What Is Q-Assessor?

Q-Assessor is a web application that leverages the best parts of the Q Methodology technique to provide a novel, rapid way to identify and quantify opinions, beliefs, and preferences within target populations.

Q Methodology presents subjects with a series of statements that they rank along axes of consideration chosen by the investigator. Sophisticated factor analysis then discovers and quantifies underlying viewpoints held by the subjects. Q Methodology thus functions much like a quantitative focus group.

Though developed decades ago, Q Methodology has had a relatively small impact to date because of the logistical challenges involved in performing Q studies. Traditionally Q has been done through personal interviews, while the complex analytic calculations were done by hand, and more recently, via cumbersome command-line computer applications.

Q-Assessor was created on the belief that Q Methodology’s reach could become vastly greater once its logistical problems were successfully solved — which Q-Assessor has managed to do.

How Does Q-Assessor Work?

Q-Assessor automates the entire life-cycle of Q Methodology research through a simple, easy-to-use Internet application that manages:

• Creation of a Q study, its statement concourse, and ranking sort bins
• Internationalization of study interface elements and participant email communications
• Management of ancillary post-study online interview questions
• Enrollment of prospective participants, including automated email reminders
• Simple, intuitive conduct of the Q study by guiding subjects through the correct process
• Secure data managment
• Real-time, interactive, online data analysis and report generation

Several other online Q-sort systems exist, but here’s what makes Q-Assessor uniquely transformative:

• Q-Assessor’s robust subject enrollment/management tools
• Q-Assessor’s automated internationalization capabilities
• Q-Assessor’s real-time, interactive data analysis tools
• Q-Assessor’s integration of the entire Q process seamlessly into a very easy-to-use service

Furthermore, Q-Assessor is the only online implementation of Q Methodology that has been validated against the traditional in-person technique. Download the original validation paper published in Operant Subjectivity and the follow-up study Q-Assessor: Developing and Testing an Online Solution to Q Method Data Gathering and Processing presented at the World Association for Public Opinion Research, Sept. 21-23, 2011, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Q-Assessor solves Q Methodology’s logistical and conceptual points of friction and enables Q to attain its true potential.

Q-Assessor is now available to serious investigators on a monthly subscription basis. Interested users can experiment with Q-Assessor’s features before subscribing by signing up and doing a small-scale study at no cost.

Read through our extensive documentation and check out our demos that illustrate Q-Assessor’s online Q sort interface and data analysis tools.

Then register at our site and give Q-Assessor a try!