import PySide
import PySide.QtCore    as QtCore
import PySide.QtGui     as QtGui
import PySide.QtUiTools as QtUiTools

import sys

class dictItem(dict):
    pass

class Model(QtGui.QStringListModel):
    DictRole = QtCore.Qt.UserRole + 1
    def data(self, index, role=QtCore.Qt.DisplayRole):
        if role == self.DictRole:
            return dictItem()
        else:
            return super(Model,self).data(index, role)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)

    # Just building a basic model and widget
    widget = QtGui.QWidget()
    mainlayout = QtGui.QHBoxLayout(widget)
    widget.setLayout(mainlayout)

    string_model = Model()
    string_model.setStringList( [str(i) for i in xrange(50)] )

    list_view = QtGui.QListView(widget)
    list_view.setModel(string_model)
    mainlayout.addWidget(list_view)

    # The correct type is not kept for data returned through index.data
    print type(string_model.index(0,0, QtCore.QModelIndex()).data(Model.DictRole))

    # Works model.data the way it is suppose to
    print type(string_model.data(string_model.index(0,0,QtCore.QModelIndex()),Model.DictRole))

    widget.show()
    app.exec_()