephenson, the developer of Q methodology, this paper explores seven ways in which operantcy facilitates the study of subjectivity. These include [1] subjectivity as purely behavioral, and not as one side of some mind-body dualism; [2] the sorter's perspective as primary, rather than secondary, to that of a test constructor; [3] operant factor structure as emitted and inherently meaningful; [4] factors as interpretable in their own right, and not as tests of preconceived hypotheses; [5] operant factors as naturally-occurring and confrontable; [6] complementarity, whereby in the same experiment some factors may be paradoxical yet still essential for describing the outcome; and [7] the field system alternative of quantum physics as opposed to the causal determinism found in classical physics. The main conclusion is that the operant is used in Q methodology in ways that are consistent with the latest developments in the logic of science.
Subjective Behavior Analysis
Steven R. Brown
Q methodology was developed in the 1930s and has become increasingly utilized as a means for examining subjective behavior in a rigorous and naturalistic way. One of the advantages of Q methodology is its utility in examining single cases, which, when conjoined with the mathematics of factor analysis, reveals parallels with quantum theory. An illustration is presented from a study of national identity in which spontaneous and indeterminate expressions of national sentiment are selected from interviews and gathered into a Q sample, which is then administered as a Q sort to a small group of participants. Factor analysis of the data reveals identities expressed as national pride, shame, and apprehension. A second study on authoritarianism illustrates the presence of quantum effects revealed in the subjective communicability of a representative personality to which the same Q sort is administered under multiple conditions of instruction, which demonstrates diverse response functions emerging as equivalent to the interference effects of quantum experiments.
Behavior under Conditions of Uncertainty: Empirical Probes of Subjective Probability
Robert M. Lipgar
A particular pattern of responses is produced when adults are required to make a series of choices between two possible outcomes without benefit of feedback or other information upon which to estimate probabilities of a particular outcome. The predictability of such patterning affirms that guessing behavior is organized by subjectively held "beliefs" about random events - a "subjective probability notion." The study replicated previous findings of a typical or "normal" pattern of guessing behaviors for adults (Lawlor 1956). Further, a Q study of subjective probability notions revealed four factors. Behaviors of representatives and non-representatives of these four factors were examined under three other conditions of uncertainty: coin-toss guessing patterns, narrative responses to Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) pictures, and verbalized perceptions in response to Rorschach's inkblots. Consistent response patterns for representatives of two factors, "normal" and "atypical," were found across conditions of uncertainty, suggesting that subjective probability notions are indicators of underlying core personality constructs. Consistent response patterns associated with the two other factors were less clearly manifest, suggesting that these two Q factors represent "reaction types," rather than established subjective probability notions. The results overall demonstrate that psychological dispositions, "personality variables," or "subjectively-held organizational orientations" (Brunswik 1939) can be studied scientifically and found to be lawful determinants of human behavior.
Vol. 25 Issue 2
Probing the Subjective Communicability of an Unfolding Presidential Scandal: A Q Study of the Clinton/Lewinsky Affair
Dan Thomas, Larry R. Baas
This paper reports the results from a pair of Q studies designed to probe the subjective communicability accompanying the so-called "Lewinsky scandal." The first phase of the research was undertaken approximately one month after the initial reports aired alleging a sexual relationship between President Bill Clinton and the twenty-four-year-old White House intern. This "First Wave," based on a sample of Iowa college students, discovered six separate versions of the developments and their significance. The "Second Wave," utilizing the same Q sample, was conducted two months later, finding four factors from the Q sorts of the Indiana respondents. Comparisons of the two data sets reveal similarities and differences between popular constructions of the scandal during its initial phases and four months into the story's coverage. Factors from both studies are interpreted in light of their distinguishing subjectivity, and in terms of the light they shed on the unusual and unanticipated trajectory of strong public support for the Clinton presidency coupled with highly unfavorable news coverage over the course of the scandal. Furthermore, the four factors from the second study bear a striking resemblance to factors discovered by other Q studies conducted in different locales near the end of the impeachment spectacle. We conclude by considering and speculating on the significance among the factors of sharply antagonistic sentiment toward prominent principals (other than the President) who were involved the spectacle.
"Sex, Lies, and Videotape": Attitudes toward the Clinton Impeachment
James C. Rhoads, Steven R. Brown
Students in an undergraduate Political Science class at Kent State University performed a Q sort concerning the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, and each administered it to two other persons, for a total of n=47. Another n=26 Q sorts were obtained from students at Westminster College. The two sets of Q sorts were analyzed separately, the Kent sample producing four factors, the Westminster sample producing three. Refactoring the data indicated that the three Westminster factors matched three of the Kent factors almost exactly. Factor A provides an anti-Clinton, Conservative "spin" on the scandal. Factor B is willing to hold Clinton responsible for his actions, but maintain that those seeking impeachment are overreacting to the situation. Factor C, a bipolar factor, represents an indignation-cynicism dichotomy, with those at one end of the factor reacting moralistically, while those on the other end are cynical toward the political process more generally. Finally, Factor D was found only among the Kent respondents, and was comprised mostly of liberal Democrats. The major theme of Factor D was that Clinton's private life should be of little concern to the public, and that the President's political opponents exploited the crisis. The study helps to clarify views of the scandal that confounded pundits who seemed confused in reading polling data. During much of the scandal the public expressed dismay at Clinton's behavior, while simultaneously endorsing his performance as president. These results reveal that the categories of Democrats vs. Republicans are far too crude to capture the realities of the public's reactions in light of the more subtle and nuanced reactions of the factors in this study.
Q Technique and Questionnaires
Steven R. Brown
Q methodology is based upon small numbers of cases, but small-sample analyses can be useful in the prior structuring of questionnaires for administration to large samples. An illustration is provided of a study of reaction to the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, which produced four Q factors that were initially characterized both in terms of the subjectivity involved as well as their connections to demographic variables. Statements that distinguished the factors were then placed in a questionnaire that was administered by telephone to a randomly selected sample of 81 students. Indices of factor membership were calculated in terms of the questionnaire responses to the distinguishing statements, and the connection of these factor categories to other variables were then determined through conventional hypothesis testing. The survey results reaffirm the limitation of Q methodology in reaching dependable conclusions about proportions and trait associations that require larger numbers of observations, but they also showed Q's authority in the subjective domain as well as its utility in improving the functional utility of questionnaires.
Vol. 25 Issue 1
An Analysis of Internet Adopters
Byung Lee, Janna Quitney Anderson
Millions have gone online in the past five years but not all have completely adopted the Internet. This research employed Q methodology to classify Internet users and explore reasons why some users are more inclined to embrace Internet technology than others. The respondents were forty college students who sorted a 46-statmetn Q sample. Results revealed three distinct viewpoints toward the adoption of the Internet. "Assimilators" absorb and incorporate the Internet into their thinking and lifestyle. "Convenience Users," seeking instant gratification, move quickly on the Internet; they hop on to get what they want when they want it and they hop out. "Reluctant Users" prefer real-life experiences to the virtual ones offered on the Internet. They like face-to-face interaction with other people and have a fear that the seductive power of the Internet might change their lifestyle. A usage survey that accompanied the Q sort also showed that three groups are different in the purposes of their Internet use. Communication was the most important purpose of Internet use except with the Reluctant Users, who valued information gathering more than communication. Respondents' gender and level of perceived Internet savvy seemed to be factor predictors.
Factor Stability, Number of Significant Loadings, and Interpretation: Evidence from Three Studies and Suggested Guidelines
John R. Fairweather
Factor stability is an important issue for Q methodological studies that seek to identify viewpoints in a population, since it is possible that the addition of significant loading can change the factor array and the consequent interpretation. This article examines change in the composition of factors as the number of significant loadings changes and the subsequent effects on interpretation. The literature does not give firm guidance on the appropriate number of significant loadings. Data from three case studies are presented showing the extent of changes in the distribution of items in the selected factor arrays that occur as the numbers of subjects and significant loadings increase, In some cases, changes in item position altered factor interpretation. The results show that a number of research dimensions affect factor stability, so there are no uniform rules to guide researchers. The general applicability of the results is discussed with suggestions relevant to the issue of factor stability.
Vol. 24 Issue 4
Beliefs Regarding Society and Nature: A Framework for Listening in Forest and Environmental Policy
Ann Mead Hooker
At the turn of the 20th century, concepts of preservation, conservation, and development shaped policy arguments about the individual's relationship to society and nature. Recent Gallup polls show widespread and continued concern for environmental problems and broad support for the environmental movement and its goal of environmental protection. Forest policy makers, however, have tended to assume that early 20th century attitudes still dominate, creating a barrier to their understanding of the nuances of current public opinion. In this study, Q methodology was used to examine public opinion along with stratified random sampling and small sample theory for those segments of the public that tend to participate in forest policy. A complex framework was revealed of at least 4, and possibly 5, factors: New Steward, New Conservationist, Individualist, Traditional Steward, and Environmental Activist. By uncovering a wider and more current range of views than has been assumed, the analysis allows the policy analyst to redefine the forest policy agenda in greater depth. It is now possible to move beyond looking for one grand, but elusive, solution to developing a packet of responses addressing the different aspects of the policy agenda.
Attitudes toward Affirmative Action Programs: A Q Methodological Study
Nancy H. DeCourville, Carolyn L. Hafer
This study examined the structure and content of attitudes toward affirmative action programs, including preferential hiring based on gender or minority group status. Ninety-seven individuals recruited from the community (51 women, 43 men, 3 of unspecified gender), were presented with 70 statements obtained in a telephone survey of attitudes toward affirmative action programs. They sorted the statements on an 11-point scale ranging from -5 (least like my point of view) to +5 (most like my point of view). The Q sorts were factor analyzed using principal components analysis with varimax rotation. Three interpretable factors emerged. Factor 1 was defined by 15 women and 28 men. The group expressed strong negative reactions to affirmative action programs, focusing mainly on qualifications and merit of candidates. Factor 2 was defined by 22 women and 6 men. In contrast to the first group, participants on this factor were in favor of affirmative action programs, a position that appeared to be based on recognition of inequality in the work place and the need for change. Finally, Factor 3 was defined by 7 women and 6 men, whose attitudes seemed to be based primarily on the denial of disadvantage. Despite the fact that affirmative action policies have been in effect for as long as 30 years, only a relatively small proportion of respondents appeared to understand the need for and goals of these policies. Results of this research provide new insights and a basis for work to change misconceptions about affirmative action. Comparisons between a single-item attitude measure and the 3 perspectives represented in this study help to illustrate the usefulness of Q methodology in subjective studies.
Vol. 24 Issue 3
Investor Response to Online Stock Trading: A Study Using Q Methodology
Byung Lee, Wonhi Synn
After the introduction of online trading, some investors adopted it while others stuck to their full-service brokers. This research employed Q methodology to identify different groups and why they responded differently to the same innovation of online trading. The respondents were 26 adults - 24 investors and 2 non-investors - who sorted a 40-statement Q sample. Analysis revealed 4 groups - 3 factors, or types, with 1 factor being bipolar. Factor 1, long-term investors, sought expert advice because they did not feel confident in their own judgment and research skills, but would like to be involved in online trading in the future. Factor 2 wanted to invest online for empowerment and fun. Factor 3, a bipolar factor, had a group that distrusted full-service brokers and wanted to save transaction costs through online trading, while capturing gains from daily price fluctuations. Another group under Factor 3 was composed of staunch supporters of full-service brokers. These 4 groups seemed to fit into the stages of the innovation-adoption process that diffusion theorists have propounded. Empowerment and fun were important elements attracting investors to online trading along with price and trust. Privacy, anonymity, and protection of investor assets were not important. Gender and the frequency of stock trading seemed to be type determiners, but age, occupation, time of initial stock purchase, or size of portfolio did not.
The Work Group as a Learning Group in Counseling: Leader Subjectivity in Group Learning Processes
Eleanor Allgood, Ragavald Kvalsund
Consultants and leaders frequently are called upon to facilitate group processes at high levels as interest in shared learning and cooperative work groups increases among organizations. Their views on all phases of group life will influence the group's communication field and its development. The purpose of the study was to discover how the leaders of learning groups view the developmental features of beginning and mature groups. A persons-in-relation developmental approach was used to uncover leader/consultant subjectivity regarding real and ideal groups in both beginning and mature developmental phases. Forty-two Q sorts were subjected to by-person factor analysis. Four factors are interpreted and discussed: 1) the group as a group, 2) cooperation and self-realization, 3) honesty and truth through individuation, and 4) perturbation as separation and individuation. Commonalities among the factors are also presented. The need for leaders to value interdependency in work groups and to learn communication skill sets that can facilitate the development of competent work groups is discussed.
Vol. 24 Issue 2
Centrisms, Noncentrisms, and Universal Q
Noel W. Smith
I will examine a number of current theoretical systems and issues in logic of science. Then I will suggest why it is that Q can serve those systems that have a substantially different logic of science. My analysis will be confined to psychology, for that is the field I know best; but perhaps some of my remarks will have some relevance to other fields as well. I will begin with a scheme that I found useful in a textbook writing project (Smith 2001). This divides theoretical systems into groups. A system's placement in a group depends on where the locus of causality is placed in the system. If the organism causes its own behavior, the system is organocentric; if the environment causes behavior, it is envirocentric. If the social order is the center of behavior, it is sociocentric. If the system considers organism-environment relationships to constitute causality, I call it noncentric. Both organocentrism and envirocentrism assume linear causality: A causes B. Noncentrism, in contrast, views causality not as a force or determiner or producer of action but merely as a descriptive term for interdependent events, which replace linear causality: that is, it is not that A causes B but rather that A, B, C, and other components are interactional and reciprocal. The four centrisms comprise different assumptions about causality and exhaust the possibilities (unless one adds mysticism or magic), and these could be reduced to three, for sociocentrism is a type of envirocentrism.
Researching Authoritarian Personality with Q Methodology Part I: Revisiting Traditional Analysis
James C. Rhoads
Research into authoritarianism has focused almost exclusively on the scaling instruments designed to measure the phenomenon. Rarely do researchers get beyond this fascination with the scale, and consequently authoritarianism becomes reduced to a score on a scale predetermined to measure the concept. This study utilizes Q methodology to explore authoritarianism, by factor analyzing the scale responses of conventionally defined authoritarians. The analysis produced 3 factors, 2 of which would go unnoticed by researchers using traditional psychometric methods, and which run contrary to conventional understandings of authoritarianism.
Researching Authoritarian Personality with Q Methodology Part II: An Intensive Study
James C. Rhoads
In Part II, intensive analysis was conducted with a subject who loaded highly on both Factor A (authoritarian) and Factor B+ (heterosexual liberation) in Part I. This study demonstrated the emergence of various "selves" in relationship to salient other individuals and groups in the subject's life. Q methodology revealed the discovery of 3 selves associated with Reisman's ideas concerning the bases of social conformity (1950; 1952). Finally, an argument is made for adopting the promising features of Q methodology, to explore the authoritarian personality within a clinical setting. The more general purpose of the intensive probes in this study is to demonstrate the advantages of approaching authoritarianism from a methodological position that has not yet been explored, despite a 1953 invitation by William Stephenson to do so.
Understanding the Rebellious Conformist: A Note On Rhoadss Study of Authoritarianism
Steven R. Brown
James Rhoads's "Researching Authoritarian Personality with Q Methodology" represents a wholly new approach in research on the authoritarian personality. Many of his findings are counter-intuitive, but by beginning with the kind of scale scores traditionally used, he demonstrates that these findings have been within the grasp of previous rearchers requiring only a change in analytic strategy. His intensive analysis of a single case is shown to agree well with the "remarkable parallel" between Q methodology and quantum mechanics in terms of the foregoing of averages, the indeterminateness of meaning, the complementarity of factors, and interference effects.
Vol. 24 Issue 1
Integrating Research with Conference Learning: 10 Years of Q Methodology Studies Exploring Experiential Learning in the Tavistock Tradition
Robert M. Lipgar, John P. Bair, Christopher G. Fichtner
Empirical assessment and self-study procedures were implemented during a series of nonresidential weekend group relations conferences in the Tavistock tradition and were used to augment conference learning for staff and members. These studies were organized and conducted so that focus on the conference's primary task was maintained. Findings of several studies of leadership, learning styles, and the role of the consultant are discussed. Administrative and methodological problems encountered in integrating research with conference learning are also reviewed. Because of the Tavistock model's distinctive emphasis on subjectivity and on learning through direct experience of covert and often primitive processes, a research methodology compatible with experiential learning was sought. Q methodology made it possible to obtain quantifiable, objective, in-depth information about values, attitudes, and dispositions characteristic of individuals and of individuals and groups in interrelationship. The Q studies were carried out over a 10-year period as an integral part of conference work. Learning based on firsthand observations and experience was combined with feedback based on systematic empirical research. The staff reviewed research findings in post-conference sessions to promote their development and competency. Conducting research in the context of group relations conferences provides experience in dealing with conflicting attitudes toward relying on knowledge based on personal experience, empirical data, or theory for decision-making. The results of this study have implications for conducting self-study and assessment outcome evaluations in other institutions and organizational settings.
Attention in Counseling and Education: A Q Methodological Study
Eleanor Allgood
An exploration was conducted into subjective meanings of attention in association with counseling and education. Attention subjectivity of 5 counselor-educators, including the author, was investigated under both ideal and real conditions from the perspectives of being persons, counselors, and learners. Each participant sorted a 40 statement Q sample 6 times. Two factors emerged from the analysis. The review of a subsequent videotaped discussion among the participants resulted in characterization of the factors as 1) an ideal of mutuality and 2) self-uncertainty and ambiguity. Both factors expressed a relational quality that underscored the importance of the self-Other dynamic in attention subjectivity. Focus and intention were also seen as important characteristics, contributing to a positive and loving experience of attention. The findings support further research on attention subjectivity in counseling and educational communication practices.
Using Q Methodology to Assess Chronic Pain in Elderly Cognitively Intact and Alzheimer's Patients
Jeannine Forrest
Traditional methods such as visual analogue scales, numeric scales, and questionnaires are often ineffective for evaluating pain in cognitively impaired patients. Alzheimer's disease is a progressive neurological disorder that alters various cognitive domains including language and speech, resulting in problems with word finding and concentration. There were 23 elderly participants in this Q Methodology stud, 13 with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease and 10 cognitively intact. Using a 30-card Q set, these individuals were able to communicate about coping with chronic pain. The Q sort process was adapted by individualized explanation and repetition of the condition of instruction. Six uncorrelated factors emerged indicating how all participants described and managed chronic pain. Alzheimer's patients responded more readily using Q sorts than with traditional pain assessment instruments. Possible explanations for this success are explored and further research options are proposed.
Vol. 23 Issue 4
Information Privacy: How Much Privacy Protection Does the Public Want on the Web?
Byung S. Lee, Ph.D.
Abstract Coming Soon!
Assessing Q-Assessor: A Validation Study of Computer-Based Q Sorts versus Paper Sorts
Bryan H. Reber, M.S., Stanley E. Kaufman, M.D., Frits Cropp, Ph.D.
Abstract Coming Soon!
Fanaticism: Sports and Subjectivity
James C. Rhoads, Ph.D.
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 23 Issue 3
William Stephenson and the Post World War II Bifurcation of British Psychology
James M.M. Good
Abstract Coming Soon!
Understanding Fairness: Exploring Subjectivity And Organizational Justice
Jean Mannheimer Forray, Ph.D.
Abstract Coming Soon!
Voices of Hope, Voices of Cynicism: Using Q Methodology to Interpret Complex Attitudes towards Organizational Change
Jill Voodilla, Ph.D.
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 23 Issue 2
Q Methodology and Social Marketing: Interpreting Racial Attitudes toward Health Care
Judith Sylvester, Ph.D.
Abstract Coming Soon!
Career Counseling Experiences in Norway: A Q Methodological Study
Eleanor Allgood, Ed.D, Ragavald Kvalsund, Dr. Polit.
Abstract Coming Soon!
Using Clothing to Bring Alive Autobiographical Memories
Susan Schultz Kleine, Ph.D.
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 23 Issue 1
Two Sciences.... Part III: Stephenson's Quantum Psychology
Mike Knight, Ph.D., Gabriel Rupp, M.A.
Abstract Coming Soon!
Women's Career Advancement and the Glass Ceiling in the Financial Services Industry
James Slavet, B.A., D. Anthony Butterfield, Ph.D.
Abstract Coming Soon!
Identifying Problems and Generating Solutions under Conditions of Conflict
Jennifer Maxwell, Ph.D., Steven R. Brown, Ph.D.
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 22 Issue 4
Two Sciences.... Part II: Mental Life and the Language of Science
Mike Knight, Ph.D., Gabriel Rupp, M.A.
Abstract Coming Soon!
Science of Subjectivity
Wendy Silcox
Abstract Coming Soon!
Taking Subjectivity Seriously in Educational Outcomes Assessment: Exploring Undergraduate Understandings of the Liberal Arts
Dan Thomas
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 22 Issue 3
Two Sciences.... Part I: The Epistemology of Object/Subject Inter-Dependence
Mike Knight, Ph.D., Gabriel Rupp, M.A.
Abstract Coming Soon!
The Violence of the Night: The Perception of Trauma in a Song
Jennifer P. Maxwell
Abstract Coming Soon!
On the Taking of Averages: Variance and Factor Analyses Compared
Steven R. Brown
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 22 Issue 1/2
Pairing Q Methodology and Case Studies to Explore Journalists Attitudes Toward New Media Forms
Jane B. Singer
Abstract Coming Soon!
Using Q Methodology to Asses Journalism Faculty Attitudes Toward the Teaching of Writing
Mark H. Masse, Mark N. Popovich
Abstract Coming Soon!
What Do They Know of English Who Only English Know? Ascertaining Attitudes Toward Foreign Language Study Using Q Methodology in a Public Relations Framework
Leonard J Barchak, Russell (Gene) Marshall
Abstract Coming Soon!
Attitudes and Self-Perceptions of Emergency Physicians: The Systematization of Factor Interpretation
Joilo C. Barbosa, Timothy Erickson, Paula Wiloughby
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 21 Issue 3/4
Quantum Theory Media Research: II. Intentionality and Acculturation
William Stephenson
The undefined theory for subjectivity elaborated in Part 1 (Stephenson, 1995-1996) is substantiated with illustrations in this paper, in reference to Danish media research. Quantumized operant factors in Q methodology incorporate intentionally in relation to culture formation, thereby revealing how action implicates culture, as evidenced in Eisenhower's unwillingness to use the atomic bomb (conscience), Freeman Dyson's principle of "live and let live" (hope), and the idealism of Rodo's Ariel as expressed in the policies of Costa Rica's Oscar Arias. A summary is provided of a theory of intentionalities (which presage, but do not predict subsequent events), which is rendered credible in terms of additional illustrations concerning public libraries, public health, and science journalism. Conclusions are reached regarding affinities between Q methodology and reception analysis in Danish media research.
Subjective Science: Normal and Abnormal (Continued)
Steven R. Brown
Q methodology's role and status is appraised I light of the 12 intervening years since the keynote speech carrying the same title was read at the first (1985) Q conference. The pervasiveness of subjectivity is stressed, as is Q's role in measuring and conceptualizing it. Evidence is provided that Q methodology has achieved certain characteristics of a normal science (as defined by Kuhn), and an inventory is made of conceptual errors and of the kings of resistances to Q's implications Summaries are also provided of the variety of projects in which Q methodology has a central role. The conclusion is reached that Q remains outside the mainstream, but that there have been marked improvements in its status within the past decade. These comments constituted an address to the Thirteenth Annual Conference of the International Society for the Scientific Study of Subjectivity, Syracuse University, October 23-35, 1997.
