A PROPOSAL FOR A COMMON DATA EXCHANGE FORMAT FOR REPERTORY GRID DATA

Repertory grid interviews provide information about the psychological space of people in matrix-structured form, providing a basis for the statistical analysis of results. Today there are many software packages available for the elicitation and analysis of repertory grids, most of them with unique features. But access to this wealth of options is restricted because, at present, repertory grid programs store data in different formats. As a result, anyone who has tried to exchange data between programs knows that this is not an easy task, as the exchange typically requires tedious and error-prone reentering of the data. To enable direct and error-free data exchange between repertory grid programs, we propose a common data format for repertory grid software based on the Extended Markup Language (XML). It is important to note that users do not have to learn XML to take advantage of this common data format. Data sets of current analysis programs can be translated into XML by utilities. As a basis for further discussion we have developed sample applications and utilities that are based on this new data format.     

Letters of Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Application of the Golden Section Hypothesis

The golden section has been shown to be a robust feature of the connotative structure of repertory grids. This article extends the research with repertory grids by providing an analysis of the connotative structure of a historical collection of 124 letters written to Galileo by his eldest daughter, Suor Maria Celeste. I found that the mean level of positive connotation in the letters is quite close to the golden section. This result suggests that the golden section is an underlying connotative feature of the letters Maria Celeste wrote to Galileo, and it provides further support for the golden section hypothesis that the construing person strikes a balance between negative and positive experiences in which negative experiences are focal relative to a background of positive experiences.     

The development and evaluation of a computer-administered measure of cognitive complexity

The present study presents and evaluates the Computer-Administered Rep Test (CART). The CART is a micro computer program that automates both the administration and scoring of a repertory grid based measure of cognitive complexity. Preliminary evaluation of the CART indicates that it provides a useful alternative to traditional paper-and-pencil administered repertory grid measures of cognitive complexity. We also examine the effect of an alternative scoring approach on the reliability of scores derived from role repertory grid measures of cognitive complexity. Results indicate that this scoring approach substantially enhances the reliability of cognitive complexity scores derived from both the paper-and-pencil and computer-administered measures.     

PERCEIVING CINEMATIC EPISODES: A CROSS-CULTURAL REPERTORY GRID STUDY OF A NARRATIVE FILM SEGMENT*

Film theory has advanced concepts for explaining how it is possible for film viewers to understand what they are seeing. Many of these concepts strongly imply that the production of meaning of a film lies within the film itself - the viewer's role being reduced to that of passive spectator. This study tests that assumption using a repertory grid analysis of constructs elicited from Australian and Hong Kong Chinese subjects as they interpreted a segment of a commercial film. The results showed that the Australian sample construed more emotionally than did the Hong Kong Chinese, who responded more at the level of the film's characterisation. They were also more specific in their construals while the Australians were more diffuse. Further analysis suggested that differences between the two groups were the result of judgments about different attributes of the film, rather than because of different patterns of construing. It was concluded that since there are major differences in the two groups' interpretations of the same film, in the field of film/spectator studies where semiotics and psychology come together, the repertory grid analysis is a useful research tool.     

PREDICTIVE RELATIONSHIPS IN REPERTORY GRID DATA: A NEW ELABORATION OF KELLY'S ORGANIZATION COROLLARY

When Kelly introduced the repertory grid in 1955 he linked it to a theory that emphasized anticipation and prediction and employed a formal statement of construct organization that argued for superordinate and subordinate relationships among constructs. Almost all analytic methods devised for repertory grid data have ignored this link although in the early 1980s several methods of assessing prediction were proposed. This article shows some simple predictive statistics that can be used to identify asymmetric relations in repertory grid data and provide different pictures of grid structure.     

The Experience of Being a Qualified Female BME Clinical Psychologist in a National Health Service: An Interpretative Phenomenological and Repertory Grid Analysis

This study explores the lived experience of black and minority ethnic (BME) clinical psychologists employed in the U.K. National Health Service (NHS). A mixed method qualitative approach was employed using repertory grids and interpretative phenomenological analysis. Six female BME clinical psychologists took part. Four master themes emerged from the analysis, including standing out as different, negotiating cultural and professional values, sitting with uncertainty, and feeling proud to be a clinical psychologist. The repertory grid analysis supported these findings and enriched the study. Implications of the study are discussed—namely, the importance of the profession increasing the cultural competency and sensitivity of its members as well as becoming more diverse.     

Reasons to Randomize: Sort-Specific Effects on Construct Content in Cross-Sectional Repertory Grid Studies

Several articles have discussed the effect of variations in the repertory grid procedure on measures derived from the data it generates. Largely unexplored, in contrast, is the effect of a more subtle variation inherent in the grid procedure itself: the specific combination of elements used in a dyad or triad during elicitation. This study investigates the differential effects of a specific element combination on the elicited constructs by means of data-driven content analysis. Three independent repertory grid samples were collected, one using nutrition styles (N = 70) and two using occupational profiles as elements (both N = 60). For the latter two studies, the sorting technique (dyad vs. triad) was varied. A pronounced specific effect of the sorts on elicited construct content was found across all three studies.     

The School Behaviour Game: Making 'human sense' of the repertory grid in research with children

Derivatives of Kelly's repertory grid have been widely used with children, but the prototype procedure is often simplified for the child's sake, with some loss of its exploratory power. The School Behaviour Game transposes the element elicitation and triadic construct elicitation phases of the repertory grid to a board-game for two (interviewer and child). It thus places a 'bizarre' procedure in a context that is meaningful from a child's viewpoint. The SBG was used in a study into children's perceptions of school. Its potential for guidance and counselling is considered.     

