make.distribution {qmethod}

Q methodology: create Q normal distribution

Description

Creates a distribution close to a standard normal distribution given a number of statements and a maximum Q sort rank.

Usage

  make.distribution(
  	nstat,
  	max.bin = 5
  )

Arguments

nstat

Number of desired statements in a Q sample for a given study. Must be a positive integer, vector of length 1.

max.bin

Maximum positive value to be entered by participants. Must be a positive integer, vector of length 1. Defaults to frequent value 5.

Details

Participants in Q studies are frequently asked to sort Q items under a quasi-normal distribution. This function generates such a Q distribution, given a number of statements nstat and a desired maximum positive value max.bin in the Q distribution.

The function always returns an uneven number of columns, ensuring that there is always a modal column at the zero mark.

Not every combination of nstat and max.bin can be neatly fit under a standard normal distribution, in which case the function returns a vector of unequal length to the specified nstat. The function will issue a warning in that case. Researchers can either accept the different nstat, or try again with a different max.bin.

Value

Returns a vector of positive integers (column heights), of the length max.column * 2 + 1. An object of this kind is expected in import.q.sorts, build.q.set and other convenience functions.

Author(s)

Maximilian Held

See Also

build.q.set, import.q.sorts

Examples

  ## Make Q distribution
  make.distribution(nstat=76, max.bin=7)