Circles: Q Methodology and Hermeneutical Science
Bruce McKeown
A long-standing debate in hermeneutical discourse concerns the scientific status of hermeneutical investigation. Contemporary hermeneutics has shed away from or outright rejected scientific models and practices for textual analysis. It is alleged that the subjective nature of textual interpretation precludes attempting on empirical-behavioral approach. However, studying subjectivity from an understanding mode does not require violating inductive scientific principles. A review of its basic themes reveals that the hermeneutical enterprise conforms to the fundamental tenets of a science of subjectivity. Empirical operations are available and applicable as operational techniques for doing hermeneutical science. It transforms hermeneutics from "art" and "soft science" into a methodology grounded in the basic foundations of behavioral science but on a more secure footing. And it responds to the dilemma presented by the hermeneutical circle by maintaining the integrity of the text and controlling for the contaminating effects of the observer's analytic presuppositions.
Quantumstuff in Communication: Some Implications of Stephenson's Concept
Donald J. Brenner, James Aucion, Hao Xiaoming
The fundamental proposition of quantum theory, that observed phenomena interact with the observer, was seen by Stephenson as an important link to his construction of theory about communication. Key linking concepts are communicability - oral public culture/discourse, or consciousness - and intentionality, which is based on the fact that all possible responses for a person are contained in a culture, subculture, or counterculture. Of these responses, only a few are highly significant possibilities. Another key concept, complementarity, makes allowances for inevitable social discontinuities. Parallels are drawn between the transitive, subjectivity, and communication theory (which involves self-reference) on one hand, and the substantive, objectivity, and information theory (which involves matters of fact) on the other. Stephenson contended that more emphasis needs to be placed on self-reference and less on information. Q methodology, by drawing on Pierce's Concept of abduction, Stephenson said, makes possible the application by subjects of "all probability states." We provide a set of six basic postulates that sum up Stephenson's argument for the relevance of quantum theory. We contend that what counts for journalism, in applying quantum theory, is the communicability of the masses, not the messages themselves. The concepts of concourses (the sum of an individual's knowledge and self-reference) are indispensable to understanding mass communication. Factoring rankings of self-referent statements leads to uncovering significant beliefs common to a culture, but also allows identification of subcultures and countercultures. Rogers and Kincaid's convergence model is seen as useful to this process.
Vol. 21 Issue 1/2
Q Methodology, Textuality, and Tectonics
Wendy Stainton Rogers
Along with the paper from Rex Stainton Rogers, and that from Simon Watts and Paul Stenner, this paper seeks to explain and illustrate to and why the Q work we are doing here (mainly in the UK, but also with some colleagues elsewhere) differs from the work with a much longer history which has been undertaken by Q scholars in the USA and their students and proteges (again, this includes work outside the primary geographical locus). While our work has much in common with the latter, there are significant differences both in our approach to carrying out Q studies and in our objectives. Our interest in Q arose from a theoretical location within a "climate of perturbation" framework, drawing from "French Theory." Q met our need for an idiographic methodology, and offered us a highly effective means to conduct discourse analytic work. We use Q to address issues of power and knowledge, and their interplay, using analytics of textuality and tectonics. These terms are defined and an illustration is provided to show how Q can be used in this way.
Q Methodology and "Going Critical": Some Reflections on the British Dialect
Rex Stainton Rogers
In seeking to explain what Q methodology has made possible for those of us working within a critical "climate of perturbation" framework, we have employed the device of inventing a "British dialect of Q." While I would still hold to the argument that there is something distinct about our approach, that distinctiveness really requires a more encompassing tag than might be taken from the anodyne term "dialect." My ambition in this paper is to spell out our position (and mine within that) and to leave readers to make up their own minds as to whether we are; still operating in the Q-methodology community; schismatics; or, even, heretics.
[Re]searching for Love: Subjectivity and the Ontology of the Q Factor
Paul Stenner, Simon Watts
This paper makes use of a Q study on understandings about love to illustrate how UK Q scholars construe the ontology of Q factors. By examining the variety of constructions of "love" revealed by the study, it is possible to see how interpretation of Q factors can be undertaken within our particular understanding of subjectivity.
First-Time Voting in the UK 1997 General Election
Una McCormack
It is often assumed that "young people" are a homogenous group, and that the current generation of young people are politically disengaged, or, at best, only interested in issue politics. The Q study reported here demonstrated that both of these assumptions are false. The sorts provided by first-time voters produced seven highly divergent factors, demonstrating a wide range of viewpoints on politics, the political process and voting itself.
Representations of Violent Young Women
Susannah Chappell
This Q study investigated representations - portrayals of what a person is like - of young violent women. Its impetus was reporting in the press which was expressing concern about a rise in "acceptability of violence" among young women. The data obtained in the study refute this concern. While the one representation which portrayed a fictional character was of a woman who was frighteningly violet, the other four depicted women known to the participants whose Q sorts described the. All of these were quite "ordinary," their violence was minor, and it was not seen as a central feature of their character. These results suggest that there is something of a "moral panic" being created. Some of the reasons for this are discussed.
Vol. 20 Issue 3/4
Identifying Political Subcultures in Mexico
Andrew B. Baker
In response to many of the deficiencies in current research, this study proposes Q methodology as an appropriate technique for the analysis of intra-national political subcultures. Q offers the important advantage of allowing respondents to define and to place themselves into subcultures. Data collected in Puebla, Mexico illustrate the argument. Four political subcultures are revealed: the allegiant participant, the distant participant, the alienated participant, and the subculture of mistrust and individualism. While respondents display many of the cultural attitudes scholars have already identified in Mexico, a clearer picture of political culture in Mexico emerges because none of the subcultures displays all of these attitudes. Instead, important traits of attitudes are often mutually exclusive, such that a single trait is generally the defining variable of only a single subculture.
Political Involvement: Characteristics and Categories
Stacey F. Kaniham, Dennis F. Kinsey
Political involvement is conceptualized as an orientation toward a political situation that distinguishes qualitative differences in message processing. This stands in contrast to traditional conceptions of political involvement, which describe deep-seated individual traits that differ little over time. Three categories of situational political involvement are proposed (active involvement, passive involvement, and uninvolved) and accompanying communication patters are examined with a 52-item Q sample during the 1994 California gubernatorial campaign. The actively involved category indicated different communication behaviors than the passively involved - and especially the uninvolved. The most important behaviour distinguishing the actively involved was interpersonal communication - talking about politics.
The Interpersonal Sources of the Development of Political Images: An Intensive, Longitudinal Perspective
Larry Baas
Harold Lasswell, among others, has noted that the vague, diffuse, and distant symbols of the secondary political world are elaborated and take on personal meaning to the individual as a result of a process of displacement or projection of some image from the primary world. To examine whether such a process mediate between primary and secondary worlds, a single subject was given two separate Q samples and asked to describe her images of 25 objects as well as how these objects made her feel. The correlation and factor analysis of these data, plus lengthy interviews with her, demonstrated how the varied aspects of her political world take on personal meaning to her with respect to specific primary images. The current study is and update of the study after almost 14 years. The same subject was asked to describe many of the objects from the original study as well as other "new" primary and political objects in her life. Once again the data support the Lasswellian proposition that primary and secondary worlds are bridged by a process of displacement of primary affect. Additionally, the data allow us to see how new objects are incorporated into her world and how changes in her primary world affect her images of the secondary political world, as well as how earlier images impact ones developed later.
Identity Dilemmas and Psychological Discourse: The Case of Psychopaths in a Secure Psychiatric Hospital
Mark Stowell-Smith
Contemporary culture is patterned with psychological ideas and concepts. Social constructionist theory contends that these ideas constitute a regime of truth which constructs rather than describes a version of who we are. It is argued that the option of whether to reject or assimilate such concepts poses dilemmas for personal identity. This dilemma is considered through the example of a Q-methodological study of discourse about psychopathy amongst patients and staff in a secure, psychiatric hospital in England.
Vol. 20 Issue 1/2
Q Studies in Korea: Past and Present
Hyeon-Dew Kang
Korean universities have made remarkable progress in mass communication education. Out of a total of 110 South Korean universities, 48 institutions offer journalism and mass communication courses. In 1972, Yong Chang, a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, first introduced Q methodology to Korean communication scholars, but failed to receive widespread recognition. In 1980, Won Ho Chang of the University of Missouri taught Q methodology at Korea University as a visiting professor. He also supervised 16 Korean Ph.D.s who went back to Korea and became the backbone of Q studies in Korea. In 1996, The Korean Society for Q Study was officially formed, and Q methodology is finally taking its place in communication research and education society in Korea.
The Casual Schemata of Cancer: A Q-Methodlogical Application for Korean Patients
Boon Han Kim, Hung Kyu Kim
The purpose of the study was to explore the causal perceptions of cancer that would be the basis for development of nursing intervention. A Q-methodological approach was desperately needed in this highly subjective area because prior research had proved inadequate to explain the most distinctive features of personal viewpoints about critical health conditions. Results reveal five factors: Self-reliant, Supernaturalist, Other-dependent, Fate-recipient, and Self-contradictory. The accounts so revealed are examined in light of the diverse subjectivity they manifest. A discussion makes note of the implications for the further development of nursing assessment and tools.
Q Methodology and Creation of Advertising Message: An Example of Coffee
Hung Kyu Kim
The purpose of this study is to use the Q Model (Kim, 1993) to determine consumers' overall attitudes toward a specific product, namely coffee. This model is applied to gauge consumers' attitudes and feelings and to use these data to construct the most effective and advertising campaign that is. It is our goal to determine exactly what the status of our product is in the mind of the consumer. This study explores how the product is perceived and discovers precisely what the segmentation for our product really is. Finally, a creative concept for the market will be developed with these attitudes in mind.
A Study of the Professional Nursing Images of Nursing Unit Managers: A Q-Methodological Approach
Eun Ja Yeun, Sung Ai Chi, Hung Kyu Kim
The purpose of this study was to analyze the subjective schemata of nursing unit managers in order to promote our understanding of individuals' images of nursing as a profession. The study also sought to provide appropriate strategies for improving the image of nursing based on perceptions of the profession. The results, based on a Q study of nursing unit managers at five Korean university hospitals, revealed three distinct types of images of nursing as a profession: the views of the Proud, the Self-Conflicted and the Progressive manager. It was found that these three types could change continuously through interaction with their environment. Based the findings, the study also suggested guidelines for constructing a desirable professional nursing image.
The Schemata of Hope: A Q Methodological Look
Dalsook Kim, Hung Kyu Kim
The purpose of the study is to understand the nature of "hope" by explaining It more scientifically. A sample of 37 statements bearing on the personal meaning of hope was sorted by 13 cancer, 13 chronically-ill, and 5 disabled patients. The results indicate that there are seven types of hope: (1) dependence of transcendental-being, (2) cognition of reality, (3) orientation-toward-relationship, (4) existential, (5) self-fulfillment, (6) miracle-expectation, and (7) redefinition of reality. From the study, "hope" could be defined as the process in which continuous imagination and evolution of possibility cause changes in human recognition, attitude, action, etc. The significance of the study is three fold: (1) The discovery of seven types of hope in Korean people and the better understanding of its schemata; (2) suitability of Q methodology to the study of nursing concepts; and (3) the suggestion of assessments and intervention techniques based on the understanding of hope from this research.
Vol. 19 Issue 3/4
Contrary Convictions: Race and Subjectivity in Public Opinion on the O.J. Simpson Criminal Trial
Dan Thomas, Allen McBride, Larry Baas
In the pair of studies reported here, we probe the operant subjectivity at play in public opinion on the Simpson saga - in the process amplifying our understanding of the role of race, among other things, in the diversified accounts taking shape on the spectacle as a whole. Results reveal a three-fold set of meanings for the case at both pre-trial and post-verdict points in time. These contrasting constructions of the same set of events are examined in light of their defining themes and their affinities to the racial identities of their proponents. A concluding discussion takes stock of the simultaneously complementary and incommensurate relationship of these results to findings from scores of surveys seeking to gauge public opinion on the case.
Perceptions of the O.J. Simpson Murder Trial and its News Coverage
Stanley E. Ketterer, Euntaek Lee, Earnest L. Perry, Jr., Keith P. Sanders, Robert W. Meeds, Jiafei Yin
The O.J. Simpson criminal trial was the most extensively covered in U.S. history. Not only was it reported virtually daily (usually on the front page) in the nation's newspapers and television newscasts, but CNN brought the trial to home and work-place television sets nearly "gavel-to-gavel." It quickly became obvious that public interest in the trial was about more than murder. It had to do with celebrity, justice, wealth, sex and race. The situation presented an excellent opportunity to study perceptions about an almost universally-known event, the underlying social issues attracting the massive interest and the news media coverage that linked them. This study, conducted near the middle of the trial, identified four viewpoints about the trial and its coverage. Additional insight was gained by asking four news media gatekeepers to provide second-order Q sorts as they thought "typical" news readers might.
Post-Verdict Attitudes Toward The O.J. Simpson Murder Trial: The LSU Study
Judith L. Sylvester
Were the reactions to the O.J. Simpson murder trial verdict as deeply split along racial lines as reported by local and national news media, or were such reports exaggerated? That was the question that motivated this study of students and townspeople in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Three viewpoints about the trial and its media emerged. All three typologies converged on the point that Simpson's status played a key part in prolonging the trial and encouraging media attention. They also concurred that, to some extent, society is unjust and racist. Two types were critical of media coverage. African Americans overall were very critical of the media, but more for reasons racial than journalistic. Both those who had not followed the trial and those who watched almost daily tended to believe in Simpson's guilt, leading to the conclusion that race played a larger part than trial knowledge in forming the attitude that he was innocent, or at least that his guilt was not established.
The O.J. Simpson Papers: A Commentary
Donald J Brenner
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 19 Issue 1/2
Quantum Theory Media Research: I. Reception Analysis
William Stephenson
Q methodology, with it foundation in quantum theory, it applied to reception analysis as it has taken form in Danish communication studies. The mathematical similarity between factor analysis and quantum mechanics is illustrated, following by introduction of postulates required for the quantification of all psychological experience - of self-reference, concourse, and communicability (not consciousness). Measurement (Q technique) provides for the quantization of psychological events (as defined by Kantor), and is illustrated in a study of a single person watching the TV show Dynasty. The resulting Q factors are subject to the principle of complementarity introduced by Niels Bohr, whose epistemology is integral to language and subjectivity as well as physics. The general system which is advanced is self-contained and provides the kind of theoretical unity for which Danish reception analysis is searching. The range of phenomena to which it applies is to be provided in Part II.
Quest-Sort: A Paper-and-Pencil Alternative to Card-Sorting Q Samples
Larry W. Howard
Under conditions that might make a traditional card-sorting task infeasible, the Quest-Sort alternative presented here could be useful. A sample of 31 students demonstrates reasonable comparability of results between the formats, with the Quest-Sort about one-third faster to complete that the card-sort. A second sample of employed students demonstrates the internal validity of Quest-Sort rankings relative to both card-sorted and paired-comparisons rankings. Second-order factor analysis also suggests that the card-sort and the Quest-Sort elicit conceptually similar structures.
Comments on Professor Howard's Quest-Sort
Steven R. Brown
The Quest-Sort modification of Q technique is examined in historical context and is shown to have several predecessors, which are criticized for their overemphasis on technicalities at the expense of methodological considerations. Attention is also drawn to the foundations of measurement in Q method and to Stephenson's replacement of classical psychophysics with Fisher's experimental principles. Questions are raised about various of Professor Howard's assumptions about Q methodology.
Response to Dr. Brown's Comments on Quest-Sort
Larry W. Howard
Abstract Coming Soon!
The Structure of Attitudes Toward America's World Role
James M Carlson, Douglas Blum, Bruce McKeown
The analysis presented in this article concerns how citizens organize their beliefs about America's role in the world affairs. An intensive analysis using Q methodology is offered as an alternative means for uncovering the structure of foreign policy attitudes. The analysis revealed four distinct viewpoints. In discussing the viewpoints we offer a critique of the methodological presuppositions underlying earlier empirical research and the implications of those presuppositions for our theoretical understanding of the subject.
Vol. 18 Issue 3/4
William Stephenson at the University of Chicago: Subjectivity/Objectivity Revisited
Robert M. Lipgar
[EDITOR'S NOTE: In this address, delivered as the keynote to the Tenth Annual Q Conference, Bob Lipgar reflects upon his days as a graduate student at the University of Chicago during the time William Stephenson was a member of the faculty there. It was during his Chicago years, of course, that Stephenson's seminal statement on Q methodology, The Study of Behavior, was issued and an awareness of the magnitude of Professor Stephenson's Chicago years are well captured - along with a sense of the rich intellectual atmosphere of that time and place - in Dr. Lipgar's remarks. His address is reprinted here in the exact form in which it was prepared and delivered. DBT]
A Partisan/Nonpartisan Schematic Approach to Interpreting Political Cartoons
Jeraine Root
Modern political science research has virtually ignored political cartoons, although both empirical and normative studies are found in other disciplines. Q technique has not been widely accepted in political science circles, which may have contributed to the lack of attention to cartoons, and political humor more generally, within the discipline. In this exploratory study, I conduct a Q-methodological experiment featuring partisan and nonpartisan schematics and their responses to political cartoons about the 1992 presidential election and partisan politics. The experiment offers an assessment of the emotional impact of these cartoons, and utilizes an information-processing framework for analyzing rational reactions as well.
Local Theater Attendance: A Scientific Approach to Audience Recruitment
Risa Sherman, Christy Law Blanchard and Kristopher A. Kagel
The purpose of this research was to develop an understanding of why the Contemporary Theatre of Syracuse (CTS) audience members attend performances and subscribe as season ticket holders. The knowledge gained about these motivations was sought for the ultimate purpose of enabling CTS to develop messages for audience recruitment. CTS attendees ranked a Q sample of 45 statements representing diverse motivational grounds for supporting CTS, and three factors were found. For each of the factors, suggested themes for recruitment messages appropriate to the target group are discussed.
Sustainable Development, the Press and Policy: A Q Study of Brazilian Policy Makers
Robert A. Logan, Jimena Beltrao
A Q study asked 54 Brazilian scientists, administrators and journalists to evaluate sustainable development definitions and concepts, the role of national, local and international institutions in the Amazon's development, specific public policies for the Amazon region and the role of the news media. Four factors emerged and were labeled Locally Oriented Idealists, Internationally Oriented Pragmatists, Regional Architects and Conservative. The findings suggest that respondents place the economic welfare of Amazonia's residents above all other considerations. Cultural stability and the environment are seen as integral components of regional planning, but public policy begins more with serving human beings than nature. The respondents' interpretation of sustainable development bears little resemblance to how it is perceived within the literature. All four factors also assert that the news media play a key role in public awareness of Amazonia's ecological and economic challenges. The study suggests that Amazonia is a fertile area to evaluate the delicate interactions among policy makers and journalists as they face geopolitical, economic, environmental and social policy issues and attempt to apply principles of sustainable development.
Vol. 18 Issue 1/2
Q Methodology as the Foundation for a Science of Subjectivity
Steven R. Brown
William Stephenson's 1935 letter to the Editor of Nature, published 60 years ago, contains within its four short paragraphs all the essentials for a science of subjectivity. Focusing on two studies - on the controversies surrounding animal experimentation and of problem selection in policy analysis - illustrations are provided of the new phenomena brought to light through "inverted" factor analysis, and of the advantages of experimentation which Q methodology enjoys. A proposed study on food habits demonstrates how experimental probes can be made into the cognitive and orectic aspects of nutrition and food choice. The conclusion is reached that Q methodology remains the foundation of the study of subjective behavior.
Persons-in-Relation and Q Methodology
Eleanor Allgood
We know ourselves through our actions in the world in relation to others. This philosophy as developed by John Macmurray is the ground on which my colleague and I are basing our work as educational researchers in the field of counseling. We are working collaboratively to develop new approaches to learning and discovering more about the process by which persons gain self-knowledge as well as knowledge about other persons in the helping relationship. Our questions focus on what it means to be a person and persons for each other particularly in the experience of a guide, counselor or therapist and a client who meet in a helping relationship. We deeply believe that for real self-knowledge to develop we must go beyond mere professionality in the helping relation and dare to meet each other as persons. Q methodology attracts us as a philosophy and approach which seems to provide a way to discover and uncover some important aspects of self-knowledge. It is congruent with our philosophy as in its method the person is in action, operating on or communication with a series of self-referential statements; thus becoming and agent in the world.
Stephenson's Play Theory and Online News Reading
Jane Singer
As children know (but adults sometimes forget), using a computer is "fun." Media that use a computer to deliver news and other timely information provide an opportunity to explore William Stephenson's play theory of mass communication in a new light. These online or interactive media encourage exploration. They respond instantly to individual input. They require us to make self-enhancing personal choices; otherwise, they just sit there. Yet in some ways, interactive media also are work. For both the user and the producer of their content, they offer intriguing ways to conceptualize what one does with the news of the day.
Storylistener Subjectivity in Response to Mark's Passion-Resurrection Narrative
Kenneth R. Parker
Amid a three-decade resurgence of interest in storytelling throughout theUSA, a network of storytellers has attempted to recapture the ancient practice of narrating the stories of the formative events and founding parents of the Judeo-Christian religion. This study employed Q methodology to explore how listeners respond subjectively to a storytelling presentation of a biblical narrative. Two types of storylistener were found, both reporting imaginative and other kinds of cognitive response. One type also described emotional involvement in, and the other critical detachment from, the story event.
Vol. 17 Issue 3/4
The Convergence of William Stephenson's and Marshal McLuhan's Communication Theories
Paul Grosswiler
This essay develops the thesis that the communication theories of William Stephenson and Marshall McLuhan share a set of core concepts. These central issues will be compared in order that each of these iconoclastic theorist's ideas can be seen as enriching those of the other. These four areas will be discussed: 1) exploration and facts; 2) the self and medium; 3) quantum-theory, complementarity, and transitive and substantive thought; 4) communication pleasure and play in the communication process. Probing Stephenson's clarion call for Q methodology as the new methodology for McLuhan's new epistemology, this paper searches for the underpinnings of that convergence in communication theory.
Reading the Romance, Building the Bestseller: A Q-Technique Study of Reader Response to The Bridges of Madison County
Dan Thomas, Larry Baas
Based on a reader response case study of Robert Waller's astonishingly popular romance novel, the research reported here demonstrates not only that readers' subjective experience of the same text can and do vary dramatically but also how it is that such understandings, in their naturalistic condition, are amenable to public inspection and reliable calibration as operant factors. In the course of the case study, the "convergently selective" character of the appeal of Waller's all-time bestselling romance is addressed in light of the four factors our analysis uncovers as alternative constructions of the novel and its meaning. The four factors are seen as comprising the subjective foundations of a "conversational structure," energized by diverse constituent sentiments and their interaction, in a manner that is generally playful and pleasurable, albeit in different ways, to parties in the conversation. Implications for enhanced understanding of the mass appeal of Waller's work, and for reinvigorating reader response research more broadly, are discussed.
