Some Uses of Stephenson's Q-Technique in the Quantification of the Individual

Abstract

In searching for improved methodologies for quantifying the individual, one easily becomes confused today amidst the conflicting, contradicting, yet stimulating and exciting possibilities of scales without a unit of measurement(3), r-technique, Q-technique, P-technique, O-technique, S-technique, and T-technique.(2) In spite of whatever enthusiasms one might have about any of these techniques, he is probably willing to admit that none of them, nor all of them combined, are yet able to solve all of our problems of quantifying the individual. Yet, it must be admitted that each of them is worth knowing about and that the rationale underlying each represents a valuable and important trend in present day psychological measurement. Customary factorial procedures used in the study of personality, referred to as r-technique, employ tests or attributes as variables and persons as the population. Intercorrelations are between test scores and serve to explore individual differences. P-technique is concerned with the intercorrelations of test scores or other attributes within a single individual(2). O-technique, its companion, is concerned with intercorrelations within the same individual on different occasions. S-technique permits the study of social roles and the organization and structure of social groups such as the family and involves the intercorrelation of an individual in different situations. Q-technique, or inverted factor analysis according to Stephenson's terminology(7) and transposed factor analysis according to Cattell's terminology'(2, employs persons as variables instead of tests or other single attributes. It permits a direct representation of non-quantified observation in a manner making possible statistical analysis. The verbal descriptions of the clinician are reduced to their essential details. Statements representing a universe of traits used by an author such as Jung, Rorschach, Murray, Fromm, Freud, et cetera in describing personality constitute a sampling source in terms of which personalities may be described and correlated. Since it is the purpose of this paper to discuss the uses of Q-technique, no attempt will be made to discuss further the nature of these other techniques nor their relative merits. The issue as to whether they are basically the same or totally different will not be argued. That will be left to