PQMethod is a statistical program tailored to the requirements of Q studies. The software is free and distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). It was developed by Peter Schmolck, who ported the original FORTRAN program, QMethod, developed by John Atkinson at Kent State University in 1992 for mainframe platforms.
PQMethod allows to easily enter data (Q-Sorts) the way they are collected, i.e. as ‘piles’ of statement numbers. It computes intercorrelations among Q-Sorts, which are then factor-analysed with the Centroid or, alternatively, PCA method. Resulting factors can be rotated either analytically (Varimax), or judgmentally with the help of two-dimensional plots. Finally, after selecting the relevant factors and ‘flagging’ the entries that define the factors, the analysis step produces an extensive report with a variety of tables on factor loadings, statement factor scores, discriminating statements for each of the factors as well as consensus statements across factors, etc.
The current release (November 2014, release 2.35) of the PQMethod software is available for download for Windows users. To use the software, download and unzip the file pqm235win.zip. Then copy the PQMethod folder to your C:\ drive (optional but recommended), and launch the program using the provided shortcut or .bat file.
Detailed documentation is available in the PQManual (March 26, 2014), which is included in the download package.
For questions or support, please contact Peter Schmolck at peter.schmolck@web.de.