Use of Q Methodology by Public Relations Practitioners for Strategic Hospital Planning
Karen Popovich, Mark Popovich
This case study demonstrates how public relations practitioners can apply Q methodology to strategic planning activities in health care settings. Utilizing planning activities which took place in an Indiana hospital in 1993 (and given the fictional name of Riverbend Hospital for this study), practitioners arrived at three stakeholder sets of perceptions concerning health care reform fort he hospital. These perceptions then became the focus of the strategic plan (corporate objectives) created by the hospital's administrative staff in 1994. The authors suggest that Q methodology is a research technique that can be employed successfully by public relations practitioners in finite strategic planning environments.
Scientific Conferences and the Communication of Enlightenment
Steven R. Brown
As institutional practices for the efficient transmission of enlightenment, scientific conferences carry structural liabilities preventing them from maximizing the task performance for which they were constituted. An example is presented of an international conference, and Q methodology is employed to demonstrate the intellectual themes implicit among those in attendance. Examples are provided of the ways in which the results from the Q study could be used to facilitate the conference's intellectual mission by focusing on the already existing schemata of the participants.
Shared Goals in an Undergraduate Communication Curriculum: Using Q Methodology to Identify Community Expectations
Jeremy Cohen, Clay Calvert, Lisbeth Lipari
Communication, a diverse discipline that includes fields such as media studies, telecommunications, advertising, journalism, public relations and film, attracts both students and faculty with wide-ranging interests and needs. This study employs Q methodology at a small communication department housed at a major private research university to identify shared goals, expectations, and interests among communication undergraduates and faculty. Through Q methodology, three distinct groups or factors emerged, and areas of consensus among those groups were identified that facilitated the drafting of a new, proposed mission statement for the communication department. The article concludes that Q methodology is a valuable tool to locate consensus and shared perceptions and values within university departments that include students and faculty with diverse interests and areas of study.
Vol. 17 Issue 1/2
Introduction to Q-Methodology
William Stephenson
Q methodology has been influenced in fundamental ways by the works of Freud, Spearman, and Fisher. Freud's pleasure/pain principle is incorporated into the Q-sorting operation, and concern with morality can be traced to studies on factor W (character) in Spearman's laboratory. The reality principle, also Freud's, joined with training in physics which led to self reference in explaining consciousness. Self reference, in turn, draws its first principle from Peirce - that ideas, unlike facts, spread in human communicability and form concourses, all of which can be conceptualized in terms of Fisherian designs. An example is given in which a thousand quotations about women are structured as to feeling (pleasure/unpleasure), morality, and reality. Self reference is not in the structure, however, but is quantified in the Q sorting, which is why variance analysis, with its classical emphasis on causality and prediction, is bypassed in favor of factor analysis, which incorporates operationalism and is compatible with more modern scientific theories of relativity, quantum mechanics and uncertainty.
The Scientific Study of Subjectivity and the Achievement of Human Rights
Andrew R. Willard
In this address, the possibility and potentiality of enlisting the scientific study of subjectivity in the cause of achieving human rights are explored. Reasons for why such study has been rarely undertaken are described and analyzed. Specific studies are proposed, including examinations of "self-determination" and the question of the universality and relativism of human rights. In conclusion, when the scientific study of subjectivity has been applied systematically to the problem of achieving human rights, new ground will have been broken in a most promising and challenging field.
The Structure and Form of Subjectivity in Political Theory and Behavior
Steven R. Brown
Approaches to the study of human behavior epitomized by objectivism and subjectivism are judged inadequate due to the a priori categories which they presume, and an alternative is demonstrated with two case studies. The first explores the structure of subjectivity underlying Downs's (1957) theory of voting, and the second reveals the same operant forms implicit in Zetterbaum's (1982) philosophy of the political self. Discussion follows on the ramifications for a science of subjectivity.
Humor Communicability
Dennis F. Kinsey
A theory of humor appreciation is advanced based on William Stephenson's play theory of mass communication and his fundamental theory of communicability. Communication pain and communication pleasure as well as the idea of "shared knowledge" are examined in relationship to humor appreciation. A method for identifying structure that accounts for one's "sense of humor" is illustrated with a Q sample (N = 54) of Gary Larson "The Far Side" cartoons. Thirty-four subjects sorted the cartoons from "most appealing" (+5) to "most unappealing (-5). Three factors emerged, from the subsequent correlation and factor analysis, representing humor factor structure that is fundamental to the theory. Humor communicability explains why some people share a sense of humor and can account for differ senses of humor. Humor communicability offers a holistic view of humor appreciation.
Vol. 16 Issue 3/4
Intentionality: Or How to Buy a Loaf of Bread
William Stephenson
Parallels are drawn between the action-plans and basic-actions of intentionality advanced by Boden (1973) and the quantized factors of Q methodology. Concluding that intentions are complex is distinguished from making complexity itself the object of inquiry, and what this implies is made the basis of an experiment focused on the transitory thought in Boden's essay. Of the three operant factors which result, two correspond to Boden's own conclusions, but the third is suggestive of a greater complexity, as found in the quantum theory of Prigogine (1980). A second study reveals three feeling states relative to Boden's problem about shopping for a loaf of bread, indicating that intentionality extends from the simplest to the most complex of events. The conclusion is reached that the assumption of unity, present since the Middle Ages, must give way to complementarity and multiple intentionalities.
A Primer on Q Methodology
Steven R. Brown
This primer serves two functions: (1) It is a simplified introduction to Q methodology, covering the topics of concourse, Q samples, Q sorting, correlation, factor analysis, theoretical rotation, factor scores, and factor interpretation. (2) It also illustrates different conceptions of Q methodology by taking the concept of "Q methodology" as the subject matter of the study. The factor results show how current understandings about Q are traceable to debates among Stephenson, Burt, and others in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s.
Adolescent Female Views of Values Education
Mary G. Endorf, Robert W. Clyde
The curricular rationale for many of today's secondary school "values education" programs is based on the assumption that such programs influence citizenship behavior, decision making, "appropriate" social behavior and problem-solving skills. To examine program participants' reactions to this kind of undertaking, 19 eighth grade females in a Minneapolis middle school accomplished a Q sort of 60 statements derived from various education program participants' focus groups. Three defined student type emerged which contribute to this understanding of student reactions to a values education program. A positive viewpoint toward values education factor was so named based on its generally conclusive orientation to the program. Defining "neutrality," values education was reflected in a mix of indifference and acceptance of values education programming. A negative factor represented a distinct deviation from the other two types. By acknowledging the realities that these eighth graders held for this approach to values education, schools should be able to develop programmatic models responsive to a range of learner types.
Vol. 16 Issue 1/2
Validity: Q vs. R
Marten Brouwer
This study deals with political ideology, in the form of Q sorts of 80 self-referent statements provided by more than 50 respondents, the P set being cross-sectional. The resulting data set was split up into three equivalent P samples, each of which was submitted independently to Q factor analysis. Also, it was split up into four equivalent item samples, each of which was submitted independently to R factor analysis. Comparison of Q analysis loadings with R analysis z-scores and of Q analysis z-scores with R analysis loadings shows a limited amount of cross-validity. With respect to (meta-)reliability, the three cases of Q factor analysis are strikingly similar; the fours cases of R factor analysis, however, turn out to be rather dissimilar.
The Issue of Generalization in Q Methodology: "Reliable Schematics" Revisited
Dan B. Thomas, Larry R. Baas
Research employing Q technique and its attendant methodology has long encountered criticism targeted on the allegedly specious, "non-generalizable" nature of such findings. Drawn typically from small-sample investigations of human subjectivity, wherein respondents supply data through Q sorts composed of items of unknown reliability, findings of Q studies are considered by many to fall far short of the minimal criteria for scientific measurement. Issues of generalization in Q methodology, it is argued, are amenable to examination in terms of the notion of "reliable schematics." Findings from two pairs of "tandem-study" explorations bear strong witness to the schematically reliable character of Q-study results produced from differing probes of the same subjective phenomenon. Viewed against this backdrop, the frequently voiced concerns over reliability issues stemming from the use of Q would appear quite exaggerated if not altogether unfounded.
Vol. 15 Issue 4
Some East German Attitudes Toward Law and Political Authority
Willy Koch, Uwe Matthes, Richard Martin, Richard Taylor
Nine University of Leipzig students provided usable responses with a Q sort which had been previously administered in the United States. Two factors were discovered: four subjects were Constitutionalists and three Individualists. Constitutionalists actively favored their new democratic system, but were willing to contemplate civil disobedience should democratic values be threatened. Individualists were skeptical of the political system and were committed to living their own personal lives. All nine subjects were law abiding. Comparisons are made with 87 American college students who had taken the same Q sort almost a decade previously.
Calibrating Bilingual Q Samples
Steven R. Brown, Ursula Feist
In cross-cultural studies, the comparability of Q samples in different languages becomes problematic, and in this study procedures are introduced for enhancing confidence that parallel Q sorts written in two languages provide roughly equivalent results. 11 English-speaking German nationals performed two Q sorts containing the same statements, one version in German and a parallel version in English, and correlations and factor analysis indicated virtually no differences in outcome. Discussion focuses on the cross-cultural comparability in R and Q methodology.
Book Review: Shulamit Reinharz's Feminist Methods in Social Research
Joanne Gallivan
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 15 Issue 3
Some Methodological Considerations on the Use of Multimedia Q-Sample Items
Paul Grosswiler
The design, selection, production and administering of two multimedia Q samples are described in a Q study designed to explore sensory orientations in media and arts preferences. The precedents for nonverbal stimulus items provide a basis for the multimedia samples. One Q sample includes slides of print news media, and audiotapes and videotapes of broadcast news media. The second Q sample contains slides of literature and visual art items, and audio and videotapes of music, television, movies and games. The multimedia items were coupled with typed references in a two-stage sorting process. Pretesting, subject responses and reliability testing suggest that multimedia Q samples can be effectively administered with interpretable factor results.
Book Review: Stainton Roger's Explaining Health and Illness
Robert G. Mrtek
Abstract Coming Soon!
Research in Progress: Clarence Thomas vs. Anita Hill
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 15 Issue 2
Self in Everyday Life
William Stephenson
Play theory and Goffman's frame analysis provide the theoretical structure for this self-study of the author at the time of his retirement. Rather than Goffman's self as a product of behavior, self is conceived as always at issue (although usually implicitly), rooted in values, and requiring Q methodology to bring it to light. N=45 statements drawn from Goffman provide the Q sample, which is used under 10 conditions of instruction focused on the issue of retirement. Three factors emerged and were interpreted in terms of both their overt and covert meanings. The results are discussed in terms of Goffman's thesis and play theory.
Expositor: A Note on Measuring Changes in Q Factor Loadings
The published literature contains no known formulas for assessing changes in factor loadings in Q-methodology studies, but a formula recommended by Stephenson and located in an unpublished dissertation by Rawlins provides a solution. The formula is applied to a single case reported by Stephenson and another reported by Dryzek, and the value of the formula for assessing change is discussed.
A Lecture Not Given
Marten Brouwer
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 15 Issue 1
Selecting a Winning Campaign Slogan
Dennis Kinsey
This study examines how Q technique and its methodology cam be used to select a slogan for a campaign, in this case a tax levy campaign for a community college. The campaign began in a traditional (R methodology) manner. A large-sample public opinion survey of voters was conducted to develop strategy, and an advertising agency was then retained to develop the slogan and collateral material. After the failure of an advertising agency to develop a slogan that needed to appeal to two seemingly divergent groups of voters, Q methodology was introduced and identified a winning slogan that appealed to those target voters.
Vol. 14 Issue 4
Ulysses and Finnegans Wake: A Q-Methodological Look at Profundity (Part II: Finnegans Wake)
William Stephenson
In contrast to the mainly substantive content of Ulysses, James Joyce's Finnegans Wake is wholly transitive, a distinction introduced by William James and fundamental to the principle of complementarity in quantum theory. The free-floating "inner" thought of Molly Bloom (in Ulysses) and that which permeates Finnegans Wake is the same that provides creativity and truths which are outside the substantive conventions of literary and scientific discourse. Finnegans Wake is therefore methodological, Joyce's equation of void, incertitude, and unlikelihood corresponding to the quantum principles of Q methodology.
Vol. 14 Issue 3
Obituary Notice William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Ulysses and Finnegans Wake: A Q-Methodological Look at Profundity (Part I: Ulysses)
William Stephenson
James Joyce's Ulysess and Finnegans Wake are mainly substantive and transitory, respectively, a distinction introduced by William James and fundamental to the principle of complementarity in quantum theory. In this first of two parts, XX of the 18 episodes of Ulysses are examined in detail to demonstrate the mix of substantive and transitory thought, which are as fundamental to Q methodology as to quantum theory.
The Social Identities of Women Lawyers
Harriette Marshall
This study uses Q methodology to examine the social identities of women in the final stages of law training. Statements concerning identity, structured around Tajfel and Turner's status quo, social mobility, and social change identity perspectives, formed the Q sample, which 40 women sorted in terms of their representations of identity in a work context. The completed Q sorts were factor analyzed, resulting in eight representations of identity which were interpreted to reveal differing emphases placed on gender identity and the relevance of other group memberships.
Peritore's Socialism, Communism, and Liberation Theology in Brazil
John S. Dryzek
Abstract Coming Soon!
Dryzek's Discursive Democracy
J. David Gillespie
Abstract Coming Soon!
Murphy's Descent Into Subjectivity
Jeremy Harris Lip-schultz
Abstract Coming Soon!
Obituary: Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904-1990)
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 14 Issue 2
Reducing Vulnerability by Assessing Customer Business Styles
Leonard J. Barchak, Paul R. Arnold
One of the reasons many small businesses cease operations is their failure properly to segment the market. Much of the decision-making entailed in defining a market has been based on owners' speculations regarding their customers. The more alternatives open to a firm, the less vulnerable the firm will be to unexpected customer opinions and actions. One method for increasing the firm's alternatives can be found in an economical strategy to facilitate communication between a firm and its customers. The combination of depth-type interviews and Q method is employed in an actual case study with a Small Business Institute client to facilitate communication with his customers and, in so doing, to assist in properly segmenting the market.
Q Methodology and Control Theory: II. General Considerations
David M. Goldstein
The principles of control theory are presented, and their connection to Q methodology is described. The perceptual prerequisites of the Q-sorting task are considered, and the perceptual levels of control theory are related to the selection of Q statements and conditions of instruction, and to the interpretation of factors. The conclusion is reached that control theory has advantages over the quantum and interbehaviour theories often associated with Q methodology.
Vol. 14 Issue 1
My Self in 1980: A Study of Culture
William Stephenson
The author provides his own Q-methodological self study as an addendum to a previous study based on Lasch's theory of narcissism, thereby providing a British contrast to 10 Americans previously examined. Four factors emerge from eight conditions of instruction for a Q sample composed of pictures from Time Magazine - the first factor representing ideals in identification with everyone (hence apart from narcissism), the second representing real-world problems and conversational possibilities, the third a personal uneasiness about technological progress, and the fourth focused on class issues. Cultural implications are discussed and amended in a 1989 addendum.
A Segmentation Study of Attitudes About Advertising
Charles R. Mauldin
Five factors emerge from a study designed to examine attitudes about advertising. The first factor, labeled the Institutional Backers, supports advertising and denies that it is merely used to manipulate consumers. The Self-Determining Individualists seek information and use advertising in making decisions. The Angry Social Critics condemn advertising as well ass business, marketing, and consumers, and react particularly negatively to ads dealing with sexual roles. The Amused Observers, unlike the others, find little of self-importance in advertising, considering it a novelty and even incidental to consuming. Although they find little pleasure in advertisements, the Self-Reliant Copers use information from ads, but feel they make up their own minds. Discussion focuses on the motivational aspects of advertising and, methodologically, on the limitations of uni-dimensional approaches to measurement.
Research in Progress: Reconstructive Democratic Theory
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 13 Issue 4
Fifty Years of Exclusionary Psychometrics: II. Developments
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Administrative Attitudes of Elite Officials in a Buddhist Polity
Surasit Vajirakachorn, Ronald D. Sylvia
Abstract Coming Soon!
Book Review: Colapietro's Peirce's Approach to the Self
Charles R. Mauldin
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 13 Issue 3
Fifty Years of Exclusionary Psychometrics: I. Q Technique
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Psychiatric Staff Opinion About Patient Etiology and Treatment
Dorie A. Wartel, Alejandro Aragon
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 13 Issue 1
A Select Review of Nursing Research
Deborah Gibson, Janice R. Ingle
Abstract Coming Soon!
Q Methodology and Control Systems Theory
David Goldstein
Abstract Coming Soon!
Subjectivity, Representation, and Communication: Report of the First British Q Conference
Rex Stainton Rogers, Wendy Stainton Rogers
Abstract Coming Soon!
Book Review: Ruben and Delprato's New Ideas in Therapy
Parker E. Lichenstein
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 12 Issue 3/4
A Subjective Examination of Theories of Justice
Barbara L. Poole, Gertrude A. Steuernagel
Abstract Coming Soon!
A Feeling for the Organism: Understanding and Interpreting Political Subjectivity
Steven R. Brown
Abstract Coming Soon!
Mixing Methodologies: An Aid in Developing Q Samples
Dennis Kinsey, Teresa C. Kelly
Abstract Coming Soon!
Book Review: McKeown and Thomas's Q Methodology
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Rejoinder
Bruce F. McKeown, Dani B. Thomas
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 12 Issue 1/2
The Quatumization of Psychological Events
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Methods of Belief: A Q Study of R Studies of Electoral Choice
Mark J. Whattier
Abstract Coming Soon!
Book Review: Tursman, Peirce's Theory of Scientific Discovery
Thomas W. Arwood
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 11 Issue 4
Help Orientations of Geriatric Nursing Care Givers
H. Alicia Taylor
Abstract Coming Soon!
Using Q Methodology to Teach Interpersonal Communication
Joan E. Aitken
Abstract Coming Soon!
Book Review: Kitzinger, The Social Construction of Lesbianisms
Charles E. Cottle
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 11 Issue 3
Falsification and Credulity for Psychoanalytic Doctrine
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 11 Issue 2
The Science of Ethics: II. Ethical Judgement
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Interbehavioral Psychology and Q Methodology
Parker E. Lichtenstein
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 11 Issue 1
The Science of Ethics: I. The Single Case
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 10 Issue 4
Q Methodology and the Measurement of Self Perception
Mike Knight, William A. Frederickson, Samuel A. Martin
Abstract Coming Soon!
Measurment of Self Perception: Some Reflection on the Article by Knight, Frederickson and Martin
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Some Thoughts on Completing Computer Programs for Q Technique
Michael Stricklin
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 10 Issue 3
Subjectivity and the Policy Sciences
William Ascher
Abstract Coming Soon!
Obituary: Carl R. Rogers (1902-1987)
Abstract Coming Soon!
Obituary: Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987)
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 10 Issue 2
How to Make a Good Cup of Tea
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 10 Issue 1
Field Notes on the Use of Q Methodology in a Study of the Brazilian Left
Patrick Peritore
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 9 Issue 4
Play Theory of Communication
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Human Rights: Bedrock or Mosaic?
Rex Stainton Rogers, Celia Kitzinger
Abstract Coming Soon!
Research in Progress: Growth Management
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 9 Issue 3
Protoconcursus: The Concourse Theory of Communication (Conclusion)
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Andreski, Max Weber's Insights and Errors
Leonord J. Barchak
Abstract Coming Soon!
Ackerman, Data, Instruments, and Theory
Steven R. Brown
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 9 Issue 2
Protoconcursus: The Concourse Theory of Communication (Part 1)
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 9 Issue 1
Value Congruences Shaping Mankind's Future
Lynne O'Shea
Abstract Coming Soon!
Diefenbeck, A Celebration of Subjectivity Thought
Charles Cottle
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 8 Issue 4
An Original In-Depth Segmentation Study of the Market Research Industry
Thomas Danbury
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 8 Issue 2
A New Q Too?
Peter Gould
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 8 Issue 1
"Q-Analysis": Caveat Emptor
Steven R. Brown
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 7 Issue 4
Discovering Communication Paradigms with Q Methodology: Ferment or Sour Grapes?
Leonard J. Barchak
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 7 Issue 2
Some Discrete Views of Televised Violence: Implications for Media Policy
Pamuke Suppasarn, R.C. Adams
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 6 Issue 4
An Evaluation of Research Replication and Market Segmentation with Q Method
R.C. Adams
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 6 Issue 2
Cross-Technique Validation of Attitude Measures
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 5 Issue 4
Newton's Fifth Rule and Q Methodology: Application to Psychoanalysis
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 5 Issue 2
Newton's Fifth Rule and Q Methodology: Application to Self Psychology
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 4 Issue 4
O, P, Q, and R Techniques
Cyril Burt
Abstract Coming Soon!
Cyril Burt, Quantum Theory and Q: Historical Note
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Designing a Q Sample for a Study with Adolescent Foster Children
Ingunn T. Ellingsen, University of Stavanger
Over recent years, we have witnessed an increasing focus on including children in research. In this article I share some experiences about including adolescent foster children in a Q study exploring what 'family' means for children in foster care. The main focus is on challenges in designing a Q sample to represent different aspects related to the research topic, in which making use of a Fisherian balanced-block design is central. The participants were invited to make comments about their Q sorts, and articulate to what extent they felt that the Q sort provided an accurate picture of their perception of family. The participating adolescents felt that the Q sort captured the different aspects of what family meant to them. Q methodology is shown to provide the flexibility that is necessary when including children in research. It offers a reasonably valid and concise way for children to express their perspectives.
Young Children's Participation in a Q Study with Visual Images: Some Comments on Reliability and Validity
Ingunn Storksen and Arlene Arstad Thorsen, University of Stavanger
In this study we discuss various aspects of the participation of young children as informants in research relating to their own adjustment and behavior. We ask whether it is meaningful to include young children as participants in this kind of research, and if Q methodology using visual images is a suitable research method that may give reliable and valid results. An example is given through a study of 20 children aged five. The conclusion is that this may be a suitable approach, and that there are indications that the results are both reliable and valid. However, more research is needed to explore the usefulness of Q methodology with visual images in studies of very young children.
Q Methodology and Its Position in the Mixed-Methods Continuum
Susan E. Ramlo, University of Akron & Isadore Newman, Florida International University
volume 32 of this journal, Paul Stenner suggests that Stephenson was resistant to Q methodology being placed within other theoretical frameworks. Yet in this same piece, Stenner states that it is time for Q methodology to be brought into a greater dialogue with contemporary social theory and research practice. This article seeks to demonstrate how Q fits into the contemporary research practice of mixed methods and argues that this perspective is not in conflict with Stephenson's positions on Q as a methodology. Further, our position reflects recent calls for the development of new techniques and procedures to be used in mixed-methods research. Those making the call will find interest in what Q has to offer the social and behavioral sciences now, 75 years after it emerged in Stephenson's 1935 letter to Nature, and even though the term mixed-methods research has only emerged in last couple of decades. Q methodology is shown to fit well methodologically into the mixed-methods continuum as described by prominent mixed-methods scholars, which further supports a position that Q represents a mixed research methodology.
Vol. 34 Issue 2
In Memoriam: Donald J. Brenner (1932-2010)
Robert A. Logan, Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism (Emeritus) & U.S. National Library of Medicine
In Don Brenner's memory, a news-style obituary is provided. This is followed by a few remarks about Don's intellectual contributions and some personal memories. Following this, Don speaks for himself in an edited version of his remarks to the 2009 ISSSS convention. While his talk concentrated on William Stephenson, Don also provided some career self-reflections. It was Don's last public address.
