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Date:         Sun, 28 Jun 2009 09:50:08 -0400
From:         "BROWN, STEVEN" 
Subject: Q Methodology's 74th Birthday
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On June 28, 1935, William Stephenson penned the following letter to the
Editor of the British science journal Nature, thus initiating the
development that has come to be known as Q methodology. The letter
eventually appeared in the 24 August 1935 issue of Nature (p. 297).


Technique of Factor Analysis

Factor analysis is a subject upon which Prof. G. H. Thomson, Dr. Wm.
Brown and others have frequently written letters to Nature. This
analysis is concerned with a selected population of n individuals each
of whom has been measured in m tests. The (m)(m-1)/2 intercorrelations
for these m variables are subjected to either a Spearman or other factor
analysis.

The technique, however, can also be inverted. We begin with a population
of n different tests (or essays, pictures, traits or other measurable
material), each of which is measured or scaled by m individuals. The
(m)(m-1)/2 intercorrelations are then factorised in the usual way.

This inversion has interesting practical applications. It brings the
factor technique from group and field work into the laboratory, and
reaches into spheres of work hitherto untouched or not amendable to
factorisation. It is especially valuable in experimental aesthetics and
in educational psychology, no less than in pure psychology.

It allows a completely new series of studies to be made on the Spearman
'central intellective factor' (g), and also allows tests to be made of
the Two Factor Theorem under greatly improved experimental conditions.
Data on these and other points are to be published in due course in the
British Journal of Psychology.

W. Stephenson
Psychological Laboratory,
University College,
Gower Street,
London, W.C.1.
June 28.

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On June 28, 1935, William Stephenson penned the following letter to the 
Editor of the British science journal Nature, thus initiating the 
development that has come to be known as Q methodology. The letter 

eventually appeared in the 24 August 1935 issue of Nature (p. 297).<=
BR>




Technique of Factor Ana=
lysis



Factor analysis is a subject upon which Prof. G. H. Thomson, Dr. Wm.

Brown and others have frequently written letters to Nature. This

analysis is concerned with a selected population of n individuals each

of whom has been measured in m tests. The (m)(m-1)/2 intercorrelations

for these m variables are subjected to either a Spearman or other factor
analysis.



The technique, however, can also be inverted. We begin with a population
of n different tests (or essays, pictures, traits or other measurable

material), each of which is measured or scaled by m individuals. The

(m)(m-1)/2 intercorrelations are then factorised in the usual way.



This inversion has interesting practical applications. It brings the

factor technique from group and field work into the laboratory, and

reaches into spheres of work hitherto untouched or not amendable to

factorisation. It is especially valuable in experimental aesthetics and

in educational psychology, no less than in pure psychology.



It allows a completely new series of studies to be made on the Spearman

'central intellective factor' (g), and also allows tests to be made of

the Two Factor Theorem under greatly improved experimental conditions.

Data on these and other points are to be published in due course in the

British Journal of Psychology.



W. Stephenson 

Psychological Laboratory, 

University College, 

Gower Street, 

London, W.C.1. 

June 28. 






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