TPC-Journal-V6-Issue2

The Professional Counselor /Volume 6, Issue 2 177 methodology, it also is important to have fewer participants than Q sample items (Watts & Stenner, 2012; Webler et al., 2009). Participants were recruited by theoretical sampling of my professional network of practitioners, and one participant was recruited through snowball sampling. Nineteen career counselors participated in the present study from six states in the Southeast, West and Midwest regions of the United States. The participant sample was 68% female ( n = 13) and 32% male ( n = 6); the sample was 84% White and included two Black participants and one multi-racial participant. One participant was an immigrant to the United States and was a non-native English speaker. The participant sample was 95% heterosexual with one participant identifying as gay. Sixty-three percent of participants worked in four-year institutions of higher education and one worked in a community college. Thirty- two percent ( n = 6) provided career counseling in non-profit agencies. The average age was 43 ( SD = 12) and the average number of years of post-master’s counseling experience was eight ( SD = 7); ages ranged from 28 to 66, and years of post-master’s experience ranged from one and a half to 31 years. Q Sorting Procedure The Q sort is a method of data collection in which participants rank the Q sample statements according to a condition of instruction along a forced quasi-normal distribution (see Figure 1). There is no time limit to the sorting task and participants are able to move the statements around the distribution until they are satisfied with their final configuration. The function of the forced distribution is to encourage active decision making and comparison of the Q sample items to one another (Brown, 1980). Figure 1 Sample Q Sort Distribution