What Educators Learn When They Evaluate Students
Lennise J. C. Baptiste, Kent State University
Many reports emphasize that the main aim of education reform has been improved student performance. Reform efforts have focused on curricula content, the professional development of educators, the development of non-traditional teaching and assessment methods and giving parents more choice in their children's educational experiences. Yet, after 20 years of reforms, it remains unclear what actually works to raise student achievement. Student achievement is measured using different types of assessments. Because they use the results of these assessments to evaluate their students, and have evaluation information available to them, educators are able to learn from the process of evaluating their students. Q methodology was used to investigate such 'process use' and to understand how educators gain lessons from the evaluation process that can contribute to the success of education initiatives. The four perspectives which emerged were shaped by student qualities, the educators' relationships with their stakeholders, the relationships among colleagues, the purpose or stakes associated with the evaluation activity, the relationships among the stakeholders in the teaching context and the assessment approach employed.
Vol. 34 Issue 1
The Q-Block Method of Indexing Q Typologies
Albert D. Talbott, University of Iowa
William Stephenson's Q methodology has a marked advantage of bringing both system and depth into communication studies. Some communication researchers have been dismayed by its use with relatively small numbers of people, in some cases with only one person. This has raised the question of how the system and enrichment of Q can be combined with the precision of properly applied sample survey research methodology. Stephenson devoted a chapter in his book The Study of Behavior to such considerations. Direct applications of Stephenson's Q techniques may not be economically feasible for large sample survey research due to their complexity and time needed for administration and analysis. However, Stephenson suggests "that certain kinds of facts which questionnaires may seek to study can be reached along Q technique lines." He outlines one method. This paper presents an elaboration in detail of such a method. Specifically, the paper examines and presents a questionnaire technique which has utility in assigning people to Q typologies. It is a technique which can be readily applied in large sample survey research. The method involves the construction of "Q blocks," which are comparable in one sense to a series of small individual Q sorts. Detailed knowledge of a stable Q typology factor structure is necessary for construction of these Q blocks. This knowledge can be derived from direct application of Q techniques to a smaller, usually structured sample from the population in which the researcher is interested.
Estimating Agreement between the Q Block and the Q Tool
Hung Kyu Kim
The purpose of this paper is to explore the agreement or consistency between the Q Block and the Q Tool, both of which were constructed to identify typologies based on the factors found initially with Q methodology. Both tools are very useful to examine the characteristics of people who belong to a specific type, and to test the difference by types in terms of demographics and other related variables. This study adopted two examples to test the agreement rate, which is defined by the percentage of people indicated as having the same type by both tools. The first example, with three factors, showed 62.20 percent agreement, while the second example comprising four factors showed 70.08 percent agreement. Researchers should be aware of the advantages and limitations of each tool when they choose one.
Connecting Q & Surveys: Three Methods to Explore Factor Membership in Large Samples
Rachel Baker, Glasgow Caledonian University, & Job van Exel, Erasmus University, & Helen Mason, Newcastle University, & Michael Stricklin, University of Nebraska Lincoln (Emeritus) & Federal University of Piaui
Q methodology has been employed to great effect in studies addressing questions which are qualitative in nature. Techniques associated with Q methodology can also be used to explore quantitative research questions. Where a number of shared accounts around a particular topic have been identified and described using Q methods, it may also be of interest to examine the extent and distribution of those views. Such quantitative questions can be explored using Q-survey methods. In this paper we describe a range of approaches to such Q surveys and identify areas of future methodological development and research.
The Q-Block Method and an Alternative: Benchmarking the Australian Discourse of Democracy
Simon Niemeyer, Australian National University
This paper uses a set of overlapping statements between a 1993 study on Australian discourses of democracy performed by Dryzek (1994) and a more recent Q study in association with the Citizen's Parliament held in 2009 to explore the relative merits of using the Q-block method, proposed by Talbott (1963; reprinted in this issue) and a simpler 'z-score method' for indexing the relationship between individuals and a pre-existing set of factors established by the Dryzek study. The results reveal a stronger correlation with the original study factor loadings using the z-score method than using the Q-block method, which tended to systematically underestimate associations with factors. Although the Q-block method remains the easier of the two methods for obtaining data, the z-score method produces more accurate results as a proxy for individual Q-sort factor loadings.
Vol. 33 Issue 3/4
Experiences and Ideals of Forgiveness
Tammy Stewart, Nancy DeCourville, Kathryn Belicki Brock University
There has been a call to examine whether or not people forgive in the way that has been conceptualized in the literature (Rye et al., 2000). This issue was addressed using Q methodology to examine participants' perspectives on their experiences and their ideals of forgiveness. Thirty community members (20 women) ranging in age from 25 to 68 participated in this research, which involved sorting 66 statements about forgiveness according to the level of agreement with each statement. This process yielded three factors describing experiences of forgiveness, labelled Unresolved Forgiveness, Compassionate Forgiveness, and Forgiveness Motivated by Religious Beliefs, and two factors representing ideals of forgiveness, namely the Christian Model of Forgiveness and the Humanistic Model of Forgiveness. Our participants' experiences and ideals of forgiveness tended to differ from the definitions proposed in the literature.
The Ideal Female Body Image: A Q Approach to the Third-Person Effect
Yun Jung Choi Ewha Womans University
The third-person effect was examined using Q methodology. The participants were asked to sort images of women according to their ideal image and their perception of others' ideal image. The participants' own ideal Q sort loaded on one factor, whereas their Q sort representing their perception of others' ideal image loaded on another. The participants' own body image differed from their perception of others' ideal body image resembling the media's portrayal of ultra-thin models. In addition, an intensive study of a single subject was conducted to examine the influence of social distance on the third-person effect. The results suggest that increased social distance reinforces third-person effects.
Dropout and Academic Achievement Perceptions of Middle and High School Students of Mexican Descent: A Q-Methodology Study
Kathryn G. Swetnam Walden University
The dropout rate for Mexican-descent students enrolled in the U.S. public school system is among the highest of any race or ethnicity. These students may be functionally illiterate in both English and Spanish. The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of at-risk, Mexican-descent, adolescent students who expressed personal opinions towards academic success or failure, rather than to test a predetermined trait or a priori hypotheses. Thirty-two students from an independent school district in a Houston, Texas, suburb participated in this study. The male and female students were enrolled in school in grades 8-10 but were identified as at-risk learners. Their viewpoints were examined through Q methodology. Factor analysis of their Q sorts yielded three distinct attitudinal factors: (a) internally motivated perceptions, (b) family-motivated perceptions, and (c) disaffected perceptions. Distinguishing statements that represent each factor are discussed and compared against demographic data. The findings of this study support the contextual-ecological view of influences that affect minority cultures and impact school accomplishment. The relationship between academic success and dropout perceptions was multifaceted, comprising social ecological and commingled contextual influences on an individual's perceptions. Results of this study may assist educators and parents in understanding how to increase minority scholastic achievement and decrease dropout rates. This study increases the understanding of the perceptions of Mexican-descent adolescents toward academic success and dropping out of school in order to provide a basis for social change through communication and dialogue between Mexican-descent students and families and school administrators and faculty.
Vol. 33 Volume 1/2
Investigating Students' Perceptions of E-Learning within an Occupational Therapy Program
Roshni Khatri University of Northampton
Because of the increasing use of technology to enhance learning in higher education, particularly in the professions, the aim of this study was to explore student perceptions of electronic learning (e-learning) within one module of the occupational therapy curriculum at a university in the United Kingdom. Twenty participants sorted 30 statements taken from the literature by indicating how much each statement reflected their own experience of the e-learning component of their program. Following analysis, two factors were identified indicating two distinct perceptions of e-learning. One factor was interpreted as a preference for traditional lectures along with a perception that technology hindered students' learning. The other factor revealed a view that the use of technology was beneficial and a part of students' learning. Using Q methodology showed the interconnectedness of the issues in e-learning. Ways to improve the instructional design of the module to enable students of both views to engage interactively with the content are discussed.
Assessment Research in Nursing Education: The Case for Q Methodology
Odessa Petit dit Dariel University of Nottingham
Despite the rhetoric emphasizing the need to become evidence-based practitioners, most nursing educational practice is still not based on comprehensive, cumulative, or robust evidence. The reasons for this are multiple and involve both methodological and pragmatic issues. Applied research in the fields of nursing education takes place in real time and in changing contexts, over which full control is impossible. The purpose of this discussion is to present the key challenges facing educational outcomes-assessment researchers and to call for the increased use of Q methodology in nursing education scholarship. Q methodology is able to tease out prevalent discourses and subjectivities and provide invaluable insight into the various views held by stakeholders. Indeed, it might invite an opportunity to include a largely forgotten voice in nursing educational outcomes-assessment research: the patient. Following a brief review of Q methodology in educational research, research is proposed that would include Q methodology to inform nursing curricula and build more active collaborations between academia and clinical practice.
Exploring Perceptions of Leadership for School Staff
Constance Oterkiil University of Stavanger
The study presented here uses Q methodology to explore the perceptions of teachers, paraprofessionals, administrators, and head teachers about leadership. Altogether, 84 employees from four different Norwegian primary schools were asked to rank-order 27 statements related to leadership. The aim of this study was to explore perceptions of leadership for the staff of a primary school. The results present two perspectives: Appreciates Faculty and Appreciates the School. Appreciates Faculty seems to prefer leadership that has a focus on individual staff development over management practices and setting directions. The people whose sorts loaded significantly on Appreciates the School, on the other hand, had quite the opposite view. These people saw management practices and setting directions as the most important leadership traits, as opposed to leadership with an individual staff focus which they saw as least important. The findings are discussed in light of research and theory on the topic of transformational and transactional leadership. This study contributes to the literature on subjectivity and school leadership by revealing the opinions about what leadership practices are important.
Second-Order Structure of Academic and Religious Personal Epistemologies
John D. Hathcoat, Diane Montgomery Oklahoma State University
It was the aim of this research to examine how subjective viewpoints toward the source, certainty, and justification of knowledge, known as a personal epistemology (PE), combine across learning in school and knowing about religion. Q methodology was used as a means to examine the higher-order structure of the results of two PE studies conducted with the same Q set, one in academic learning and another in religious personal epistemologies. Results indicate that not only are academic and religious personal epistemologies interrelated, but these viewpoints may be described by three higher-order perspectives, named Doubtful Knower, Truth Seeker, and Personal Truth. The Doubtful Knower is suspicious about the existence of an accessible truth and sees no criterion by which conflicting opinions may be evaluated. The Truth Seeker sees the process of knowing as uncertain, and it is this element of uncertainty that compels them to search for the truth. Personal Truth believes that truth is idiosyncratic and personal to individual knowing. These higher-order PE perspectives suggest that PE exists at both a domain-specific and general level. The study further demonstrates that Q methodology is an appropriate framework for illuminating the tacit nature of PE while subsequently avoiding the methodological and psychometric challenges faced by other research methods.
Ethical, Methodological, and Practical Reflections When Using Q Methodology in Research with Young Children
Arlene Arstad Thorsen, Ingunn Størksen
The objective of this discussion is to raise ethical, methodological, and practical issues concerning research with young children and the use of Q methodology through our experiences with a study of young children's feelings when in situations related to parental divorce. Q methodology was applied with 20 visual statements depicting a range of feelings for five-year-old children from Norwegian daycare centers to sort according to a "How do you generally feel?" condition of instruction. The issues resulting from this work are ethical considerations, methodological reflections, and practical concerns.
Vol. 32
Subjectivity, the Researcher, and the Researched
Amanda Wolf, Victoria University of Wellington
Stephenson’s work fundamentally blends a theory of subjectivity and a methodology for its study. However, in most Q studies, inquiry centres on perceptions, attitudes or discourses, not on subjectivity. A review of three exemplars of different uses of Q methodology concentrates in the purpose of the inquiry and the nature of that which is inquired into. Two terms each for inquiry and that-which-is-inquired-into are juxtaposed in an analogy: concourse is to Q sorting as subjectivity is to feeling. Q-methodology inquiry, conventionally conceived, privileges epistemology. However, that-which-is-inquired-into is not merely ontological, since it arises from Q sorting. Q sorting itself is an inquiry (loosely conceived) into some event or situation. Appreciating the extent of the common ground of subjectivity in various Q-methodology applications necessitates understanding that Q sorters both draw meaning from and put meaning upon in the act of Q sorting.
Social Constructionism Redefined: Human Selectionism and the Objective Reality of Q Methodology
Simon Watts, Nottingham Trent University
The main aim of this paper is to demonstrate how social constructionism can be used make sense of studies in the Q methodological tradition. In order to maximize the effectiveness of this demonstration, the paper seeks to clarify the term ‘social constructionism’ and to correct some avoidable misunderstandings. Social constructionism is presented as a realist ontology, the difference between constructionism and constructivism is discussed, and the new term ‘human selectionism’ is introduced. In the final section, a physical analogy is then employed to demonstrate the principles of human selection at work and in order to illustrate one possible interpretation of the Q methodological procedure. The tendency for distinct ‘groupings-of-individuals’ (and hence distinct factors) to be discernible in multi-participant Q methodological data is also discussed.
Q Methodology as a Constructivist Methodology
Paul Stenner, University of Brighton
Following a brief discussion of the meanings of constructivism an argument is made to the effect that Q methodology is a constructivist methodology in a sense that is compatible with the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. A brief comparison of the ideas of Stephenson and Whitehead is followed by a section outlining Whitehead’s notion of the ‘actual occasion’ as the core of a constructivist approach to nature. It is argued that a comparable conception of the event is at play in Stephenson’s thinking about Q methodology, and that this is key to understanding the quantum theoretical aspects of Q. Some of the procedures of Q methodology are then interpreted in the light of this conception. The conclusion uses the distinction between experience and expression to integregate the ideas of Stephenson, Whitehead and William James into a novel synthesis of potential use to Q methodologists.
Vol. 31
The Mutable Mandate: Crafting the Constructed Message, Meaning, and Strategic Subjectivity in the Post-Election Campaign for 2004
Dan B. Thomas, Wartburg College and Larry R. Baas, Valparaiso University
Taking it as axiomatic that, in the current historical context, aggregate results from American national elections rarely if ever “speak for themselves,” this research employs Q methodology to examine the subjective meanings toward the outcome of the 2004 presidential contest as these were formed and forged over the course of what we have termed “the post-election campaign” (Thomas & Baas, 1996). Based on recent historical experience and a handful of scholarly investigations, we argue that these ex post facto subjective accounts deserve to be regarded as not only alternative “political constructions,” but pending their narrative appeal as mythic mandates—“stories we tell ourselves about ourselves” (Levi-Strauss, 1978)—crucial manifestations of “politically strategic subjectivity” with profound implications as states of mind with the power to affect the course of action undertaken by like-minded leaders controlling the policymaking levers of the state. In this instance, two studies are reported: one undertaken at or near Bush’s second inauguration; the other conducted six months into his second term. What we find is consistent with Hershey’s (1992) proposition that the course of arriving at “conventional wisdom” on the meaning of a given electoral outcome, particularly the nature of the mandate it warrants, follows a “winnowing” pattern whereby an initial pool of plausible yet diverse constructions of the meaning of the vote undergoes simplification and consolidation over time, crystallizing eventually into a narrative—or small number of complementary stories—that gains acceptance as “conventional wisdom.” While our findings to a degree corroborate this claim, they fall short of a full-fledged confirmation. In light of electoral realities since, especially Democratic success in capturing both houses of Congress in the 2006 Midterms, there remains substantial contention over what can be concluded from the 2004 vote. Accordingly, we devote a Discussion to possible reasons for this, and what it may signify regarding current patterns of political debate and meaning-making in a politically polarized setting quite averse to detached, bipartisan compromise or consensus-building.
The Implementation of Contracting Out in Taiwan’s Local Governments: An Application of Q Methodology
Milan Tung-Wen Sun, National Chi Nan University
Contracting out has been practiced in Taiwan since 1993, and the recent reform efforts are to encourage its implementation at the local government level. To ensure the success of contracting out in Taiwan, it is argued that the practical experiences of local practitioners are more helpful in designing its implementation strategy. Q methodology is applied from a “bottom-up” approach through which street-level bureaucrats are invited to contribute their opinions and to perform the Q sorting. There are at least five discourses been revealed, each of them represents a distinctive perception of contracting out on the basis of personal experiences. It is argued that contracting out has been perceived as an administrative means through which public-private relationships can be promoted and ensured. Therefore, efforts to strengthen contract and network management capacities are needed to guarantee the success of implementing contracting out at local governments in Taiwan.
The Military Mind and American Public Philosophies: A Q-Methodology Approach
Darrell W. Driver, George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies
This article examines the veracity of longstanding claims that military leaders develop a coherent public ideology that is, first, distinct from the mainstream of their parent society and, second, that this military belief system is predictably conservative in character. In the American case, these claims depict self-selected and socialized military leaders as sharing in a conservative "military mind" that remains isolated from the mainstream of the American liberal tradition. Using a combination of Q-methodology public values sorting exercises followed by semi-structured, in-depth interviews, these arguments are tested through an intensive examination of the public philosophies of forty-five mid-level and senior U.S. Army officers and forty-five civilian community and business leaders. The result was the organic construction of four primary public belief systems, labeled here as Triumphant Individualism, Communitarian Democracy, Traditionalism, and Neo-Traditionalism. When these belief systems are matched to the conventional military mind wisdom, however, the basic claims of distinction, coherence, and conservatism are not supported. In place of ideological solidarity, one finds a diversity of value orderings and descriptions that do not easily fit the typical military-civilian categories and often belie the military respondents’ own self-identified political labels. These findings challenge existing shibboleths regarding the prospect of a "military mind," while questioning attendant claims regarding the capacity of military service to shape individuals' public values.
Obama-Clinton Nomination Struggle
James C. Rhoads, Westminster College and Dennis F. Kinsey, Syracuse University
The 2008 nomination battle between Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama was the closest in modern Democratic Party history, and attracted the close attention of the public. There seemed to be so little difference between the candidates in terms of issues and policy, and the split among voters appeared to be related to the perceptions of the candidates by these voters. Were voters motivated in their choice by Senator Clinton’s “experience,” Senator Obama’s “judgment,” ties to the administration of Bill Clinton, “post-partisanship,” gender, race, “electability,” or some other factors.? A strategy was thus employed to exploit the advantages of Q methodology in order to reveal a structure to these subjective viewpoints. Ultimately, a 45-statement Q sample was culled from internet blogs maintained by pundits and administered to participants in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania (27 respondents) and Syracuse, New York (24 respondents). Factor analysis revealed three distinct viewpoints in Pennsylvania and two distinct viewpoints in New York. A second-order factor analysis was undertaken to determine the degree of similarity between these factors.
Vol. 30 Issue 3/4
Consciring: A General Theory for Subjective Communicability
William Stephenson (1902-1989), University of Columbia, Missouri
A fundamental theory of communicability is proposed, covering all human communication in its subjective mode. It is correlative to information theory and communication in the objective mode of modern science. An equation for functional-information is provided, equivalent in importance to that for structural –information on which experiments in objective science are based. The theory leads to a scientific explanation for consciousness, or mind, and for all subjective communication.
Korean Public Relations Practitioners’ Perspectives on Integrated Marketing Communications Implementation
Ilchul Kim, Dongeui University
Since the appearance of integrated marketing communications (IMC) in the early 1990s, its differing characterizations as a ‘new marketing communication paradigm’ versus ‘nothing new’ or ‘management fad’ have not been fully settled. In practice, some organizations operating in Korea have adopted IMC and many marketing communication service agencies insist that their specialty lies in IMC. But from an academic perspective, the field does not seem to be that active here. Why is this? So far, most of the studies on IMC have utilized a quantitative research methodology and have focused primarily on enterprises and their advertising agencies in the areas of perception, implementation, barriers, evaluation and compensation and other individual elements. However, IMC depends as much on the cognitive and philosophical understanding of its practitioners as it does on their strategic or tactical capabilities. This study utilizing Q methodology sought to understand how public relations (PR) practitioners in Korea evaluate IMC in depth based on their experiences. Results show that Korean PR practitioners believe that IMC maximizes the communications effect and most advantageously takes into account changing market conditions. This study also confirmed that there are some barriers to optimum implementation of IMC in Korea such as low economies of scale, turf battles and insufficient top management involvement.
Vol. 30 Issue 1/2
Academic Procrastination by Undergraduate Students
Russell C. Hurd
Sixteen students participated in a study on reasons for academic procrastination. Sources of the concourse included free-writing by university students, academic literature, magazines, newspapers, web sites, and the researcher's personal experiences. The Q sample of 42 statements was structured around seven elements cited in the literature as influencing academic procrastination: task aversion, perfectionism/fear of failure, decision-making difficulties, self-handicapping strategies, emotions (e.g., defiance), pragmatic concerns, and time management skills. P-set members were undergraduates studying for teacher licensure at a regional campus of a large public university in the United States. They completed Q sorts and wrote explanatory responses to follow-up questions. Thirteen Q sorts became defining sorts in a four-factor solution. Data generated by PQMethod were interpreted in light of students' written comments. "Procrastinating for Pleasure" included students who were candid about preferring social activities to academic work. "Perfectionism at a Price" included students who wanted to do high-quality academic work but for whom procrastination exacted an emotional toll in anxiety and self-doubt. "Limited by Life" included students whose demanding family and work circumstances restricted their time for academic pursuits. "Delay by Design" included students who deliberately and positively built academic procrastination into their time management strategies. Interpretations of the data and implications for future research are presented.
Revealing Shifts in Attitude among Undergraduates Participating in Academic Service Learning Programs
Deborah Downing Wilson
Our research focuses on the design and implementation of collaborative learning environments. We use an academic service-learning model, the Fifth Dimension, to bring together resources from university and community organizations in order to provide practicum experience to university students and enriched learning opportunities to under-served children in the local community. One of the tasks that continually confronts us is the assessment of the impact of these interventions on our undergraduate participants. Q methodology, as it was designed expressly to study attitudes, perspectives, and world views, has proven to be particularly appropriate here. This paper describes our application of Q methodology in understanding the changes between pre- and post-term attitudes about teaching and learning in undergraduate students. It is our contention that practicum experience provides the opportunity for a holistic type of undergraduate development not possible in traditional classroom settings. Our results show that while marked shifts in attitude did occur during the class, the mindsets that the undergraduates brought with them into the program influenced the nature of those changes.
Student Views of Learning in a First Semester College Physics Course: A Study Using Q Methodology
Susan Ramlo, PhD
The purpose of this study is unique in its use of Q methodology to examine how students' personal epistemological views compared to how their instructor perceived their views. The ability to determine the differences and similarities in these epistemological views have implications for further research associated with learning (Halloun & Hestenes, 1998; May & Etkina, 2002; Schommer, 1993b) and instructor attitudes towards students. A variety of research methodologies have been employed to determine epistemology (Duell & Schommer-Aikins, 2001) including a number in physics (diSessa, 1993; Halloun & Hestenes, 1998; Hammer & Elby, 2003; Lising & Elby, 2005; Roth & Roychoudhury, 2003), but none have used Q methodology. This study demonstrated that Q is an effective way to reveal the multiple epistemological views in a classroom.