TOWARDS REFLEXIVE SCRUTINY IN REPERTORY GRID METHODOLOGY

This article advocates a position of critical reflection in relation to common adaptations of repertory grid procedures. The fact that even subtle procedural variations can register a substantial impact on the content and structure of personal construct systems highlights the responsibility that researchers and practitioners have to understand their own contributions to the grid outcomes that they interpret. A position of "reflexive scrutiny" is developed in a way that is consistent with the tenets of Kelly's (1955) personal construct psychology, and exemplified in the subsequent articles in this special section on repertory grid methodology.     

ON TESTING THE COMMONALITY OF CONSTRUCTS IN SUPPLIED GRIDS

The repertory grid technique has long been the empirical tool of choice for research based on personal construct theory (Kelly, 1955). In some situations, respondents are asked to evaluate a set of elements with respect to a fixed or supplied repertoire of constructs, and an assumption is made that respondents will employ these constructs similarly. This situation is thus equivalent to the semantic differential technique. In the repertory grid context it is justified through the commonality of construing corollary of personal construct theory. This is an assumption that can be tested, although it seems to have attracted little attention in the past. Here a criterion for commonality of a construct is proposed, namely that of the data conforming to a unidimensional scaling model, and a simple method of testing this is illustrated.     

Theory-Appropriate Analysis of Repertory Grid Data

Abstract

This paper reviews the relationship between personal construct theory and methods of repertory grid analysis. Traditional methods, such as factor or cluster analysis, are shown to relate to the fundamental postulate or construction corollary, while new hierarchical approaches relate to the structural corollaries of organization and range.     

Panic-disordered subjects' perceptions of film: a repertory grid study

Clinical research into panic attacks over the past two decades has led to the hypothesis that panic-disordered subjects may have a lower threshold to separation anxiety than normals. This hypothesis was investigated by measuring panic-disordered and normal subjects' reactions to viewing a film of a potentially anxiety-provoking situation. The extent to which individuals construe film through identification with the narrative's characters was also examined. To gauge these reactions a repertory grid was administered to 11 subjects with a history of panic disorder and 12 controls after they had watched a half-hour episode from a feature film in which a divorced couple fight acrimoniously over custody of their 17-yr.-old daughter. Five elements were characters mentioned in the film and two were of 'self,' one in a secure and another in an insecure situation. Ten constructs were elicited by a triadic sorting procedure and four were supplied. Ratings of elements on all constructs were subjected to a principal components analysis (INGRID). While the construals of the two groups were essentially similar, there were differences between them in terms of the perceived salience of the film's characters. Panic-disordered subjects also construed themselves as more insecure than did the normals. The results affirm the use of the repertory grid in the study of panic disorder and in the analysis of the perception of filmed events.     

高级技工诊断生产活动的认知策略的汇编栅格法研究

本研究采用汇编栅格法探讨了高级技工(专家)诊断人机系统生产活动的认知策略,结果表明:第一,在高级技工的认知结构中,存在着对多因素交互作用下复杂情况进行诊断的认知地图,它以特定方式组合着常见的问题类型和原因特征,是制约技工复杂技能教学成效的关键要素。第二,汇编栅格法是对人机系统中专家的认知结构进行功能模拟的一种有效方法,它不仅在揭示未知的高级技工认知结构时,以其直观的投射方式提供专家启发式策略的新信息,而且在培训和评估复杂技能方面具有可观的应用前景。     

Surfacing embedded assumptions: Using repertory grid methodology to facilitate organizational change

This article outlines a 3-year research project that examines the role of performance evaluation and control systems in bringing about change in manufacturing organizations. A key aim of the project was to develop tools and techniques that managers can use to enable them to understand and enact change. As part of an indepth case study methodology, repertory grid interviews were used with both managers and operatives in three companies as a means of identifying commonly held assumptions about a range of work behaviours. The article discusses the use of the grid as a developmental, rather than exploratory technique, thereby focusing on its use as a process through which managers can assess their systems in use and highlight any necessary change issues. It is argued that repertory grid techniques have a useful part to play in diagnosing the key change issues that work and organizational psychologists face when planning organizational change and development interventions.     

The prediction of phobic behaviour

A 10-point rating scale, a pair comparison forced choice technique and a repertory grid were used to predict phobic behaviour in a standardized avoidance situation. The rating scale and pair comparison technique were significantly more accurate than the grid, but did not differ from each other. The results were seen to be consistent with others demonstrating that simple and economic self-report measures can often be more useful than apparently more sophisticated instruments. The results can also be taken to underline the need for including a variety of measures in validity studies of the repertory grid, and the caution necessary in the clinical application of this same instrument. The generality of the present conclusions to other situations needs, however, to be demonstrated rather than assumed. Social desirability, for example, is not thought to be an important variable in the present situation.     

Social attitudes of schizophrenics

The Wilson-Patterson Conservatism Scale was given to 34 schizophrenic and 34 non-schizophrenic patients in a Dutch mental hospital. The absence of liberal-scoring schizophrenics was interpreted as consistent with the theory that the social withdrawal seen in chronic schizophrenia represents a strategy for coping with stimulus overload. Internal consistency analysis of C scale performance indicated that this test might be used to assess thought disorder in much the same way as the Bannister and Fransella Grid Test, but a great deal more economically. Furthermore, the questionnaire permits a more detailed examination of the source of inconsistency than does the repertory grid method.     

A Review of: “Studies in Meaning 2: Bridging the Personal and Social in Constructivist Psychology”

Abstract

As repertory grids are often used in the making of important decisions about people's lives, it seems reasonable to demand that the technique accurately reflect the mental structure and processes of the person. This need has not gone unnoticed, either by proponents of the grid technique or its critics, but their calls for psychometric rigor are couched in terms of reliability and validity, terms that have specific operational meanings, and have been derived from the theories proposed for standard psychological tests. This article examines the bases and structures of such theories in the context of repertory grid data