Q method and surveys: Three ways to combine Q and R

Abstract

This article describes three techniques for combining a Q method analysis with a traditional survey. Q method is an effective way of identifying the various shared perspectives that people may hold about a given topic. The ability to measure those viewpoints in a later survey would allow the researcher to generalize the findings to a larger population and to construct explanations in which respondents' adherence to those perspectives is related to other variables. "Scale creation" involves presenting distinctive Q statements as Likert items that can be used to construct a traditional psychometric scale to measure each perspective. "Profile correlation" involves correlating respondents' overall pattern of responses with prototypes representing the perspectives. Finally, "narrative evaluation" asks the respondent to give his or her opinion about a narrative description of each perspective. © 2009 SAGE Publications.