Attitudes toward Gender Equality: A Q Methodological Study
Youseop Shin
Attitudes towards gender equality are usually dichotomized. Those who say they support (or oppose) gender equality, however, may actually have different opinions on gender equality. When using traditional methods such as surveys and interviews in which respondents are asked to select one choice from limited choices that were prepared by a researcher, various subjective attitudes towards gender equality may not be well identified. This article uses Q methodology to identifying five different attitudes towards gender equality. This diversity of attitudes towards gender equality suggests that conventional measures of attitudes towards gender equality can be improved. Future researchers could extend the research to additional groups of respondents, thereby gaining a better understanding of attitudes towards gender equality and of gender equality itself.
Vol. 29 Issue 3/4
Tribute to Melanie Klein
William Stephenson
The Western Historical Manuscript Collection, at the University of Missouri-Columbia, houses the Stephenson Collection-over 70 document cartons the size of standard file-drawers. Among this material is Tribute to Melanie Klein which, from evidence in the text, appears to have been drafted for The Journal of the Melanie Klein Society in about 1988. While it is evidently not a finished piece, I have elected to leave the manuscript essentially intact. It provides strong indication that, near the end of his life, Stephenson was actively revisiting his unpublished books, Intimations of Self and Psychoanalysis and Q-methodology. In a 1985 note accompanying a gift of 10 unpublished book manuscripts to the Journalism School library at Columbia, Stephenson indicated that these two were not yet ready for readers. Stephenson envisaged that Tribute to Melanie Klein would include 10 "segments," five of which are reproduced here: Segments I-IV for the first time, and Segment X, 'Intentionality: or how to buy a loaf of bread', which is reprinted from Operant Subjectivity, 16(3/4), pp. 69-90.
Intentionality: Or How to Buy a Loaf of Bread
William Stephenson
Parallels are drawn between the action-plans and basic-actions of intentionality advanced by Boden (1973) and the quantized factors of Q methodology. Concluding that intentions are complex is distinguished from making complexity itself the object of inquiry, and what this implies is made the basis of an experiment focused on the transitory thought in Boden's essay. Of the three operant factors which result, two correspond to Boden's own conclusions, but the third is suggestive of a greater complexity, as found in the quantum theory of Prigogine (1980). A second study reveals three feeling states relative to Boden's problem about shopping for a loaf of bread, indicating that intentionality extends from the simplest to the most complex of events. The conclusion is reached that the assumption of unity, present since the Middle Ages, must give way to complementarity and multiple intentionalities.
The Meaning of 'Heritage': Mapping Discursive Perspectives with Q Methodology
Emma Waterton
Heritage' is not a fixed, unchanging 'thing', but is something that is constructed, created, constituted and reflected by discourses. This contingency of 'heritage' upon discourse means that policy is not simply a neutral domain within which 'heritage' problems and solutions are mapped. Rather, policy becomes a site for analysis or a means by which to explore through discourse the social realities of heritage management, particularly in terms of the power relations that monitor and sustain social hierarchies and social change. This article maps a range of heritage perspectives using Q methodology. Key here is the idea that while expressions of heritage may be vocalised in similar ways, the meanings underpinning those vocalisations may be directed by different motives and underlying assumptions. Q methodology is thus used here to offer a way by which to recognise not only the natural or commonplace definitions of heritage privileged in national legislation, but those alternative perceptions understood and adhered to by other, and often subaltern, groups. As such, this article presents an overview of the different ways in which 'heritage' is perceived, examining both the nuances of the dominant perspective embedded in heritage policy, as well as a range of alternative experiences and perspectives that exist in tension with that dominant - and authorised - discourse.
Using Q Methodology as a Strategy to Explore Cultural Opinions toward Health Care
Chris M. Ray, Jerilyn Thorman, Diane Montgomery, Yan Yang, Jovette Dew
The need for this study relates to the health disparity problem facing racially, ethnically, and socio-economically diverse people who may not seek or receive the necessary care to maintain their health. Describing the ways that underrepresented groups view wellness using Q methodology may lead to improvements in the quality and equity of health care delivery by increasing the cultural competency of providers. The Q sample was an expansion of one used previously (Sylvester, 2000). This study utilized Q methodology to identify attitudes about healthcare access of African Americans. Statements were added to broaden the range of opinions that might be expressed by other groups, including low-income and other ethnic groups. Of the 43 Oklahomans from various ethnic groups who sorted the 47-item Q set, three factors defined by 27 of the sorts were interpreted to be related to types of health care priorities. Care through Prevention view preventative health care most important, with an emphasis on a well-balanced lifestyle. Participants defining Care through Relationships place a particular focus upon developing strong relationships with caretakers. Participants defining Care for All recognize the need for all Oklahomans to have access to quality health care regardless of socioeconomic status. Implications for further research are discussed.
Vol. 29 Issue 1/2
Segmentation of Public Perceptions on Romania's Accession to the EU
Vlad Tureanu, Dragos Iliescu
European Union (EU) enlargement and integration generated intense debate almost immediately following the first wave of discussion on expansion. Now that the EU border has reached the line of the former Soviet states, the topic is less hypothetical and more significant than ever, especially because the entire EU project's success seems to depend heavily on favorable public opinion. In Romania most of the quantitative measures of public opinion on European issues, like those of the Eurobarometer series, have been run since the beginning of the '90s. Yet, a study concerned with measuring the individual, subjective opinions about EU accession, as well as the formation of these opinions, was still much needed. Q methodology is highly suitable for such an endeavor. As a consequence, concourse statements about EU enlargement and integration were gathered after qualitative discussions with individuals. A Q deck of 46 statements was generated and administered to a sample of 170 individuals. Five factors emerged in the analysis, covering rather surprising and often bleak attitudinal structures. Some of those perceptions were identified as being part as a deeper cultural heritage rooted in Romania's recent history. Some others should be attributed to an often wrong and incoherent framing of the issues by the media and politicians.
Metaphorical Representations of the HR Consultant
Dragos Iliescu, Vlad Tureanu
Metaphors are among the most important means of constructing an organizational reality and, as such, are one of the foci of scientific research in the organizational arena. That this focal point has failed to develop more fully is probably due to the methodological difficulties involved in studying metaphors. Q methodology, with its fundamental accent on the scientific study of subjectivity, brings with it both an epistemic orientation and the technical means to tackle the problem. The present study adopts a Q-methodological frame in order to investigate common metaphors applied by human resources (HR) specialists to the HR consultants they work with. A qualitative wave identified 14 metaphors, with active meanings in seven areas of construction. From these, 57 statements were selected and sorted by 41 HR managers and general managers in top Romanian companies. Four factors emerged, covering rather unexpected constructions that, in some ways, diverge from the classical metaphors known to organizational consultants.
Theoretical Incompatibilities in Teachers' Selfunderstandings of Educational Practice: An Examination Using Q Methodology
Geoffrey Madoc-Jones, Natalia Gajdamaschko
This study uses Q-methodology to investigate teachers' and student teachers' theoretical perspectives concerning educational practice and their possible incompatibilities, based on work by Kieran Egan. Q methodology, as a small-sample, intensive methodology, assists in obtaining understandings concerning the subjectivity of participants that are not possible through more traditional means. It may also, as demonstrated in this paper, provide evidence in support of theoretical work. Four factors, though highly correlated, map closely to Egan's descriptions of varieties of educational practices. The findings are considered in the light of Charles Taylor's work, which provides a way to theorize the relationship between thought and action. Taylor maintains that there is always a pre-theoretical understanding concerning what is happening in a social practice, such as teaching, that requires the participants to have self-descriptions that are constitutive of their involvement. Our findings challenge teachers to reflect more deeply on their practices.
Vol. 28 Issue 3/4
A Sentence from B. F. Skinner
William Stephenson
A sentence by Professor B.F. Skinner, 'It occurred to me to go for a walk,' provides an opportunity to give it a framework of quantized subjectivity, as distinct from Skinner's approach of contingent reinforcement. Skinner's analysis of 'cognitive thought' is sustained, but this in turn has to be rejected by post-Einsteinian theory with respect to subjectivity, ignored in cognitive psychology and Skinnerian Behaviorism alike. Modern science begins with the complexity of events, as in theories of chaos and turbulence, and it is from this standpoint that the growing science of subjectivity made its beginnings in Q-methodology, as concourse theory. Self-reference is crucial in this development, and is advanced in terms of the everyday communicability of a culture, largely as verbal behavior. Skinner's well-known achievements in this matter remain in the determinative framework of Newtonian science. It is time for recognition of the indeterminateness of nature, and for acceptance of a science for subjectivity.
Co-leader subjectivity in an educational setting
Ragnvald Kvalsund, Eleanor Allgood
The study focuses on the subjectivity of co-leadership as it is experienced in certain counselling, guidance and leadership courses in higher education in Norway. The learning process is always facilitated by two leaders who work together. In this intensive study, six experienced co-leaders sorted the sample six times with the different conditions of instruction focusing on various perspectives of the co-leadership relation. Rogers' ideal and real selves and Laings' direct and meta-perspectives are among the conditions of instruction. The experimental design was constructed around three effects ? relation, role and activity. A 3-factor solution was chosen that revealed different views of the co-leader relation. Role effect played a minor part in the factors and activity was not operational. The finding that some leaders had difficulty seeing their co-leader as different from them was an interesting discovery that prompts further investigation.
Eight quantum realities redux: Finding David Bohm
Michael Stricklin
This paper addresses a basic component of Q methodology, namely, how judgmental rotation of centroid factors empowers the researcher to more thoroughly investigate communicability. A Q study of eight interpretations of quantum facts, genuinely worldviews in themselves, is the vehicle for the exposition, and two rotations, both theoretical, are examined. The first rotation is an exercise in intellectual curiosity (intellectual play) that was carried out in 2001; the second ensued from work published by Simon Watts and Paul Stenner in 2003 and from comments and responses to them by Steven Brown.
Vol. 28 Issue 1/2
An End to Ideology
Leonard J. Barchak
A trilogy of ideologies is haunting the modern world-the trilogy of Marxist socialism, unencumbered individualism, and fascist religiosity. Should all the social scientific powers of old and new Europe as well as those of the Americas and their progeny enter into an alliance to hunt down and exorcise this trilogy? Perhaps it is high time that Q methodologists should openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, their tendencies, and meet these nursery tales with a manifesto of their own. To this end, the collected works of William Stephenson and Steven Brown and those of the growing number of Q researchers, present and afoot, might be assembled and published in the major languages of the world. Now that would be a class struggle.
Theory and Methodology for Esthetics
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Female Executives in Biotechnology: A Contextual Approach to Understanding Their Work Environments
Daun R. Anderson
This research study used Q methodology to uncover the perceptions and experiences of 25 women at the vice president level and above in 21 biotechnology companies in Massachusetts. Through personal interviews, web-based interviews, and Q sorts the women provided a range of views regarding their work environments. The study contributes to the literature on subjectivity and organizational behavior by revealing the participants' views of specific individual and group behaviors that facilitate career advancement for women. It extends social role and structural theories by adding to the literature on the role of context in shaping professional experiences. The women identified teamwork and integrity, politics and barriers to advancement, or expertise and opportunity as being most characteristic of their organizational cultures and environments.
The Future of the Q Methodology Movement
Russell C. Hurd, Steven R. Brown
Concern about the future of Q methodology is examined by drawing a concourse from contributions to the Q-Method electronic discussion list, N=40 of which comprise a Q sample that is administered to n=42 participants, resulting in four factors. Those on Factor A (Orthodoxy Upheld) express a desire to maintain Stephenson's original conception of Q methodology and are concerned about intellectual leadership. Members of Factor B (Orthodoxy Applied and Promoted) are likewise supporters of the Stephenson tradition, but wish to vouchsafe Q's future through practical application to significant social issues and presenting the results in professional (non-Q) settings. Those on Factor C (Orthodoxy Reinforced) distinguish themselves from the previous two groups by virtue of their demand for greater material and non-material resources in support of the Q movement. The group on Factor D (Beyond Orthodoxy) expresses a desire to break with the past and encourage Q's accommodation with contemporary technical and conceptual developments, such as web-based Q sorting and qualitative research. Discussion focuses on the implications of these perspectives for the future of Q methodology.
Vol. 27 Issue 4
Civil-Religious Ideation and American Exceptionalism: Negotiating National Identity in a Contentious Time
Dan B. Thomas, Bruce McKeown & Larry R. Baas
In this research with college students and faculty in three private religiously-affiliated schools, we undertake an examination of the contemporary relevance of civil-religious ideation to the subjective understanding Americans have about the meaning of being American. In one sense this project constitutes an extension of earlier studies designed to discern the range of meanings within America civil religion (McKeown & Thomas, 1985; 2003). At the same time, we are seeking to appraise the argument recently advanced by Huntington (20041; 2004b) that the only hope of preserving national unity in times of trial is by renewing commitments to the American Creed. He deems this project infeasible without an energized revivification of Anglo-Protestant civil-religious culture and discourse. Crucial empirical questions lie at the heart of the larger debate over the appeals and perils of framing national identity in religious terms. Mostly these questions pertain to matters of measurement and, heretofore, have been addressed inadequately in large-sample surveys. Foremost among these is the simple yet elusive notion of national identity. Is there, in our politically and culturally polarized setting of "red states" vs. "blue states," a distinctive, non-divisive answer to the national identity question? If so, which is its relationship to civil-religious symbolism and sentiment? The present project addresses these larger questions.
Vol. 27 Issue 3
Reserving a Key Place for Reality: Philosophical Foundations of Theoretical Rotation
Steven R. Brown & Richard Robyn
Factor rotation has been a controversial topic in the history of factor analysis, and preference has always been for a solution that is determinate, such as the simple-structure solution approximated by varimax. Stephenson's preference for judgmental rotation, available in Q methodology software packages such as QMethod and PCQ, is little used, due in part to lack of understanding of its philosophical bases in the writings of Egon Brunswik (psychological cues), J. R. Kantor (specificity), Charles S. Peirce (abductory logic), and Michael Polanyi (tacit knowledge). The philosophical justifications for theoretical rotation are summarized, and concrete examples are presented as illustration designed to encourage acceptance and more widespread use.
Theoretical Rotation as a Tool for Identifying Points of Leverage in People's Perspectives for Program Improvement
Brett Kramer & Virginia Gravina
This paper's main objective is to provide a specific example of a research context in which theoretical rotation (also referred to as judgmental, geographic, or hand rotation) was justified and pursued. The paper specifically illustrates 1) how the authors determined theoretical rotation criteria; 2) the process by which these criteria guided the rotation; and 3) why this was more statistically, theoretically, and pragmatically satisfying than using varimax rotation. The case focused on the social, economic, and contextual reasons why some farmers in Uruguay declined to participate in a dairy herd improvement project, called the genetic registry. Q methodology was used to cast non-participating farmers' perspectives in relation to those of program planners. Because the unrotated factor matrix supported program planners loading on the same factor, theoretical rotation was used to retain as many program planners as possible on the same factor. By following this rotational scheme, one functional perspective was most heavily populated with program planners; the result was a data solution that contrasted the program personnel's viewpoint with that of the other three views that emerged in the rotation, all of which were populated entirely by farmers. Practical implications point to the suitability and power of theoretical rotation versus varimax rotation in Q methodology when the P set "matters". That is, it matters when Q methodology is used intentionally to keep one set of respondents on the same factor in order to contrast their shared perspective with other attitudes that emerge in the study. The result is contrasting functional perspectives and the identification of leverage points between the view that represent points of convergence and divergence.
The Bones of a Concourse
Amanda Wolf
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famously claimed that the "life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience (1881). Without experience, the law has no bones (Menand, 2001, p. 341). William Stephenson claimed, in essence, that understandings grasped through interpretations of factors are the "life" of the concourse. It follows that Q methodology puts the bones in a concourse as "conversational possibilities." New conversational possibilities flow from Q sorting, post-sort interviews, and factor interpretations. They may be distinguished from the "distinct feelings" (Stephenson 1983, p 81), or factor interpretations, construed as the bones of a concourse, which are examined at a remove from the concourse. To provide an example of the "life" of a concourse, a Q methodology study of the views of senior public policy officials and academics in New Zealand on the implications of diversity for policy is reported. The bones of the concourse are interpreted through three factors. One factor represents a view that adopts a "practical" orientation, in which government is interventionist. A second factor considers diversity as a fact to be accommodated through good policy analysis, not as a value to be actively managed. The third factor is distinctive in conveying a "passion" for diversity. Looked at differently, as if from within the concourse, these three factors are subtle variations on a theme, one emphasising process, once concept, and the third colour or feeling. This suggests that Q methodology serves to evoke study participants' responses as from a viewpoint, or perspective, in a flow of communicability on diversity and policy of which all have a part. This understanding, complementing that gained through factor interpretations, draws on the similarities as well as the differences among views. In the illustrative case, the understanding potentially may assist the concourse "owners" (strategic policy thinkers) to beeter address the challenges in New Zealand policy making.
Vol. 27 Issue 2
Teacher Attitudes Towards Misconceptions in Physics Learning
Nurulhuda Abd. Rahman
This is a study of the relationship between teachers' views about misconceptions in secondary physics learning and their classroom teaching practices. An in-depth exploration of individual teacher viewpoints was conducted using Q methodology. A 50-statement Q sample was sorted by 23 physics teachers (14 experienced and 9 novices). Items were obtained from the literature and were chosen after pilot testing with a group of trainee graduate science teachers. Results showed three distinct viewpoints that reflected the "conception of misconceptions" in physics learning of two thirds of the participant teachers. Factors found were: tolerant/positive acceptance, confrontational/non-acceptant or less aware/indifferent about the nature of misconceptions and how to address them. Little difference was seen between the views of novice and experienced teachers. Implications for the next stage of research are discussed.
Youth Perceptions of Bullying: Thinking Outside the Box
Kelly L. Wester & Heather C. Trepal
Bullying, aggression, and intimidation are common phenomena in U.S. schools and can lead to a decline in academic functioning, isolation, distress, and other symptoms of trauma. Although a plethora of research has been conducted on the types, rates, and effects of bullying, none asks students their perceptions of bullying behaviors. In this study Q methodology and interviews with fifth through eighth grade students found differing descriptions of the behaviors they perceive as "bullying". Q factor analysis revealed eight distinct perceptions of bullying behaviors including direct and indirect behaviors. Additionally, some of the youths in the sample did not identify with any of the factors, indicating that there are probably other perceptions of bullying behaviors as well. Recommendations are given for professionals who work with youths.
Experienced and Preservice Teacher Beliefs About How Best to Teach Beginning Reading
April D. Nauman, Arlene C. Borthwick & Terry Stirling
Q methodology was used to explore inservice and preservice teachers' beliefs about how to best teach beginning reading. Two separate studies and analyses were done; and the Q sorts from two P sets were subjected to second-order factor analysis. In study 1, 36 undergraduate and graduate education students at a Chicago-area university performed a Q sort of 39 cards describing common literacy activities. Q statistical analysis identified six factors, two consisting almost entirely of inservice teachers and four consisting mainly of preservice teachers. In study 2, 56 participants sorted the Q deck of literacy activities. This study population included teachers from many regions of Illinois with more varied academic backgrounds that the original sample. Q analysis identified five factors, one consisting only of experienced teachers, two consisting mainly of novices, and two split between inservice and preservice teachers. Second-order factor analysis revealed substantial concordance between the Study 1 and Study 2 solutions. Clear contrasts in beliefs about good reading instruction were noted between the expert and novice groups. In general, experienced teachers shared a similar perspective, despite the fact that their teaching environments and student populations varied greatly. The expert perspective was characterized by a view that reading is a multifaceted process; an emphasis on internal motivation; an emphasis on parent and teacher modeling of reading to enhance children's motivation and skill; knowledge of recent research, especially on balanced literacy approaches and the role of prior knowledge in comprehension; the importance of keeping young children engaged in learning and preserving their self-esteem; and rejection of older teaching techniques that seem developmentally inappropriate, autocratic, or dull. Conversely, the novice perspective heavily emphasized traditional phonics instructions and displayed a lack of knowledge of educational terminology, instructional practices and concepts, and young children. Implications are discussed.
Vol. 27 Issue 1
Using Q methodology to Evaluation a Day Service for Younger Adult Stroke Survivors
Susan Corr, Ceri J. Phillips & Rose Capdevila
Q methodology was used in programme evaluation of the Cardiff Day Service, which was launched in July 1995 specifically for adult stroke survivors 18-55 years of age. The aim of the Service was to offer participants an opportunity to identify and pursue meaningful and realistic situations within the community that would enable them to meet their personal aspiration, and develop their full potential. The purpose of this student is its application as a tool for understanding, evaluating, and extending or redirecting this Day Service. A 41-item Q set pertaining to perceived benefits of the Cardiff Day Service were sorted by 18 Helpers, yielding five factors (psychological gains, social confidence, encourages communication, respite for careers, and sense of purpose). The Q set sorted by Users was reduced to 33 items, after pilot testing indicated that users could not concentrate long enough to complete the longer sort. Seventeen User Q sorts resulted in six factors (new experiences, feeling valued, social recovery, security, prevents isolation, and general recovery). The evidence from this aspect of the programme evaluation suggests that the Service is a welcome initiative, Reconsideration of its structure led to a suggestion to establish two distinct branches, one to provide social support and another for rehabilitation support., Q methodology can continue to provide important input into the evolution of the Service by addressing questions about how best to meet the needs of pre-retirement individuals after stroke.
Managing of Cancer and Hospice Among Health Service Providers: Conflict or Congruity?
Boon Han Kim, Jun Kyung Kim
This Q methodological study identified the subjective structure of the meaning of cancer and hospice and explored the relationship between the two concepts. Thirty-three participants completed a 33-item Q sort representing their understanding of cancer. And thirty-six participants completed a 30-iten Q sort representing their understanding of hospice. Four subjective factors for the meaning of cancer and five subjective factors for the meaning of hospice were identified. Factor interpretations are presented and compared. Several considerations for nursing educators and nurses involved in hospice care are discussed.
Vol. 26 Issue 3
Revisiting Student Writer Apprehension: A New Interpretation of the Riffe and Stacks's Writing Apprehension Measure
Mark Popovich, Nark Masse, Beverley Pitts
The goal of this study of entry level media writing students at a Midwestern university was to determine whether their attitudes toward writing changed during the interval from beginning to end of their first (100 level) college journalism class. A well conceived and tested empirical tool for measuring writing apprehension was adapted for use as a Q sort. An individual assessment of writing apprehension was obtained by using Q methodology to provide a personalized (subjective) measure of attitudes as opposed to analyzing group norms, thus confirming and extending previous research on the phenomenon conducted by Riffe and Stacks. The application of Q methodology provided a deeper understanding, that supported, but it some instances, altered, the interpretation of previous observations. Data from the Pre- and Post-Class Q sorts were compared to assess the impact of the class on student attitudes toward writing. This study demonstrates the realignment of student confidence and career goals that accompanies increasing acquaintance with the realities of the chosen profession provided by the initial professional class.
