qmethod A Package to Explore Human Perspectives Using strongQstrong.pdfVIP

CONTRIBUTED RESEARCH ARTICLES 163 qmethod: A Package to Explore Human Perspectives Using Q Methodology by Aiora Zabala Abstract Q is a methodology to explore the distinct subjective perspectives that exist within a group. It is used increasingly across disciplines. The methodology is semi-qualitative and the data are analysed using data reduction methods to discern the existing patterns of thought. This package is the first to perform Q analysis in R, and it provides many advantages to the existing software: namely, it is fully cross-platform, the algorithms can be transparently examined, it provides results in a clearly structured and tabulated form ready for further exploration and modelling, it produces a graphical summary of the results, and it generates a more concise report of the distinguishing and consensus statements. This paper introduces the methodology and explains how to use the package, its advantages as well as its limitations. I illustrate the main functions with a dataset on value patterns about democracy. Introduction Identifying the different perspectives on or attitudes towards topics of public concern is an important research objective in fields spanning social (e.g., Zografos, 2007), environmental (e.g., Sandbrook et al., 2011) and health sciences (e.g., Thompson et al., 2001). Q is a clearly structured, systematic, and increasingly-used methodology designed specifically for these purposes (Watts and Stenner, 2012; Barry and Proops, 1999). It is aimed at exploring the distinct perspectives, discourses, or decision-