Public Administration and Policy Review ›› 2023, Vol. 12 ›› Issue (4): 154-.

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Q Method: Intrinsic Tension and Development Limits from the Methodological Perspective

  

  • Online:2023-07-17 Published:2023-07-17

Q方法: 方法论视域下的内在张力与发展限度

  

Abstract:

The Q method is a qualitative-led mixed method to measure the attitudes, motivations, perceptions, beliefs, preferences of actors. Its essence is to promote the mutual complementation and support of quantitative and qualitative research methods. Policy analysis and public administration research involves a wide range of subjective attitude analysis of research objects, but Q methods still receive limited academic attention within the field of policy analysis and public administration. Based on the scoping review, this paper retrieves and selects 48 Q method applied literatures in the field of policy analysis and public administration from the "Web of Science Core Collection (WoS)" database under the given policy and practice background, and reviews the results. The review mainly covers the reasons why authors chose to use Q method, issue selection, generation of Q sets, selection of subjects, implementation of Q ranking, quantitative analysis and factor generation, qualitative interpretation of results, etc. It is found that the Q method in the discussion of socially controversial issues, has great potential of theoretical and practical value. However, researchers' unfamiliarity with the operational steps of the methodology, the non-standard operation steps of the methodology by the researchers and the limitations of the methodology itself have brought certain constraints to the development of the Q method.

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摘要:

Q方法是一种以定性分析为主导的混合研究方法,用以探究行为者的态度、动机、感知、信念、偏好等,其本质是为了促进定量与定性研究方法的相互补充与支持。政策分析与公共行政研究中广泛涉及研究对象的主观态度分析,但Q方法在该领域内的学术关注度依然有限。本文基于范围界定综述(scoping review)路径,在给定政策和实践背景下,从“科学引文索引核心(WoS)”数据库检索并筛选出48篇政策分析与公共行政领域内的Q方法应用文献,进行审查分析。审查内容主要包括作者选择使用Q方法的原因、议题选择、开发Q集、选择受试者、执行Q排序、量化分析与因子生成、结果定性阐释等方面,研究发现,在对存在社会争议的议题分析中,Q方法具有较大的理论潜力与实践价值,但也存在研究者对方法操作步骤不熟悉不规范、方法论自身不足等问题,这会直接影响到研究信度与效度,进而约束了Q方法的发展应用前景。

关键词: Q方法, 范围界定综述, 政策分析与公共行政, Q排序, 发展限度