Instinctive Influence: An Exploration of the Influences of Opinion Leaders on Buyers of Original Fine Art
Maura Murphy Hoss, Dennis F. Kinsey
Forty-eight emerging buyers of fine art sorted a forty-seven statement Q sample representing motivations for purchasing contemporary, original, two-dimensional art. The Q sample was developed from the academic literature and from 17 in-depth interviews with opinion leaders. Two factors emerged from the factor analysis of the 48 Q sorts. Factor A participants look for meaning in art as it relates to them. Emerging Factor A buyers embrace opportunities to meet an artist. Knowledge of the artist's perspective broadens their understanding of the meaning of the piece. These less-experienced buyers rely on trusted friends, family, and colleagues to help them work through the process of making a purchasing decision. Factor B sorters are more interested in context of the art in their environment and in the larger art scene. Factor B members tend to go outside their peer group when making a purchase decision. Merely connecting with an interior designer, architect, gallery representative, or source of aesthetic confidence, Factor B individuals find the emotional support needed to help validate their choice of art to be purchased.
Vol. 26 Issue 2
Targeted Faculty Development and Program Administration Based on Subjective Structural Analysis of Academic Physician Needs
Ann S. Chinnis, Debra J. Paulson, Stephen M. Davis
Fiscal changes in the health care environment have placed increasing pressures on 21st century academic physicians. This situation has made it increasingly difficult for academic chairs and administrators to assess the multiple needs of academic clinician-educators. This study reports the use of Q methodology to assess emergency medicine physicians' faculty development needs. Among the physicians, three distinct viewpoints concerning clinician-educator needs emerged: physicians in search of workload balance, those happy with the status quo, and those in search of cohesive community. Needs common to multiple viewpoints were also identified. These findings helped the investigators create specific targeted strategies that took into account both individual and group needs. The structured approach to subjectivity, ad key feature of Q method, can assist academic decision-makers to identify and fulfill the needs of their faculty physicians in a more democratic and efficacious manner.
Vol. 25 Issue 3/4
Subjectivity and Behaviorism: Skinner, Kantor, and Stephenson
Bryan D. Midgley, Edward K. Morris
Since the founding of behaviorism, most behaviorists have stressed the importance of objectivity for a natural science of behavior. This does not imply, however, that they ignored or denied subjectivity. Skinner's radical behaviorism, for example, equated subjectivity with mainly events inside the skin; Kantor's interbehavioral psychology equated it with uniqueness; and Stephenson's Q methodology equated subjectivity with perspective or point of view. This paper clarifies these approaches to subjectivity and emphasizes their importance in a natural science of behavior, and places Stephenson's behaviorism within the context of the others, examining some of the similarities and differences among them.
Q Methodology and the Operant Construct
Dennis J. Delprato, Steven R. Brown
The Q methodology operant construct is examined in terms of some implications of operantcy for the comprehensive approach to psychological subjectivity. After briefly noting B. F. Skinner's operant and an early reference to the construct by W. Stephenson, the developer of Q methodology, this paper explores seven ways in which operantcy facilitates the study of subjectivity. These include [1] subjectivity as purely behavioral, and not as one side of some mind-body dualism; [2] the sorter's perspective as primary, rather than secondary, to that of a test constructor; [3] operant factor structure as emitted and inherently meaningful; [4] factors as interpretable in their own right, and not as tests of preconceived hypotheses; [5] operant factors as naturally-occurring and confrontable; [6] complementarity, whereby in the same experiment some factors may be paradoxical yet still essential for describing the outcome; and [7] the field system alternative of quantum physics as opposed to the causal determinism found in classical physics. The main conclusion is that the operant is used in Q methodology in ways that are consistent with the latest developments in the logic of science.
Subjective Behavior Analysis
Steven R. Brown
Q methodology was developed in the 1930s and has become increasingly utilized as a means for examining subjective behavior in a rigorous and naturalistic way. One of the advantages of Q methodology is its utility in examining single cases, which, when conjoined with the mathematics of factor analysis, reveals parallels with quantum theory. An illustration is presented from a study of national identity in which spontaneous and indeterminate expressions of national sentiment are selected from interviews and gathered into a Q sample, which is then administered as a Q sort to a small group of participants. Factor analysis of the data reveals identities expressed as national pride, shame, and apprehension. A second study on authoritarianism illustrates the presence of quantum effects revealed in the subjective communicability of a representative personality to which the same Q sort is administered under multiple conditions of instruction, which demonstrates diverse response functions emerging as equivalent to the interference effects of quantum experiments.
Behavior under Conditions of Uncertainty: Empirical Probes of Subjective Probability
Robert M. Lipgar
A particular pattern of responses is produced when adults are required to make a series of choices between two possible outcomes without benefit of feedback or other information upon which to estimate probabilities of a particular outcome. The predictability of such patterning affirms that guessing behavior is organized by subjectively held "beliefs" about random events - a "subjective probability notion." The study replicated previous findings of a typical or "normal" pattern of guessing behaviors for adults (Lawlor 1956). Further, a Q study of subjective probability notions revealed four factors. Behaviors of representatives and non-representatives of these four factors were examined under three other conditions of uncertainty: coin-toss guessing patterns, narrative responses to Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) pictures, and verbalized perceptions in response to Rorschach's inkblots. Consistent response patterns for representatives of two factors, "normal" and "atypical," were found across conditions of uncertainty, suggesting that subjective probability notions are indicators of underlying core personality constructs. Consistent response patterns associated with the two other factors were less clearly manifest, suggesting that these two Q factors represent "reaction types," rather than established subjective probability notions. The results overall demonstrate that psychological dispositions, "personality variables," or "subjectively-held organizational orientations" (Brunswik 1939) can be studied scientifically and found to be lawful determinants of human behavior.
Vol. 25 Issue 2
Probing the Subjective Communicability of an Unfolding Presidential Scandal: A Q Study of the Clinton/Lewinsky Affair
Dan Thomas, Larry R. Baas
This paper reports the results from a pair of Q studies designed to probe the subjective communicability accompanying the so-called "Lewinsky scandal." The first phase of the research was undertaken approximately one month after the initial reports aired alleging a sexual relationship between President Bill Clinton and the twenty-four-year-old White House intern. This "First Wave," based on a sample of Iowa college students, discovered six separate versions of the developments and their significance. The "Second Wave," utilizing the same Q sample, was conducted two months later, finding four factors from the Q sorts of the Indiana respondents. Comparisons of the two data sets reveal similarities and differences between popular constructions of the scandal during its initial phases and four months into the story's coverage. Factors from both studies are interpreted in light of their distinguishing subjectivity, and in terms of the light they shed on the unusual and unanticipated trajectory of strong public support for the Clinton presidency coupled with highly unfavorable news coverage over the course of the scandal. Furthermore, the four factors from the second study bear a striking resemblance to factors discovered by other Q studies conducted in different locales near the end of the impeachment spectacle. We conclude by considering and speculating on the significance among the factors of sharply antagonistic sentiment toward prominent principals (other than the President) who were involved the spectacle.
"Sex, Lies, and Videotape": Attitudes toward the Clinton Impeachment
James C. Rhoads, Steven R. Brown
Students in an undergraduate Political Science class at Kent State University performed a Q sort concerning the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, and each administered it to two other persons, for a total of n=47. Another n=26 Q sorts were obtained from students at Westminster College. The two sets of Q sorts were analyzed separately, the Kent sample producing four factors, the Westminster sample producing three. Refactoring the data indicated that the three Westminster factors matched three of the Kent factors almost exactly. Factor A provides an anti-Clinton, Conservative "spin" on the scandal. Factor B is willing to hold Clinton responsible for his actions, but maintain that those seeking impeachment are overreacting to the situation. Factor C, a bipolar factor, represents an indignation-cynicism dichotomy, with those at one end of the factor reacting moralistically, while those on the other end are cynical toward the political process more generally. Finally, Factor D was found only among the Kent respondents, and was comprised mostly of liberal Democrats. The major theme of Factor D was that Clinton's private life should be of little concern to the public, and that the President's political opponents exploited the crisis. The study helps to clarify views of the scandal that confounded pundits who seemed confused in reading polling data. During much of the scandal the public expressed dismay at Clinton's behavior, while simultaneously endorsing his performance as president. These results reveal that the categories of Democrats vs. Republicans are far too crude to capture the realities of the public's reactions in light of the more subtle and nuanced reactions of the factors in this study.
Q Technique and Questionnaires
Steven R. Brown
Q methodology is based upon small numbers of cases, but small-sample analyses can be useful in the prior structuring of questionnaires for administration to large samples. An illustration is provided of a study of reaction to the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, which produced four Q factors that were initially characterized both in terms of the subjectivity involved as well as their connections to demographic variables. Statements that distinguished the factors were then placed in a questionnaire that was administered by telephone to a randomly selected sample of 81 students. Indices of factor membership were calculated in terms of the questionnaire responses to the distinguishing statements, and the connection of these factor categories to other variables were then determined through conventional hypothesis testing. The survey results reaffirm the limitation of Q methodology in reaching dependable conclusions about proportions and trait associations that require larger numbers of observations, but they also showed Q's authority in the subjective domain as well as its utility in improving the functional utility of questionnaires.
Vol. 25 Issue 1
An Analysis of Internet Adopters
Byung Lee, Janna Quitney Anderson
Millions have gone online in the past five years but not all have completely adopted the Internet. This research employed Q methodology to classify Internet users and explore reasons why some users are more inclined to embrace Internet technology than others. The respondents were forty college students who sorted a 46-statmetn Q sample. Results revealed three distinct viewpoints toward the adoption of the Internet. "Assimilators" absorb and incorporate the Internet into their thinking and lifestyle. "Convenience Users," seeking instant gratification, move quickly on the Internet; they hop on to get what they want when they want it and they hop out. "Reluctant Users" prefer real-life experiences to the virtual ones offered on the Internet. They like face-to-face interaction with other people and have a fear that the seductive power of the Internet might change their lifestyle. A usage survey that accompanied the Q sort also showed that three groups are different in the purposes of their Internet use. Communication was the most important purpose of Internet use except with the Reluctant Users, who valued information gathering more than communication. Respondents' gender and level of perceived Internet savvy seemed to be factor predictors.
Factor Stability, Number of Significant Loadings, and Interpretation: Evidence from Three Studies and Suggested Guidelines
John R. Fairweather
Factor stability is an important issue for Q methodological studies that seek to identify viewpoints in a population, since it is possible that the addition of significant loading can change the factor array and the consequent interpretation. This article examines change in the composition of factors as the number of significant loadings changes and the subsequent effects on interpretation. The literature does not give firm guidance on the appropriate number of significant loadings. Data from three case studies are presented showing the extent of changes in the distribution of items in the selected factor arrays that occur as the numbers of subjects and significant loadings increase, In some cases, changes in item position altered factor interpretation. The results show that a number of research dimensions affect factor stability, so there are no uniform rules to guide researchers. The general applicability of the results is discussed with suggestions relevant to the issue of factor stability.
Vol. 24 Issue 4
Beliefs Regarding Society and Nature: A Framework for Listening in Forest and Environmental Policy
Ann Mead Hooker
At the turn of the 20th century, concepts of preservation, conservation, and development shaped policy arguments about the individual's relationship to society and nature. Recent Gallup polls show widespread and continued concern for environmental problems and broad support for the environmental movement and its goal of environmental protection. Forest policy makers, however, have tended to assume that early 20th century attitudes still dominate, creating a barrier to their understanding of the nuances of current public opinion. In this study, Q methodology was used to examine public opinion along with stratified random sampling and small sample theory for those segments of the public that tend to participate in forest policy. A complex framework was revealed of at least 4, and possibly 5, factors: New Steward, New Conservationist, Individualist, Traditional Steward, and Environmental Activist. By uncovering a wider and more current range of views than has been assumed, the analysis allows the policy analyst to redefine the forest policy agenda in greater depth. It is now possible to move beyond looking for one grand, but elusive, solution to developing a packet of responses addressing the different aspects of the policy agenda.
Attitudes toward Affirmative Action Programs: A Q Methodological Study
Nancy H. DeCourville, Carolyn L. Hafer
This study examined the structure and content of attitudes toward affirmative action programs, including preferential hiring based on gender or minority group status. Ninety-seven individuals recruited from the community (51 women, 43 men, 3 of unspecified gender), were presented with 70 statements obtained in a telephone survey of attitudes toward affirmative action programs. They sorted the statements on an 11-point scale ranging from -5 (least like my point of view) to +5 (most like my point of view). The Q sorts were factor analyzed using principal components analysis with varimax rotation. Three interpretable factors emerged. Factor 1 was defined by 15 women and 28 men. The group expressed strong negative reactions to affirmative action programs, focusing mainly on qualifications and merit of candidates. Factor 2 was defined by 22 women and 6 men. In contrast to the first group, participants on this factor were in favor of affirmative action programs, a position that appeared to be based on recognition of inequality in the work place and the need for change. Finally, Factor 3 was defined by 7 women and 6 men, whose attitudes seemed to be based primarily on the denial of disadvantage. Despite the fact that affirmative action policies have been in effect for as long as 30 years, only a relatively small proportion of respondents appeared to understand the need for and goals of these policies. Results of this research provide new insights and a basis for work to change misconceptions about affirmative action. Comparisons between a single-item attitude measure and the 3 perspectives represented in this study help to illustrate the usefulness of Q methodology in subjective studies.
Vol. 24 Issue 3
Investor Response to Online Stock Trading: A Study Using Q Methodology
Byung Lee, Wonhi Synn
After the introduction of online trading, some investors adopted it while others stuck to their full-service brokers. This research employed Q methodology to identify different groups and why they responded differently to the same innovation of online trading. The respondents were 26 adults - 24 investors and 2 non-investors - who sorted a 40-statement Q sample. Analysis revealed 4 groups - 3 factors, or types, with 1 factor being bipolar. Factor 1, long-term investors, sought expert advice because they did not feel confident in their own judgment and research skills, but would like to be involved in online trading in the future. Factor 2 wanted to invest online for empowerment and fun. Factor 3, a bipolar factor, had a group that distrusted full-service brokers and wanted to save transaction costs through online trading, while capturing gains from daily price fluctuations. Another group under Factor 3 was composed of staunch supporters of full-service brokers. These 4 groups seemed to fit into the stages of the innovation-adoption process that diffusion theorists have propounded. Empowerment and fun were important elements attracting investors to online trading along with price and trust. Privacy, anonymity, and protection of investor assets were not important. Gender and the frequency of stock trading seemed to be type determiners, but age, occupation, time of initial stock purchase, or size of portfolio did not.
The Work Group as a Learning Group in Counseling: Leader Subjectivity in Group Learning Processes
Eleanor Allgood, Ragavald Kvalsund
Consultants and leaders frequently are called upon to facilitate group processes at high levels as interest in shared learning and cooperative work groups increases among organizations. Their views on all phases of group life will influence the group's communication field and its development. The purpose of the study was to discover how the leaders of learning groups view the developmental features of beginning and mature groups. A persons-in-relation developmental approach was used to uncover leader/consultant subjectivity regarding real and ideal groups in both beginning and mature developmental phases. Forty-two Q sorts were subjected to by-person factor analysis. Four factors are interpreted and discussed: 1) the group as a group, 2) cooperation and self-realization, 3) honesty and truth through individuation, and 4) perturbation as separation and individuation. Commonalities among the factors are also presented. The need for leaders to value interdependency in work groups and to learn communication skill sets that can facilitate the development of competent work groups is discussed.
Vol. 24 Issue 2
Centrisms, Noncentrisms, and Universal Q
Noel W. Smith
I will examine a number of current theoretical systems and issues in logic of science. Then I will suggest why it is that Q can serve those systems that have a substantially different logic of science. My analysis will be confined to psychology, for that is the field I know best; but perhaps some of my remarks will have some relevance to other fields as well. I will begin with a scheme that I found useful in a textbook writing project (Smith 2001). This divides theoretical systems into groups. A system's placement in a group depends on where the locus of causality is placed in the system. If the organism causes its own behavior, the system is organocentric; if the environment causes behavior, it is envirocentric. If the social order is the center of behavior, it is sociocentric. If the system considers organism-environment relationships to constitute causality, I call it noncentric. Both organocentrism and envirocentrism assume linear causality: A causes B. Noncentrism, in contrast, views causality not as a force or determiner or producer of action but merely as a descriptive term for interdependent events, which replace linear causality: that is, it is not that A causes B but rather that A, B, C, and other components are interactional and reciprocal. The four centrisms comprise different assumptions about causality and exhaust the possibilities (unless one adds mysticism or magic), and these could be reduced to three, for sociocentrism is a type of envirocentrism.
Researching Authoritarian Personality with Q Methodology Part I: Revisiting Traditional Analysis
James C. Rhoads
Research into authoritarianism has focused almost exclusively on the scaling instruments designed to measure the phenomenon. Rarely do researchers get beyond this fascination with the scale, and consequently authoritarianism becomes reduced to a score on a scale predetermined to measure the concept. This study utilizes Q methodology to explore authoritarianism, by factor analyzing the scale responses of conventionally defined authoritarians. The analysis produced 3 factors, 2 of which would go unnoticed by researchers using traditional psychometric methods, and which run contrary to conventional understandings of authoritarianism.
Researching Authoritarian Personality with Q Methodology Part II: An Intensive Study
James C. Rhoads
In Part II, intensive analysis was conducted with a subject who loaded highly on both Factor A (authoritarian) and Factor B+ (heterosexual liberation) in Part I. This study demonstrated the emergence of various "selves" in relationship to salient other individuals and groups in the subject's life. Q methodology revealed the discovery of 3 selves associated with Reisman's ideas concerning the bases of social conformity (1950; 1952). Finally, an argument is made for adopting the promising features of Q methodology, to explore the authoritarian personality within a clinical setting. The more general purpose of the intensive probes in this study is to demonstrate the advantages of approaching authoritarianism from a methodological position that has not yet been explored, despite a 1953 invitation by William Stephenson to do so.
Understanding the Rebellious Conformist: A Note On Rhoadss Study of Authoritarianism
Steven R. Brown
James Rhoads's "Researching Authoritarian Personality with Q Methodology" represents a wholly new approach in research on the authoritarian personality. Many of his findings are counter-intuitive, but by beginning with the kind of scale scores traditionally used, he demonstrates that these findings have been within the grasp of previous rearchers requiring only a change in analytic strategy. His intensive analysis of a single case is shown to agree well with the "remarkable parallel" between Q methodology and quantum mechanics in terms of the foregoing of averages, the indeterminateness of meaning, the complementarity of factors, and interference effects.
Vol. 24 Issue 1
Integrating Research with Conference Learning: 10 Years of Q Methodology Studies Exploring Experiential Learning in the Tavistock Tradition
Robert M. Lipgar, John P. Bair, Christopher G. Fichtner
Empirical assessment and self-study procedures were implemented during a series of nonresidential weekend group relations conferences in the Tavistock tradition and were used to augment conference learning for staff and members. These studies were organized and conducted so that focus on the conference's primary task was maintained. Findings of several studies of leadership, learning styles, and the role of the consultant are discussed. Administrative and methodological problems encountered in integrating research with conference learning are also reviewed. Because of the Tavistock model's distinctive emphasis on subjectivity and on learning through direct experience of covert and often primitive processes, a research methodology compatible with experiential learning was sought. Q methodology made it possible to obtain quantifiable, objective, in-depth information about values, attitudes, and dispositions characteristic of individuals and of individuals and groups in interrelationship. The Q studies were carried out over a 10-year period as an integral part of conference work. Learning based on firsthand observations and experience was combined with feedback based on systematic empirical research. The staff reviewed research findings in post-conference sessions to promote their development and competency. Conducting research in the context of group relations conferences provides experience in dealing with conflicting attitudes toward relying on knowledge based on personal experience, empirical data, or theory for decision-making. The results of this study have implications for conducting self-study and assessment outcome evaluations in other institutions and organizational settings.
Attention in Counseling and Education: A Q Methodological Study
Eleanor Allgood
An exploration was conducted into subjective meanings of attention in association with counseling and education. Attention subjectivity of 5 counselor-educators, including the author, was investigated under both ideal and real conditions from the perspectives of being persons, counselors, and learners. Each participant sorted a 40 statement Q sample 6 times. Two factors emerged from the analysis. The review of a subsequent videotaped discussion among the participants resulted in characterization of the factors as 1) an ideal of mutuality and 2) self-uncertainty and ambiguity. Both factors expressed a relational quality that underscored the importance of the self-Other dynamic in attention subjectivity. Focus and intention were also seen as important characteristics, contributing to a positive and loving experience of attention. The findings support further research on attention subjectivity in counseling and educational communication practices.
Using Q Methodology to Assess Chronic Pain in Elderly Cognitively Intact and Alzheimer's Patients
Jeannine Forrest
Traditional methods such as visual analogue scales, numeric scales, and questionnaires are often ineffective for evaluating pain in cognitively impaired patients. Alzheimer's disease is a progressive neurological disorder that alters various cognitive domains including language and speech, resulting in problems with word finding and concentration. There were 23 elderly participants in this Q Methodology stud, 13 with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease and 10 cognitively intact. Using a 30-card Q set, these individuals were able to communicate about coping with chronic pain. The Q sort process was adapted by individualized explanation and repetition of the condition of instruction. Six uncorrelated factors emerged indicating how all participants described and managed chronic pain. Alzheimer's patients responded more readily using Q sorts than with traditional pain assessment instruments. Possible explanations for this success are explored and further research options are proposed.
Vol. 23 Issue 4
Information Privacy: How Much Privacy Protection Does the Public Want on the Web?
Byung S. Lee, Ph.D.
Abstract Coming Soon!
Assessing Q-Assessor: A Validation Study of Computer-Based Q Sorts versus Paper Sorts
Bryan H. Reber, M.S., Stanley E. Kaufman, M.D., Frits Cropp, Ph.D.
Abstract Coming Soon!
Fanaticism: Sports and Subjectivity
James C. Rhoads, Ph.D.
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 23 Issue 3
William Stephenson and the Post World War II Bifurcation of British Psychology
James M.M. Good
Abstract Coming Soon!
Understanding Fairness: Exploring Subjectivity And Organizational Justice
Jean Mannheimer Forray, Ph.D.
Abstract Coming Soon!
Voices of Hope, Voices of Cynicism: Using Q Methodology to Interpret Complex Attitudes towards Organizational Change
Jill Voodilla, Ph.D.
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 23 Issue 2
Q Methodology and Social Marketing: Interpreting Racial Attitudes toward Health Care
Judith Sylvester, Ph.D.
Abstract Coming Soon!
Career Counseling Experiences in Norway: A Q Methodological Study
Eleanor Allgood, Ed.D, Ragavald Kvalsund, Dr. Polit.
Abstract Coming Soon!
Using Clothing to Bring Alive Autobiographical Memories
Susan Schultz Kleine, Ph.D.
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 23 Issue 1
Two Sciences.... Part III: Stephenson's Quantum Psychology
Mike Knight, Ph.D., Gabriel Rupp, M.A.
Abstract Coming Soon!
Women's Career Advancement and the Glass Ceiling in the Financial Services Industry
James Slavet, B.A., D. Anthony Butterfield, Ph.D.
Abstract Coming Soon!
Identifying Problems and Generating Solutions under Conditions of Conflict
Jennifer Maxwell, Ph.D., Steven R. Brown, Ph.D.
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 22 Issue 4
Two Sciences.... Part II: Mental Life and the Language of Science
Mike Knight, Ph.D., Gabriel Rupp, M.A.
Abstract Coming Soon!
Science of Subjectivity
Wendy Silcox
Abstract Coming Soon!
