William Stephenson (May 14, 1902 – June 14, 1989) was a psychologist and

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

best known for developing

Q methodology Q methodology is a research method used in psychology and in social sciences to study people's "subjectivity"—that is, their viewpoint. Q was developed by psychologist William Stephenson. It has been used both in clinical settings for assessing a ...

. He was born in England and trained in physics at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

and Durham University (where he earned a Ph.D. in 1926). His interest in research methods in physics and complementarity led him to an increased interest in psychology. This resulted in his studying at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

under

Charles Spearman Charles Edward Spearman, FRS (10 September 1863 – 17 September 1945) was an English psychologist known for work in statistics, as a pioneer of factor analysis, and for Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. He also did seminal work on mod ...

, a pioneer of

factor analysis Factor analysis is a statistical method used to describe variability among observed, correlated variables in terms of a potentially lower number of unobserved variables called factors. For example, it is possible that variations in six observed ...

. While there he also worked with

Cyril Burt Sir Cyril Lodowic Burt, FBA (3 March 1883 – 10 October 1971) was an English educational psychologist and geneticist who also made contributions to statistics. He is known for his studies on the heritability of IQ. Shortly after he died, his s ...

. Stephenson received his second Ph.D., in psychology, in 1929. Stephenson is most known for his development of an alternative form of factorial analysis concerned with the operationalizing of subjectivity,

. At the same time as he published his first paper on Q methodology in ''Nature'' in 1935, he was in analysis with

Melanie Klein Melanie Klein (née Reizes; 30 March 1882 – 22 September 1960) was an Austrian-British author and psychoanalyst known for her work in child analysis. She was the primary figure in the development of object relations theory. Klein suggested t ...

(in 1935-36), as part of a project initiated by the British Psycho-Analytic Society to promote research on psychoanalysis within academic psychology. In 1936 he became the assistant director of Oxford's Institute of Experimental Psychology. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

he joined the British military and was promoted to the rank of

Brigadier General Brigadier general or Brigade general is a military rank used in many countries. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries. The rank is usually above a colonel, and below a major general or divisional general. When appointed ...

, serving in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. After the war he briefly returned to Oxford but left in 1948 for the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

. It was while he was at Chicago that he published The Study of Behavior: Q-Technique and Its Methodology (1953), the work for which he is best known and the definitive treatise on the research procedure. In 1955 he left the University of Chicago, and academia, to accept a position as director of advertising research for Nowland and Company. His time in the advertising world, though successful, was short-lived, and he returned to academia in 1958, accepting a position as a distinguished professor in the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...

School of Journalism. He retired from Missouri in 1974 but accepted a position as a visiting professor at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...

where he served until a second retirement in 1977. After retirement he continued to write on his interest in the subject of the study of subjectivity until his death in 1989 at the age of 87 (Barchak, 1991).Barchak, L. J. (1991). A biographical sketch of William Stephenson. Mass Comm Review, 18, 28-31.

Selected publications

* Stephenson, W. (1935). Technique of factor analysis. Nature, 136, 297. * Stephenson, W. (1935). Correlating persons instead of tests. Character and Personality, 4, 17-24. * Stephenson, W. (1936). The foundations of psychometry: Four factor systems. Psychometrika, 1, 195-209. * Stephenson, W. (1953). The study of behavior: Q-technique and its methodology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. * Stephenson, W. (1961). Scientific creed—1961: Abductory principles. Psychological Record, 11, 9-17. * Stephenson, W. (1967). The play theory of mass communication. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Reprinted: New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1988.) * Stephenson, W. (1973). APPLICATIONS OF COMMUNICATION THEORY III-INTELLIGENCE AND MULTIVALUED CHOICE. Psychological Record, 23, 17-32. * Stephenson, W. (1977). Factors as operant subjectivity. Operant Subjectivity, 1, 3-16. * Stephenson, W. (1978). Concourse theory of communication. Communication, 3, 21-40. * Stephenson, W. (1980). Factor analysis. Operant Subjectivity, 3,38-57. * Stephenson, W. (1980). Consciring: A general theory for subjective communicability. In D. Nimmo (Ed.), Communication yearbook 4 (pp. 7–36). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books. * Stephenson, W. (1982). Q-methodology, interbehavioral psychology, and quantum theory. Psychological Record, 32, 235-248. * Stephenson, W. (1983). Against interpretation. Operant Subjectivity, 6, 73-103, 109-125. * Stephenson, W. (1986). Protoconcursus: The concourse theory of communication. Operant Subjectivity, 9, 37-58, 73-96. * Stephenson, W. (1986-1988). William James, Niels Bohr, and complementarity: I-V. Psychological Record, vols 36-38. * Stephenson, W. (1987). Q-methodology: Interbehavioral and quantum theoretical connections in clinical psychology. In D.H. Ruben & D.J. Delprato (Eds.), New ideas in therapy (pp. 95–106). Westport, CT: Greenwood. * Stephenson, W. (1988). Quantum theory of subjectivity. Integrative Psychiatry, 6, 180-187. * Stephenson, W. (1990). My self in 1980: A study of culture. Operant Subjectivity, 14, 1-19. * Stephenson, W. (1990). Fifty years of exclusionary psychometrics: I-II. Operant Subjectivity, 13, 105-120, 141-162

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stephenson, William 1902 births 1989 deaths 20th-century American psychologists British psychologists Analysands of Melanie Klein Alumni of Armstrong College, Durham Alumni of University College London 20th-century psychologists