Compare methods

	Concept Mapping	Multidimensional Scaling
Field	Social Work	Statistics
Family	Process / pipeline	Latent structure
Year of origin	1989	1952–1964
Originator	William M. K. Trochim	Warren S. Torgerson (metric MDS, 1952); Joseph B. Kruskal (non-metric MDS, 1964)
Type	Mixed-method structured group conceptualization producing a visual cluster map	Dimensionality reduction / visualization
Seminal source	Trochim, W. M. K. (1989). An introduction to concept mapping for planning and evaluation. Evaluation and Program Planning, 12(1), 1–16.	Kruskal, J. B. (1964). Multidimensional scaling by optimizing goodness of fit to a nonmetric hypothesis. Psychometrika, 29(1), 1–27.
Aliases	Group Concept Mapping, Structured Conceptualization, Trochim Concept Mapping, Concept Mapping for Planning and Evaluation	MDS, metric MDS, non-metric MDS, proximity scaling
Related	4	5
Summary	Concept mapping, in the structured sense developed by William Trochim, is a mixed-method process that lets a group develop a shared conceptual framework on a topic and represent it as a visual map. Participants generate statements about a focus question, sort them into thematic piles, and rate them; multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis then turn those sortings into a two-dimensional map of clustered ideas. Widely used in social-work and human-services planning and evaluation, it combines the openness of group brainstorming with the rigor of quantitative analysis to surface and structure stakeholder thinking.	Multidimensional scaling maps objects described only by pairwise similarities or dissimilarities into a low-dimensional geometric space so that distances in that space reflect the original proximity structure as faithfully as possible. It is widely used to visualize the hidden structure of psychological, social, and behavioral data.