Taking Subjectivity Seriously in Educational Outcomes Assessment: Exploring Undergraduate Understandings of the Liberal Arts
Dan Thomas
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 22 Issue 3
Two Sciences.... Part I: The Epistemology of Object/Subject Inter-Dependence
Mike Knight, Ph.D., Gabriel Rupp, M.A.
Abstract Coming Soon!
The Violence of the Night: The Perception of Trauma in a Song
Jennifer P. Maxwell
Abstract Coming Soon!
On the Taking of Averages: Variance and Factor Analyses Compared
Steven R. Brown
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 22 Issue 1/2
Pairing Q Methodology and Case Studies to Explore Journalists Attitudes Toward New Media Forms
Jane B. Singer
Abstract Coming Soon!
Using Q Methodology to Asses Journalism Faculty Attitudes Toward the Teaching of Writing
Mark H. Masse, Mark N. Popovich
Abstract Coming Soon!
What Do They Know of English Who Only English Know? Ascertaining Attitudes Toward Foreign Language Study Using Q Methodology in a Public Relations Framework
Leonard J Barchak, Russell (Gene) Marshall
Abstract Coming Soon!
Attitudes and Self-Perceptions of Emergency Physicians: The Systematization of Factor Interpretation
Joilo C. Barbosa, Timothy Erickson, Paula Wiloughby
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 21 Issue 3/4
Quantum Theory Media Research: II. Intentionality and Acculturation
William Stephenson
The undefined theory for subjectivity elaborated in Part 1 (Stephenson, 1995-1996) is substantiated with illustrations in this paper, in reference to Danish media research. Quantumized operant factors in Q methodology incorporate intentionally in relation to culture formation, thereby revealing how action implicates culture, as evidenced in Eisenhower's unwillingness to use the atomic bomb (conscience), Freeman Dyson's principle of "live and let live" (hope), and the idealism of Rodo's Ariel as expressed in the policies of Costa Rica's Oscar Arias. A summary is provided of a theory of intentionalities (which presage, but do not predict subsequent events), which is rendered credible in terms of additional illustrations concerning public libraries, public health, and science journalism. Conclusions are reached regarding affinities between Q methodology and reception analysis in Danish media research.
Subjective Science: Normal and Abnormal (Continued)
Steven R. Brown
Q methodology's role and status is appraised I light of the 12 intervening years since the keynote speech carrying the same title was read at the first (1985) Q conference. The pervasiveness of subjectivity is stressed, as is Q's role in measuring and conceptualizing it. Evidence is provided that Q methodology has achieved certain characteristics of a normal science (as defined by Kuhn), and an inventory is made of conceptual errors and of the kings of resistances to Q's implications Summaries are also provided of the variety of projects in which Q methodology has a central role. The conclusion is reached that Q remains outside the mainstream, but that there have been marked improvements in its status within the past decade. These comments constituted an address to the Thirteenth Annual Conference of the International Society for the Scientific Study of Subjectivity, Syracuse University, October 23-35, 1997.
Circles: Q Methodology and Hermeneutical Science
Bruce McKeown
A long-standing debate in hermeneutical discourse concerns the scientific status of hermeneutical investigation. Contemporary hermeneutics has shed away from or outright rejected scientific models and practices for textual analysis. It is alleged that the subjective nature of textual interpretation precludes attempting on empirical-behavioral approach. However, studying subjectivity from an understanding mode does not require violating inductive scientific principles. A review of its basic themes reveals that the hermeneutical enterprise conforms to the fundamental tenets of a science of subjectivity. Empirical operations are available and applicable as operational techniques for doing hermeneutical science. It transforms hermeneutics from "art" and "soft science" into a methodology grounded in the basic foundations of behavioral science but on a more secure footing. And it responds to the dilemma presented by the hermeneutical circle by maintaining the integrity of the text and controlling for the contaminating effects of the observer's analytic presuppositions.
Quantumstuff in Communication: Some Implications of Stephenson's Concept
Donald J. Brenner, James Aucion, Hao Xiaoming
The fundamental proposition of quantum theory, that observed phenomena interact with the observer, was seen by Stephenson as an important link to his construction of theory about communication. Key linking concepts are communicability - oral public culture/discourse, or consciousness - and intentionality, which is based on the fact that all possible responses for a person are contained in a culture, subculture, or counterculture. Of these responses, only a few are highly significant possibilities. Another key concept, complementarity, makes allowances for inevitable social discontinuities. Parallels are drawn between the transitive, subjectivity, and communication theory (which involves self-reference) on one hand, and the substantive, objectivity, and information theory (which involves matters of fact) on the other. Stephenson contended that more emphasis needs to be placed on self-reference and less on information. Q methodology, by drawing on Pierce's Concept of abduction, Stephenson said, makes possible the application by subjects of "all probability states." We provide a set of six basic postulates that sum up Stephenson's argument for the relevance of quantum theory. We contend that what counts for journalism, in applying quantum theory, is the communicability of the masses, not the messages themselves. The concepts of concourses (the sum of an individual's knowledge and self-reference) are indispensable to understanding mass communication. Factoring rankings of self-referent statements leads to uncovering significant beliefs common to a culture, but also allows identification of subcultures and countercultures. Rogers and Kincaid's convergence model is seen as useful to this process.
Vol. 21 Issue 1/2
Q Methodology, Textuality, and Tectonics
Wendy Stainton Rogers
Along with the paper from Rex Stainton Rogers, and that from Simon Watts and Paul Stenner, this paper seeks to explain and illustrate to and why the Q work we are doing here (mainly in the UK, but also with some colleagues elsewhere) differs from the work with a much longer history which has been undertaken by Q scholars in the USA and their students and proteges (again, this includes work outside the primary geographical locus). While our work has much in common with the latter, there are significant differences both in our approach to carrying out Q studies and in our objectives. Our interest in Q arose from a theoretical location within a "climate of perturbation" framework, drawing from "French Theory." Q met our need for an idiographic methodology, and offered us a highly effective means to conduct discourse analytic work. We use Q to address issues of power and knowledge, and their interplay, using analytics of textuality and tectonics. These terms are defined and an illustration is provided to show how Q can be used in this way.
Q Methodology and "Going Critical": Some Reflections on the British Dialect
Rex Stainton Rogers
In seeking to explain what Q methodology has made possible for those of us working within a critical "climate of perturbation" framework, we have employed the device of inventing a "British dialect of Q." While I would still hold to the argument that there is something distinct about our approach, that distinctiveness really requires a more encompassing tag than might be taken from the anodyne term "dialect." My ambition in this paper is to spell out our position (and mine within that) and to leave readers to make up their own minds as to whether we are; still operating in the Q-methodology community; schismatics; or, even, heretics.
[Re]searching for Love: Subjectivity and the Ontology of the Q Factor
Paul Stenner, Simon Watts
This paper makes use of a Q study on understandings about love to illustrate how UK Q scholars construe the ontology of Q factors. By examining the variety of constructions of "love" revealed by the study, it is possible to see how interpretation of Q factors can be undertaken within our particular understanding of subjectivity.
First-Time Voting in the UK 1997 General Election
Una McCormack
It is often assumed that "young people" are a homogenous group, and that the current generation of young people are politically disengaged, or, at best, only interested in issue politics. The Q study reported here demonstrated that both of these assumptions are false. The sorts provided by first-time voters produced seven highly divergent factors, demonstrating a wide range of viewpoints on politics, the political process and voting itself.
Representations of Violent Young Women
Susannah Chappell
This Q study investigated representations - portrayals of what a person is like - of young violent women. Its impetus was reporting in the press which was expressing concern about a rise in "acceptability of violence" among young women. The data obtained in the study refute this concern. While the one representation which portrayed a fictional character was of a woman who was frighteningly violet, the other four depicted women known to the participants whose Q sorts described the. All of these were quite "ordinary," their violence was minor, and it was not seen as a central feature of their character. These results suggest that there is something of a "moral panic" being created. Some of the reasons for this are discussed.
Vol. 20 Issue 3/4
Identifying Political Subcultures in Mexico
Andrew B. Baker
In response to many of the deficiencies in current research, this study proposes Q methodology as an appropriate technique for the analysis of intra-national political subcultures. Q offers the important advantage of allowing respondents to define and to place themselves into subcultures. Data collected in Puebla, Mexico illustrate the argument. Four political subcultures are revealed: the allegiant participant, the distant participant, the alienated participant, and the subculture of mistrust and individualism. While respondents display many of the cultural attitudes scholars have already identified in Mexico, a clearer picture of political culture in Mexico emerges because none of the subcultures displays all of these attitudes. Instead, important traits of attitudes are often mutually exclusive, such that a single trait is generally the defining variable of only a single subculture.
Political Involvement: Characteristics and Categories
Stacey F. Kaniham, Dennis F. Kinsey
Political involvement is conceptualized as an orientation toward a political situation that distinguishes qualitative differences in message processing. This stands in contrast to traditional conceptions of political involvement, which describe deep-seated individual traits that differ little over time. Three categories of situational political involvement are proposed (active involvement, passive involvement, and uninvolved) and accompanying communication patters are examined with a 52-item Q sample during the 1994 California gubernatorial campaign. The actively involved category indicated different communication behaviors than the passively involved - and especially the uninvolved. The most important behaviour distinguishing the actively involved was interpersonal communication - talking about politics.
The Interpersonal Sources of the Development of Political Images: An Intensive, Longitudinal Perspective
Larry Baas
Harold Lasswell, among others, has noted that the vague, diffuse, and distant symbols of the secondary political world are elaborated and take on personal meaning to the individual as a result of a process of displacement or projection of some image from the primary world. To examine whether such a process mediate between primary and secondary worlds, a single subject was given two separate Q samples and asked to describe her images of 25 objects as well as how these objects made her feel. The correlation and factor analysis of these data, plus lengthy interviews with her, demonstrated how the varied aspects of her political world take on personal meaning to her with respect to specific primary images. The current study is and update of the study after almost 14 years. The same subject was asked to describe many of the objects from the original study as well as other "new" primary and political objects in her life. Once again the data support the Lasswellian proposition that primary and secondary worlds are bridged by a process of displacement of primary affect. Additionally, the data allow us to see how new objects are incorporated into her world and how changes in her primary world affect her images of the secondary political world, as well as how earlier images impact ones developed later.
Identity Dilemmas and Psychological Discourse: The Case of Psychopaths in a Secure Psychiatric Hospital
Mark Stowell-Smith
Contemporary culture is patterned with psychological ideas and concepts. Social constructionist theory contends that these ideas constitute a regime of truth which constructs rather than describes a version of who we are. It is argued that the option of whether to reject or assimilate such concepts poses dilemmas for personal identity. This dilemma is considered through the example of a Q-methodological study of discourse about psychopathy amongst patients and staff in a secure, psychiatric hospital in England.
Vol. 20 Issue 1/2
Q Studies in Korea: Past and Present
Hyeon-Dew Kang
Korean universities have made remarkable progress in mass communication education. Out of a total of 110 South Korean universities, 48 institutions offer journalism and mass communication courses. In 1972, Yong Chang, a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, first introduced Q methodology to Korean communication scholars, but failed to receive widespread recognition. In 1980, Won Ho Chang of the University of Missouri taught Q methodology at Korea University as a visiting professor. He also supervised 16 Korean Ph.D.s who went back to Korea and became the backbone of Q studies in Korea. In 1996, The Korean Society for Q Study was officially formed, and Q methodology is finally taking its place in communication research and education society in Korea.
The Casual Schemata of Cancer: A Q-Methodlogical Application for Korean Patients
Boon Han Kim, Hung Kyu Kim
The purpose of the study was to explore the causal perceptions of cancer that would be the basis for development of nursing intervention. A Q-methodological approach was desperately needed in this highly subjective area because prior research had proved inadequate to explain the most distinctive features of personal viewpoints about critical health conditions. Results reveal five factors: Self-reliant, Supernaturalist, Other-dependent, Fate-recipient, and Self-contradictory. The accounts so revealed are examined in light of the diverse subjectivity they manifest. A discussion makes note of the implications for the further development of nursing assessment and tools.
Q Methodology and Creation of Advertising Message: An Example of Coffee
Hung Kyu Kim
The purpose of this study is to use the Q Model (Kim, 1993) to determine consumers' overall attitudes toward a specific product, namely coffee. This model is applied to gauge consumers' attitudes and feelings and to use these data to construct the most effective and advertising campaign that is. It is our goal to determine exactly what the status of our product is in the mind of the consumer. This study explores how the product is perceived and discovers precisely what the segmentation for our product really is. Finally, a creative concept for the market will be developed with these attitudes in mind.
A Study of the Professional Nursing Images of Nursing Unit Managers: A Q-Methodological Approach
Eun Ja Yeun, Sung Ai Chi, Hung Kyu Kim
The purpose of this study was to analyze the subjective schemata of nursing unit managers in order to promote our understanding of individuals' images of nursing as a profession. The study also sought to provide appropriate strategies for improving the image of nursing based on perceptions of the profession. The results, based on a Q study of nursing unit managers at five Korean university hospitals, revealed three distinct types of images of nursing as a profession: the views of the Proud, the Self-Conflicted and the Progressive manager. It was found that these three types could change continuously through interaction with their environment. Based the findings, the study also suggested guidelines for constructing a desirable professional nursing image.
The Schemata of Hope: A Q Methodological Look
Dalsook Kim, Hung Kyu Kim
The purpose of the study is to understand the nature of "hope" by explaining It more scientifically. A sample of 37 statements bearing on the personal meaning of hope was sorted by 13 cancer, 13 chronically-ill, and 5 disabled patients. The results indicate that there are seven types of hope: (1) dependence of transcendental-being, (2) cognition of reality, (3) orientation-toward-relationship, (4) existential, (5) self-fulfillment, (6) miracle-expectation, and (7) redefinition of reality. From the study, "hope" could be defined as the process in which continuous imagination and evolution of possibility cause changes in human recognition, attitude, action, etc. The significance of the study is three fold: (1) The discovery of seven types of hope in Korean people and the better understanding of its schemata; (2) suitability of Q methodology to the study of nursing concepts; and (3) the suggestion of assessments and intervention techniques based on the understanding of hope from this research.
Vol. 19 Issue 3/4
Contrary Convictions: Race and Subjectivity in Public Opinion on the O.J. Simpson Criminal Trial
Dan Thomas, Allen McBride, Larry Baas
In the pair of studies reported here, we probe the operant subjectivity at play in public opinion on the Simpson saga - in the process amplifying our understanding of the role of race, among other things, in the diversified accounts taking shape on the spectacle as a whole. Results reveal a three-fold set of meanings for the case at both pre-trial and post-verdict points in time. These contrasting constructions of the same set of events are examined in light of their defining themes and their affinities to the racial identities of their proponents. A concluding discussion takes stock of the simultaneously complementary and incommensurate relationship of these results to findings from scores of surveys seeking to gauge public opinion on the case.
Perceptions of the O.J. Simpson Murder Trial and its News Coverage
Stanley E. Ketterer, Euntaek Lee, Earnest L. Perry, Jr., Keith P. Sanders, Robert W. Meeds, Jiafei Yin
The O.J. Simpson criminal trial was the most extensively covered in U.S. history. Not only was it reported virtually daily (usually on the front page) in the nation's newspapers and television newscasts, but CNN brought the trial to home and work-place television sets nearly "gavel-to-gavel." It quickly became obvious that public interest in the trial was about more than murder. It had to do with celebrity, justice, wealth, sex and race. The situation presented an excellent opportunity to study perceptions about an almost universally-known event, the underlying social issues attracting the massive interest and the news media coverage that linked them. This study, conducted near the middle of the trial, identified four viewpoints about the trial and its coverage. Additional insight was gained by asking four news media gatekeepers to provide second-order Q sorts as they thought "typical" news readers might.
Post-Verdict Attitudes Toward The O.J. Simpson Murder Trial: The LSU Study
Judith L. Sylvester
Were the reactions to the O.J. Simpson murder trial verdict as deeply split along racial lines as reported by local and national news media, or were such reports exaggerated? That was the question that motivated this study of students and townspeople in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Three viewpoints about the trial and its media emerged. All three typologies converged on the point that Simpson's status played a key part in prolonging the trial and encouraging media attention. They also concurred that, to some extent, society is unjust and racist. Two types were critical of media coverage. African Americans overall were very critical of the media, but more for reasons racial than journalistic. Both those who had not followed the trial and those who watched almost daily tended to believe in Simpson's guilt, leading to the conclusion that race played a larger part than trial knowledge in forming the attitude that he was innocent, or at least that his guilt was not established.
The O.J. Simpson Papers: A Commentary
Donald J Brenner
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 19 Issue 1/2
Quantum Theory Media Research: I. Reception Analysis
William Stephenson
Q methodology, with it foundation in quantum theory, it applied to reception analysis as it has taken form in Danish communication studies. The mathematical similarity between factor analysis and quantum mechanics is illustrated, following by introduction of postulates required for the quantification of all psychological experience - of self-reference, concourse, and communicability (not consciousness). Measurement (Q technique) provides for the quantization of psychological events (as defined by Kantor), and is illustrated in a study of a single person watching the TV show Dynasty. The resulting Q factors are subject to the principle of complementarity introduced by Niels Bohr, whose epistemology is integral to language and subjectivity as well as physics. The general system which is advanced is self-contained and provides the kind of theoretical unity for which Danish reception analysis is searching. The range of phenomena to which it applies is to be provided in Part II.
Quest-Sort: A Paper-and-Pencil Alternative to Card-Sorting Q Samples
Larry W. Howard
Under conditions that might make a traditional card-sorting task infeasible, the Quest-Sort alternative presented here could be useful. A sample of 31 students demonstrates reasonable comparability of results between the formats, with the Quest-Sort about one-third faster to complete that the card-sort. A second sample of employed students demonstrates the internal validity of Quest-Sort rankings relative to both card-sorted and paired-comparisons rankings. Second-order factor analysis also suggests that the card-sort and the Quest-Sort elicit conceptually similar structures.
Comments on Professor Howard's Quest-Sort
Steven R. Brown
The Quest-Sort modification of Q technique is examined in historical context and is shown to have several predecessors, which are criticized for their overemphasis on technicalities at the expense of methodological considerations. Attention is also drawn to the foundations of measurement in Q method and to Stephenson's replacement of classical psychophysics with Fisher's experimental principles. Questions are raised about various of Professor Howard's assumptions about Q methodology.
Response to Dr. Brown's Comments on Quest-Sort
Larry W. Howard
Abstract Coming Soon!
The Structure of Attitudes Toward America's World Role
James M Carlson, Douglas Blum, Bruce McKeown
The analysis presented in this article concerns how citizens organize their beliefs about America's role in the world affairs. An intensive analysis using Q methodology is offered as an alternative means for uncovering the structure of foreign policy attitudes. The analysis revealed four distinct viewpoints. In discussing the viewpoints we offer a critique of the methodological presuppositions underlying earlier empirical research and the implications of those presuppositions for our theoretical understanding of the subject.
Vol. 18 Issue 3/4
William Stephenson at the University of Chicago: Subjectivity/Objectivity Revisited
Robert M. Lipgar
[EDITOR'S NOTE: In this address, delivered as the keynote to the Tenth Annual Q Conference, Bob Lipgar reflects upon his days as a graduate student at the University of Chicago during the time William Stephenson was a member of the faculty there. It was during his Chicago years, of course, that Stephenson's seminal statement on Q methodology, The Study of Behavior, was issued and an awareness of the magnitude of Professor Stephenson's Chicago years are well captured - along with a sense of the rich intellectual atmosphere of that time and place - in Dr. Lipgar's remarks. His address is reprinted here in the exact form in which it was prepared and delivered. DBT]
A Partisan/Nonpartisan Schematic Approach to Interpreting Political Cartoons
Jeraine Root
Modern political science research has virtually ignored political cartoons, although both empirical and normative studies are found in other disciplines. Q technique has not been widely accepted in political science circles, which may have contributed to the lack of attention to cartoons, and political humor more generally, within the discipline. In this exploratory study, I conduct a Q-methodological experiment featuring partisan and nonpartisan schematics and their responses to political cartoons about the 1992 presidential election and partisan politics. The experiment offers an assessment of the emotional impact of these cartoons, and utilizes an information-processing framework for analyzing rational reactions as well.
Local Theater Attendance: A Scientific Approach to Audience Recruitment
Risa Sherman, Christy Law Blanchard and Kristopher A. Kagel
The purpose of this research was to develop an understanding of why the Contemporary Theatre of Syracuse (CTS) audience members attend performances and subscribe as season ticket holders. The knowledge gained about these motivations was sought for the ultimate purpose of enabling CTS to develop messages for audience recruitment. CTS attendees ranked a Q sample of 45 statements representing diverse motivational grounds for supporting CTS, and three factors were found. For each of the factors, suggested themes for recruitment messages appropriate to the target group are discussed.
Sustainable Development, the Press and Policy: A Q Study of Brazilian Policy Makers
Robert A. Logan, Jimena Beltrao
A Q study asked 54 Brazilian scientists, administrators and journalists to evaluate sustainable development definitions and concepts, the role of national, local and international institutions in the Amazon's development, specific public policies for the Amazon region and the role of the news media. Four factors emerged and were labeled Locally Oriented Idealists, Internationally Oriented Pragmatists, Regional Architects and Conservative. The findings suggest that respondents place the economic welfare of Amazonia's residents above all other considerations. Cultural stability and the environment are seen as integral components of regional planning, but public policy begins more with serving human beings than nature. The respondents' interpretation of sustainable development bears little resemblance to how it is perceived within the literature. All four factors also assert that the news media play a key role in public awareness of Amazonia's ecological and economic challenges. The study suggests that Amazonia is a fertile area to evaluate the delicate interactions among policy makers and journalists as they face geopolitical, economic, environmental and social policy issues and attempt to apply principles of sustainable development.
Vol. 18 Issue 1/2
Q Methodology as the Foundation for a Science of Subjectivity
Steven R. Brown
William Stephenson's 1935 letter to the Editor of Nature, published 60 years ago, contains within its four short paragraphs all the essentials for a science of subjectivity. Focusing on two studies - on the controversies surrounding animal experimentation and of problem selection in policy analysis - illustrations are provided of the new phenomena brought to light through "inverted" factor analysis, and of the advantages of experimentation which Q methodology enjoys. A proposed study on food habits demonstrates how experimental probes can be made into the cognitive and orectic aspects of nutrition and food choice. The conclusion is reached that Q methodology remains the foundation of the study of subjective behavior.
Persons-in-Relation and Q Methodology
Eleanor Allgood
We know ourselves through our actions in the world in relation to others. This philosophy as developed by John Macmurray is the ground on which my colleague and I are basing our work as educational researchers in the field of counseling. We are working collaboratively to develop new approaches to learning and discovering more about the process by which persons gain self-knowledge as well as knowledge about other persons in the helping relationship. Our questions focus on what it means to be a person and persons for each other particularly in the experience of a guide, counselor or therapist and a client who meet in a helping relationship. We deeply believe that for real self-knowledge to develop we must go beyond mere professionality in the helping relation and dare to meet each other as persons. Q methodology attracts us as a philosophy and approach which seems to provide a way to discover and uncover some important aspects of self-knowledge. It is congruent with our philosophy as in its method the person is in action, operating on or communication with a series of self-referential statements; thus becoming and agent in the world.
