Abstract
Q methodology is a research method that focuses systematically on people's internal and subjective viewpoints. Since its introduction as an alternative form of data collection and analysis, Q methodology has been utilized in various fields of study. However, although its use would enable an enriched understanding of individuals' subjective accounts of reality, it has not been fully exploited yet, and the use of it is still in its infancy. Thus, sparked off by the scarcity of interest in the use of Q methodology, this chapter attempts to provide an overview of this research method with a specific reference to what it is and how it is implemented. The chapter concludes with an example of a recent Q study for illustrative purposes. It is believed that this account is of relevance for researchers in various fields of study with its focus on Q methodology, which is an underutilized but a valuable tool to gain deeper insights into subjective realities experienced by individuals.
TopBackground
The philosophical background of Q methodology includes a complex blend of quantifiable statistics and qualitative explorations. With its mixed approach nature, it aims to recognize and categorize the personal values and constructs, and perspectives of a specific set of individuals on a subjective issue. In doing so, it attempts to explore more specific information from participants and identify distinctive perspectives within the target group rather than to reach generalizable knowledge within a generalizable group of participants. Put simply, Q requires participants to express what is ‘meaningful’ and ‘valuable’ and ‘significant’ from their perspective and hence uncovers different patterns of beliefs, attitudes, perceptions, thoughts and opinions. As Kelly et al. (2016) state, it attempts to make sense of a stream of communicated opinions on an issue ‘followed by exploration of the prevailing variations in it, and finally, to logically connect these variations in an orderly way to each other’ (p. 3). It is done by building a bridge between qualitative and quantitative approaches in which systematic and rigorous quantitative procedures are applied to understand a subjective phenomenon through qualitative data collection. Therefore, the distinction of Q methodology lies in its availability to combine quantitative and qualitative research methods and hence it is called ‘qualiquantological’ in the related literature. The originality of Q stems from its utilizing ways where themes are interconnected or related by a group of participants instead of topics broken into themes realized in interpretive research approaches. Q values how and why participants think the way they do things but not how many of them think in a certain pattern (Stone, 2015). It also defines groups which have similar and alternative views and consecutively investigates these similarities and differences between the participant groups. Furthermore, Q is a rigorous and iterative method in that the researcher is allowed to “surrender the monopoly of control in their relationship with the researched” and thus it provides for more democratic procedures during research (Robbins & Krueger, 2000, p.1).
Key Terms in this Chapter
P Set: Participants.
Concourse: An initial set of all possible interrelated statements about the research topic, from which Q set is derived.
Subjectivity: People’s viewpoints (beliefs, opinions, or feelings) on a given issue.
Q Set: A representative collection of statements drawn from the concourse and used for Q-sorting activity.
Q Sorting: Participants’ rank-ordering statements in Q set.
Condition of Instruction: A prompt/guide/sorting instructions for research participants to sort statements in Q set.
Factor Analysis: A statistical technique used to reduce many observed variables into a few unobserved ones-factors, so that data can be easily managed.
Q Sort: Set of statements rank-ordered by participants (Data in Q studies).