qfcharact: Q methodology: factor characteristics

In qmethod: Analysis of Subjective Perspectives Using Q Methodology

Q methodology: factor characteristics

Description

Calculates the general factor characteristics: number of flagged Q-sorts, composite reliability, standard errors of factor scores, and comparisons between factors.

Usage

qfcharact(loa, flagged, zsc, nfactors, av_rel_coef = 0.8)

Arguments

loa	matrix or data frame of as many rows as Q-sorts (nqsorts) and nfactors columns, with values of factor loadings for Q-sorts, calculated using, e.g., principal(...)$loadings.
flagged	matrix or data frame of type logical, indicating which Q-sorts are flagged for each factor. Provided manually or automatically using qflag.
zsc	a data frame with the z-scores for statements, calculated using qzscores.
nfactors	number of factors extracted.
av_rel_coef	average reliability coefficient (the individual variability of a respondent), set by default as 0.8.

Value

Returns a list with three objects:

characteristics	data frame with the following values for each factor: "av_rel_coef": average reliability coefficient. "nload": number of loading Q-sorts. "eigenvals": eigenvalues. "expl_var": percentage of explained variance. "reliability": composite reliability. "se_fscores": standard error of factor scores (SE).
cor_zsc	matrix of correlation coefficients between factors z-scores.
sd_dif	matrix of standard errors of differences (SED).

Note

This is a function used within qzscores. Rarely to be used independently.

Author(s)

Aiora Zabala

References

Brown, S. R., 1980 Political subjectivity: Applications of Q methodology in political science, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

See further references on the methodology in qmethod-package.

qmethod documentation built on April 1, 2023, 12:18 a.m.