Stephenson's Play Theory and Online News Reading
Jane Singer
As children know (but adults sometimes forget), using a computer is "fun." Media that use a computer to deliver news and other timely information provide an opportunity to explore William Stephenson's play theory of mass communication in a new light. These online or interactive media encourage exploration. They respond instantly to individual input. They require us to make self-enhancing personal choices; otherwise, they just sit there. Yet in some ways, interactive media also are work. For both the user and the producer of their content, they offer intriguing ways to conceptualize what one does with the news of the day.
Storylistener Subjectivity in Response to Mark's Passion-Resurrection Narrative
Kenneth R. Parker
Amid a three-decade resurgence of interest in storytelling throughout theUSA, a network of storytellers has attempted to recapture the ancient practice of narrating the stories of the formative events and founding parents of the Judeo-Christian religion. This study employed Q methodology to explore how listeners respond subjectively to a storytelling presentation of a biblical narrative. Two types of storylistener were found, both reporting imaginative and other kinds of cognitive response. One type also described emotional involvement in, and the other critical detachment from, the story event.
Vol. 17 Issue 3/4
The Convergence of William Stephenson's and Marshal McLuhan's Communication Theories
Paul Grosswiler
This essay develops the thesis that the communication theories of William Stephenson and Marshall McLuhan share a set of core concepts. These central issues will be compared in order that each of these iconoclastic theorist's ideas can be seen as enriching those of the other. These four areas will be discussed: 1) exploration and facts; 2) the self and medium; 3) quantum-theory, complementarity, and transitive and substantive thought; 4) communication pleasure and play in the communication process. Probing Stephenson's clarion call for Q methodology as the new methodology for McLuhan's new epistemology, this paper searches for the underpinnings of that convergence in communication theory.
Reading the Romance, Building the Bestseller: A Q-Technique Study of Reader Response to The Bridges of Madison County
Dan Thomas, Larry Baas
Based on a reader response case study of Robert Waller's astonishingly popular romance novel, the research reported here demonstrates not only that readers' subjective experience of the same text can and do vary dramatically but also how it is that such understandings, in their naturalistic condition, are amenable to public inspection and reliable calibration as operant factors. In the course of the case study, the "convergently selective" character of the appeal of Waller's all-time bestselling romance is addressed in light of the four factors our analysis uncovers as alternative constructions of the novel and its meaning. The four factors are seen as comprising the subjective foundations of a "conversational structure," energized by diverse constituent sentiments and their interaction, in a manner that is generally playful and pleasurable, albeit in different ways, to parties in the conversation. Implications for enhanced understanding of the mass appeal of Waller's work, and for reinvigorating reader response research more broadly, are discussed.
Use of Q Methodology by Public Relations Practitioners for Strategic Hospital Planning
Karen Popovich, Mark Popovich
This case study demonstrates how public relations practitioners can apply Q methodology to strategic planning activities in health care settings. Utilizing planning activities which took place in an Indiana hospital in 1993 (and given the fictional name of Riverbend Hospital for this study), practitioners arrived at three stakeholder sets of perceptions concerning health care reform fort he hospital. These perceptions then became the focus of the strategic plan (corporate objectives) created by the hospital's administrative staff in 1994. The authors suggest that Q methodology is a research technique that can be employed successfully by public relations practitioners in finite strategic planning environments.
Scientific Conferences and the Communication of Enlightenment
Steven R. Brown
As institutional practices for the efficient transmission of enlightenment, scientific conferences carry structural liabilities preventing them from maximizing the task performance for which they were constituted. An example is presented of an international conference, and Q methodology is employed to demonstrate the intellectual themes implicit among those in attendance. Examples are provided of the ways in which the results from the Q study could be used to facilitate the conference's intellectual mission by focusing on the already existing schemata of the participants.
Shared Goals in an Undergraduate Communication Curriculum: Using Q Methodology to Identify Community Expectations
Jeremy Cohen, Clay Calvert, Lisbeth Lipari
Communication, a diverse discipline that includes fields such as media studies, telecommunications, advertising, journalism, public relations and film, attracts both students and faculty with wide-ranging interests and needs. This study employs Q methodology at a small communication department housed at a major private research university to identify shared goals, expectations, and interests among communication undergraduates and faculty. Through Q methodology, three distinct groups or factors emerged, and areas of consensus among those groups were identified that facilitated the drafting of a new, proposed mission statement for the communication department. The article concludes that Q methodology is a valuable tool to locate consensus and shared perceptions and values within university departments that include students and faculty with diverse interests and areas of study.
Vol. 17 Issue 1/2
Introduction to Q-Methodology
William Stephenson
Q methodology has been influenced in fundamental ways by the works of Freud, Spearman, and Fisher. Freud's pleasure/pain principle is incorporated into the Q-sorting operation, and concern with morality can be traced to studies on factor W (character) in Spearman's laboratory. The reality principle, also Freud's, joined with training in physics which led to self reference in explaining consciousness. Self reference, in turn, draws its first principle from Peirce - that ideas, unlike facts, spread in human communicability and form concourses, all of which can be conceptualized in terms of Fisherian designs. An example is given in which a thousand quotations about women are structured as to feeling (pleasure/unpleasure), morality, and reality. Self reference is not in the structure, however, but is quantified in the Q sorting, which is why variance analysis, with its classical emphasis on causality and prediction, is bypassed in favor of factor analysis, which incorporates operationalism and is compatible with more modern scientific theories of relativity, quantum mechanics and uncertainty.
The Scientific Study of Subjectivity and the Achievement of Human Rights
Andrew R. Willard
In this address, the possibility and potentiality of enlisting the scientific study of subjectivity in the cause of achieving human rights are explored. Reasons for why such study has been rarely undertaken are described and analyzed. Specific studies are proposed, including examinations of "self-determination" and the question of the universality and relativism of human rights. In conclusion, when the scientific study of subjectivity has been applied systematically to the problem of achieving human rights, new ground will have been broken in a most promising and challenging field.
The Structure and Form of Subjectivity in Political Theory and Behavior
Steven R. Brown
Approaches to the study of human behavior epitomized by objectivism and subjectivism are judged inadequate due to the a priori categories which they presume, and an alternative is demonstrated with two case studies. The first explores the structure of subjectivity underlying Downs's (1957) theory of voting, and the second reveals the same operant forms implicit in Zetterbaum's (1982) philosophy of the political self. Discussion follows on the ramifications for a science of subjectivity.
Humor Communicability
Dennis F. Kinsey
A theory of humor appreciation is advanced based on William Stephenson's play theory of mass communication and his fundamental theory of communicability. Communication pain and communication pleasure as well as the idea of "shared knowledge" are examined in relationship to humor appreciation. A method for identifying structure that accounts for one's "sense of humor" is illustrated with a Q sample (N = 54) of Gary Larson "The Far Side" cartoons. Thirty-four subjects sorted the cartoons from "most appealing" (+5) to "most unappealing (-5). Three factors emerged, from the subsequent correlation and factor analysis, representing humor factor structure that is fundamental to the theory. Humor communicability explains why some people share a sense of humor and can account for differ senses of humor. Humor communicability offers a holistic view of humor appreciation.
Vol. 16 Issue 3/4
Intentionality: Or How to Buy a Loaf of Bread
William Stephenson
Parallels are drawn between the action-plans and basic-actions of intentionality advanced by Boden (1973) and the quantized factors of Q methodology. Concluding that intentions are complex is distinguished from making complexity itself the object of inquiry, and what this implies is made the basis of an experiment focused on the transitory thought in Boden's essay. Of the three operant factors which result, two correspond to Boden's own conclusions, but the third is suggestive of a greater complexity, as found in the quantum theory of Prigogine (1980). A second study reveals three feeling states relative to Boden's problem about shopping for a loaf of bread, indicating that intentionality extends from the simplest to the most complex of events. The conclusion is reached that the assumption of unity, present since the Middle Ages, must give way to complementarity and multiple intentionalities.
A Primer on Q Methodology
Steven R. Brown
This primer serves two functions: (1) It is a simplified introduction to Q methodology, covering the topics of concourse, Q samples, Q sorting, correlation, factor analysis, theoretical rotation, factor scores, and factor interpretation. (2) It also illustrates different conceptions of Q methodology by taking the concept of "Q methodology" as the subject matter of the study. The factor results show how current understandings about Q are traceable to debates among Stephenson, Burt, and others in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s.
Adolescent Female Views of Values Education
Mary G. Endorf, Robert W. Clyde
The curricular rationale for many of today's secondary school "values education" programs is based on the assumption that such programs influence citizenship behavior, decision making, "appropriate" social behavior and problem-solving skills. To examine program participants' reactions to this kind of undertaking, 19 eighth grade females in a Minneapolis middle school accomplished a Q sort of 60 statements derived from various education program participants' focus groups. Three defined student type emerged which contribute to this understanding of student reactions to a values education program. A positive viewpoint toward values education factor was so named based on its generally conclusive orientation to the program. Defining "neutrality," values education was reflected in a mix of indifference and acceptance of values education programming. A negative factor represented a distinct deviation from the other two types. By acknowledging the realities that these eighth graders held for this approach to values education, schools should be able to develop programmatic models responsive to a range of learner types.
Vol. 16 Issue 1/2
Validity: Q vs. R
Marten Brouwer
This study deals with political ideology, in the form of Q sorts of 80 self-referent statements provided by more than 50 respondents, the P set being cross-sectional. The resulting data set was split up into three equivalent P samples, each of which was submitted independently to Q factor analysis. Also, it was split up into four equivalent item samples, each of which was submitted independently to R factor analysis. Comparison of Q analysis loadings with R analysis z-scores and of Q analysis z-scores with R analysis loadings shows a limited amount of cross-validity. With respect to (meta-)reliability, the three cases of Q factor analysis are strikingly similar; the fours cases of R factor analysis, however, turn out to be rather dissimilar.
The Issue of Generalization in Q Methodology: "Reliable Schematics" Revisited
Dan B. Thomas, Larry R. Baas
Research employing Q technique and its attendant methodology has long encountered criticism targeted on the allegedly specious, "non-generalizable" nature of such findings. Drawn typically from small-sample investigations of human subjectivity, wherein respondents supply data through Q sorts composed of items of unknown reliability, findings of Q studies are considered by many to fall far short of the minimal criteria for scientific measurement. Issues of generalization in Q methodology, it is argued, are amenable to examination in terms of the notion of "reliable schematics." Findings from two pairs of "tandem-study" explorations bear strong witness to the schematically reliable character of Q-study results produced from differing probes of the same subjective phenomenon. Viewed against this backdrop, the frequently voiced concerns over reliability issues stemming from the use of Q would appear quite exaggerated if not altogether unfounded.
Vol. 15 Issue 4
Some East German Attitudes Toward Law and Political Authority
Willy Koch, Uwe Matthes, Richard Martin, Richard Taylor
Nine University of Leipzig students provided usable responses with a Q sort which had been previously administered in the United States. Two factors were discovered: four subjects were Constitutionalists and three Individualists. Constitutionalists actively favored their new democratic system, but were willing to contemplate civil disobedience should democratic values be threatened. Individualists were skeptical of the political system and were committed to living their own personal lives. All nine subjects were law abiding. Comparisons are made with 87 American college students who had taken the same Q sort almost a decade previously.
Calibrating Bilingual Q Samples
Steven R. Brown, Ursula Feist
In cross-cultural studies, the comparability of Q samples in different languages becomes problematic, and in this study procedures are introduced for enhancing confidence that parallel Q sorts written in two languages provide roughly equivalent results. 11 English-speaking German nationals performed two Q sorts containing the same statements, one version in German and a parallel version in English, and correlations and factor analysis indicated virtually no differences in outcome. Discussion focuses on the cross-cultural comparability in R and Q methodology.
Book Review: Shulamit Reinharz's Feminist Methods in Social Research
Joanne Gallivan
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 15 Issue 3
Some Methodological Considerations on the Use of Multimedia Q-Sample Items
Paul Grosswiler
The design, selection, production and administering of two multimedia Q samples are described in a Q study designed to explore sensory orientations in media and arts preferences. The precedents for nonverbal stimulus items provide a basis for the multimedia samples. One Q sample includes slides of print news media, and audiotapes and videotapes of broadcast news media. The second Q sample contains slides of literature and visual art items, and audio and videotapes of music, television, movies and games. The multimedia items were coupled with typed references in a two-stage sorting process. Pretesting, subject responses and reliability testing suggest that multimedia Q samples can be effectively administered with interpretable factor results.
Book Review: Stainton Roger's Explaining Health and Illness
Robert G. Mrtek
Abstract Coming Soon!
Research in Progress: Clarence Thomas vs. Anita Hill
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 15 Issue 2
Self in Everyday Life
William Stephenson
Play theory and Goffman's frame analysis provide the theoretical structure for this self-study of the author at the time of his retirement. Rather than Goffman's self as a product of behavior, self is conceived as always at issue (although usually implicitly), rooted in values, and requiring Q methodology to bring it to light. N=45 statements drawn from Goffman provide the Q sample, which is used under 10 conditions of instruction focused on the issue of retirement. Three factors emerged and were interpreted in terms of both their overt and covert meanings. The results are discussed in terms of Goffman's thesis and play theory.
Expositor: A Note on Measuring Changes in Q Factor Loadings
The published literature contains no known formulas for assessing changes in factor loadings in Q-methodology studies, but a formula recommended by Stephenson and located in an unpublished dissertation by Rawlins provides a solution. The formula is applied to a single case reported by Stephenson and another reported by Dryzek, and the value of the formula for assessing change is discussed.
A Lecture Not Given
Marten Brouwer
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 15 Issue 1
Selecting a Winning Campaign Slogan
Dennis Kinsey
This study examines how Q technique and its methodology cam be used to select a slogan for a campaign, in this case a tax levy campaign for a community college. The campaign began in a traditional (R methodology) manner. A large-sample public opinion survey of voters was conducted to develop strategy, and an advertising agency was then retained to develop the slogan and collateral material. After the failure of an advertising agency to develop a slogan that needed to appeal to two seemingly divergent groups of voters, Q methodology was introduced and identified a winning slogan that appealed to those target voters.
Vol. 14 Issue 4
Ulysses and Finnegans Wake: A Q-Methodological Look at Profundity (Part II: Finnegans Wake)
William Stephenson
In contrast to the mainly substantive content of Ulysses, James Joyce's Finnegans Wake is wholly transitive, a distinction introduced by William James and fundamental to the principle of complementarity in quantum theory. The free-floating "inner" thought of Molly Bloom (in Ulysses) and that which permeates Finnegans Wake is the same that provides creativity and truths which are outside the substantive conventions of literary and scientific discourse. Finnegans Wake is therefore methodological, Joyce's equation of void, incertitude, and unlikelihood corresponding to the quantum principles of Q methodology.
Vol. 14 Issue 3
Obituary Notice William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Ulysses and Finnegans Wake: A Q-Methodological Look at Profundity (Part I: Ulysses)
William Stephenson
James Joyce's Ulysess and Finnegans Wake are mainly substantive and transitory, respectively, a distinction introduced by William James and fundamental to the principle of complementarity in quantum theory. In this first of two parts, XX of the 18 episodes of Ulysses are examined in detail to demonstrate the mix of substantive and transitory thought, which are as fundamental to Q methodology as to quantum theory.
The Social Identities of Women Lawyers
Harriette Marshall
This study uses Q methodology to examine the social identities of women in the final stages of law training. Statements concerning identity, structured around Tajfel and Turner's status quo, social mobility, and social change identity perspectives, formed the Q sample, which 40 women sorted in terms of their representations of identity in a work context. The completed Q sorts were factor analyzed, resulting in eight representations of identity which were interpreted to reveal differing emphases placed on gender identity and the relevance of other group memberships.
Peritore's Socialism, Communism, and Liberation Theology in Brazil
John S. Dryzek
Abstract Coming Soon!
Dryzek's Discursive Democracy
J. David Gillespie
Abstract Coming Soon!
Murphy's Descent Into Subjectivity
Jeremy Harris Lip-schultz
Abstract Coming Soon!
Obituary: Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904-1990)
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 14 Issue 2
Reducing Vulnerability by Assessing Customer Business Styles
Leonard J. Barchak, Paul R. Arnold
One of the reasons many small businesses cease operations is their failure properly to segment the market. Much of the decision-making entailed in defining a market has been based on owners' speculations regarding their customers. The more alternatives open to a firm, the less vulnerable the firm will be to unexpected customer opinions and actions. One method for increasing the firm's alternatives can be found in an economical strategy to facilitate communication between a firm and its customers. The combination of depth-type interviews and Q method is employed in an actual case study with a Small Business Institute client to facilitate communication with his customers and, in so doing, to assist in properly segmenting the market.
Q Methodology and Control Theory: II. General Considerations
David M. Goldstein
The principles of control theory are presented, and their connection to Q methodology is described. The perceptual prerequisites of the Q-sorting task are considered, and the perceptual levels of control theory are related to the selection of Q statements and conditions of instruction, and to the interpretation of factors. The conclusion is reached that control theory has advantages over the quantum and interbehaviour theories often associated with Q methodology.
Vol. 14 Issue 1
My Self in 1980: A Study of Culture
William Stephenson
The author provides his own Q-methodological self study as an addendum to a previous study based on Lasch's theory of narcissism, thereby providing a British contrast to 10 Americans previously examined. Four factors emerge from eight conditions of instruction for a Q sample composed of pictures from Time Magazine - the first factor representing ideals in identification with everyone (hence apart from narcissism), the second representing real-world problems and conversational possibilities, the third a personal uneasiness about technological progress, and the fourth focused on class issues. Cultural implications are discussed and amended in a 1989 addendum.
A Segmentation Study of Attitudes About Advertising
Charles R. Mauldin
Five factors emerge from a study designed to examine attitudes about advertising. The first factor, labeled the Institutional Backers, supports advertising and denies that it is merely used to manipulate consumers. The Self-Determining Individualists seek information and use advertising in making decisions. The Angry Social Critics condemn advertising as well ass business, marketing, and consumers, and react particularly negatively to ads dealing with sexual roles. The Amused Observers, unlike the others, find little of self-importance in advertising, considering it a novelty and even incidental to consuming. Although they find little pleasure in advertisements, the Self-Reliant Copers use information from ads, but feel they make up their own minds. Discussion focuses on the motivational aspects of advertising and, methodologically, on the limitations of uni-dimensional approaches to measurement.
Research in Progress: Reconstructive Democratic Theory
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 13 Issue 4
Fifty Years of Exclusionary Psychometrics: II. Developments
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Administrative Attitudes of Elite Officials in a Buddhist Polity
Surasit Vajirakachorn, Ronald D. Sylvia
Abstract Coming Soon!
Book Review: Colapietro's Peirce's Approach to the Self
Charles R. Mauldin
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 13 Issue 3
Fifty Years of Exclusionary Psychometrics: I. Q Technique
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Psychiatric Staff Opinion About Patient Etiology and Treatment
Dorie A. Wartel, Alejandro Aragon
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 13 Issue 1
A Select Review of Nursing Research
Deborah Gibson, Janice R. Ingle
Abstract Coming Soon!
Q Methodology and Control Systems Theory
David Goldstein
Abstract Coming Soon!
Subjectivity, Representation, and Communication: Report of the First British Q Conference
Rex Stainton Rogers, Wendy Stainton Rogers
Abstract Coming Soon!
Book Review: Ruben and Delprato's New Ideas in Therapy
Parker E. Lichenstein
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 12 Issue 3/4
A Subjective Examination of Theories of Justice
Barbara L. Poole, Gertrude A. Steuernagel
Abstract Coming Soon!
A Feeling for the Organism: Understanding and Interpreting Political Subjectivity
Steven R. Brown
Abstract Coming Soon!
Mixing Methodologies: An Aid in Developing Q Samples
Dennis Kinsey, Teresa C. Kelly
Abstract Coming Soon!
Book Review: McKeown and Thomas's Q Methodology
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Rejoinder
Bruce F. McKeown, Dani B. Thomas
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 12 Issue 1/2
The Quatumization of Psychological Events
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Methods of Belief: A Q Study of R Studies of Electoral Choice
Mark J. Whattier
Abstract Coming Soon!
Book Review: Tursman, Peirce's Theory of Scientific Discovery
Thomas W. Arwood
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 11 Issue 4
Help Orientations of Geriatric Nursing Care Givers
H. Alicia Taylor
Abstract Coming Soon!
Using Q Methodology to Teach Interpersonal Communication
Joan E. Aitken
Abstract Coming Soon!
Book Review: Kitzinger, The Social Construction of Lesbianisms
Charles E. Cottle
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 11 Issue 3
Falsification and Credulity for Psychoanalytic Doctrine
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 11 Issue 2
The Science of Ethics: II. Ethical Judgement
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Interbehavioral Psychology and Q Methodology
Parker E. Lichtenstein
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 11 Issue 1
The Science of Ethics: I. The Single Case
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 10 Issue 4
Q Methodology and the Measurement of Self Perception
Mike Knight, William A. Frederickson, Samuel A. Martin
Abstract Coming Soon!
Measurment of Self Perception: Some Reflection on the Article by Knight, Frederickson and Martin
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Some Thoughts on Completing Computer Programs for Q Technique
Michael Stricklin
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 10 Issue 3
Subjectivity and the Policy Sciences
William Ascher
Abstract Coming Soon!
Obituary: Carl R. Rogers (1902-1987)
Abstract Coming Soon!
Obituary: Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987)
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 10 Issue 2
How to Make a Good Cup of Tea
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 10 Issue 1
Field Notes on the Use of Q Methodology in a Study of the Brazilian Left
Patrick Peritore
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 9 Issue 4
Play Theory of Communication
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Human Rights: Bedrock or Mosaic?
Rex Stainton Rogers, Celia Kitzinger
Abstract Coming Soon!
Research in Progress: Growth Management
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 9 Issue 3
Protoconcursus: The Concourse Theory of Communication (Conclusion)
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Andreski, Max Weber's Insights and Errors
Leonord J. Barchak
Abstract Coming Soon!
Ackerman, Data, Instruments, and Theory
Steven R. Brown
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 9 Issue 2
Protoconcursus: The Concourse Theory of Communication (Part 1)
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 9 Issue 1
Value Congruences Shaping Mankind's Future
Lynne O'Shea
Abstract Coming Soon!
Diefenbeck, A Celebration of Subjectivity Thought
Charles Cottle
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 8 Issue 4
An Original In-Depth Segmentation Study of the Market Research Industry
Thomas Danbury
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 8 Issue 2
A New Q Too?
Peter Gould
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 8 Issue 1
"Q-Analysis": Caveat Emptor
Steven R. Brown
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 7 Issue 4
Discovering Communication Paradigms with Q Methodology: Ferment or Sour Grapes?
Leonard J. Barchak
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 7 Issue 2
Some Discrete Views of Televised Violence: Implications for Media Policy
Pamuke Suppasarn, R.C. Adams
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 6 Issue 4
An Evaluation of Research Replication and Market Segmentation with Q Method
R.C. Adams
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 6 Issue 2
Cross-Technique Validation of Attitude Measures
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 5 Issue 4
Newton's Fifth Rule and Q Methodology: Application to Psychoanalysis
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 5 Issue 2
Newton's Fifth Rule and Q Methodology: Application to Self Psychology
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!
Vol. 4 Issue 4
O, P, Q, and R Techniques
Cyril Burt
Abstract Coming Soon!
Cyril Burt, Quantum Theory and Q: Historical Note
William Stephenson
Abstract Coming Soon!