Q Methodology and its Applications: Reflections on Theory

Abstract

The 2011 Annual Meeting of the International Society for the Scientific Study of Subjectivity in Birmingham offered numerous opportunities for reflecting on the role of theory in Q methodology and on further theoretical implications in applied Q studies. A summary is provided of the opening addresses from Eefje Cuppen and David Ockwell and of a ‘roundtable’ discussion organised by James Good, with comments from Steven Brown, Simon Watts and Amanda Wolf. Reflections on theoretical matters, both those indicated explicitly by presenters or otherwise suggested by matters discussed, concern theory in Q methodology as methodology, the role of substantive theory in applications of Q methodology and the continuum of theory from the concrete to the general.