Result

Here is a little table with your input vector of numbers and the permuted numbers.

As I hope you can see, the buttons at the bottom of the table allow you to export the data.

The method of derangements

This is a little utility app to support people using the method of derangements. The method is a rigorous method of testing whether purely idiographic data, i.e. data specific perhaps to just one one person such as projective tests, repertory grids, can be shown to convey valid information to a judge. The method was first presented in Evans, C., Hughes, J., & Houston, J. (2002). Significance testing the validity of ideographic methods: A little derangement goes a long way. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 55(2), 385–390. https://doi.org/10.1348/000711002760554525. That's not open access so contact me if you want a copy.)

A more comprehensive and less specialist account of the method is given in: Evans, C., Carlyle, J., & Paz, C. (2023). Rigorous idiography: Exploring subjective and idiographic data with rigorous methods—The method of derangements. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 1007685. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1007685 (OA).

A graphical summary of the method is at https://www.psyctc.org/psyctc/2022/07/23/sometimes-n4-is-enough/

The method involves asking a judge to map from four or more idiographic items back to their origins, for example, the data might be repertory grids from members of a therapy grid and the judge would be someone who knew the clients, for example the group therapist/conductor as in the original paper. The grids presented in random order ('permuted') and this app gives you random permutations of n numbers 1 to n and gives a citable source for your permutation (giving the seed you used) if submitting use of the method of derangements to a journal.

Computation background

This uses the base R function sample()

Unless you are very familiar with them, do please now read the 'Attribution/citation' and 'Background' tabs.

Attribution

App created by Chris Evans PSYCTC.org and licenced under a Creative Commons, Attribution Licence-ShareAlike Please respect that and put an acknowledgement and link back to here if re-using anything from here.

Last updated 5.iv.25: tweak to ensure that even long lengths of data permuted will download.

Citing and referencing

I really am not keen on the obsessionalities of style guides but I do think referencing well is important so here is my understanding of the correct citing and referencing of the app.

APA

I think the correct citation in APA 7 format is just (Evans, 2024) and the reference format is:

Evans, C. (2024, November 16). Random permutation of numbers. PSYCTC.org. Retrieved November 16, 2024, from https://shiny.psyctc.org/apps/random1/

Where the name of the app, i.e. 'Random permutation of numbers' should be in italics. (Hard to force that here in HTML!)

BPS

I am sure the correct citation in BPS format is again just (Evans, 2024) and I think the BPS reference format is:

Evans, C. (2024). Random permutation of numbers. PSYCTC.org. Retrieved November 16, 2024, from https://shiny.psyctc.org/apps/random1/

Where the name of the app is not in italics.

But, as I say, I am no expert on these style guide obsessionalities: as with everything in shiny.psyctc.org, use at your own risk and do sensible checking.

Background and related resources

This shiny app is one of a growing number in, my shiny server
They complement:

There is a form if you want to contact me: so do please use that if you think there is anything wrong here or anything that could be improved.

There is also now an Email announcement list, never updating more than monthly, where I will put up developments of new apps here, a summary of updates to the glossary and new posts in the Rblog. You can sign up for that here.