Methodological biases: Inglehart's world value survey and Q methodology

Abstract

The study of human behavior has become central concern for social scientific studies, in particular to better understand and frame complex reality in different fields. This article aims to compare two methods to analyze, how people think, believe, and act in regards to a certain topic: Inglehart's World Value Survey (WVS) and Q Methodology (Q). Whilst WVS displays behavior proportions of a representative sample, Q looks for the differences in field of choice. Both attempt to reveal contemporary discourses, and both are using quantitative measures to do so, large n scale factor analysis in case of the WVS and the inverted bell curve in Q Methodology. We want to show Pros and Cons of these two methods, which have become so useful for social scientific research.