Overly ambitious: contributions and current status of Q methodology

This essay offers a small description of recent contributions and status of Q methodology by means of a review of suggested best practices, a systematic review of practice, and a methodological audit. Both theoretical and empirical study suggest that Q methodology neither delivers its promised insig...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inQuality & quantity Vol. 48; no. 6; pp. 3109 - 3126
Main Authors Kampen, Jarl K., Tamás, Peter
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.11.2014
Springer
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
beliefs
Best practice
Legitimation
Measurement
Methodology
Methodology of the Social Sciences
Ontology
Principal components analysis
priorities
Quantitative analysis
Research methodology
Sampling
Science
Social Sciences
Subjectivity
Systematic review
Validity
women
Validity
Systematic review
Q methodology
Sampling
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Summary:This essay offers a small description of recent contributions and status of Q methodology by means of a review of suggested best practices, a systematic review of practice, and a methodological audit. Both theoretical and empirical study suggest that Q methodology neither delivers its promised insight into human subjectivity nor accounts adequately for threats to the validity of the claims it can legitimately make. These concerns in turn, render the method inappropriate for its declared purpose, the scientific study of subjectivity, and suspect for the full range of ontological perspectives, from (neo) positivist to constructivist.
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ISSN:0033-5177
1573-7845
DOI:10.1007/s11135-013-9944-z