Why does PCQ restrict the number of factors?
: As a practical matter, the results of a Q study can be thought of as dimensions of communicability embedded in the concourse from which the Q sample is a representation. This implies that, while a communication situation will have several dimensions, more than nine of them is unlikely. PCQ was designed with this concept in mind. A researcher seeking more dimensions is advised to use principal component factor analysis, which can be found in many commercially available statistical software programs. Since principal component factor analysis produces factors that account for 100 percent of the correlation table variance, often there are as many factors as there are variables.
