A Manual for Repertory Grid Technique

by Fransella, Fay; Bell, Richard; Bannister, Don

• ISBN13: 9780470854907
• ISBN10: 0470854901
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-11-21
• Publisher: WILEY

Summary

First published in 1977, this now classic manual has been completely revised and updated to reflect the enormous changes that have taken place both in the popularity of repertory grid methods and in the study of the methods themselves.Aimed at novices as well as those already knowledgeable about grid usage, this manual provides an overview of George Kelly's personal construct theory, which underpins repertory grid methods. The reader will learn how to design a grid, with guidance on how to choose elements and ways of eliciting personal constructs that can influence the results obtained.The second edition includes multiple examples of grids, as well as:New chapters on the main computer methods of analysis availableSupporting website with grid analysis programs available to downloadExtended annotated bibliography of the many examples of grid usageThis book will appeal to psychology students, practitioners and academics. Other professionals who will find this an invaluable guide include managers, teachers and educationalists, speech and language therapists, nurses, probation officers and psychiatrists.

Author Biography

Fay Fransella is Founder and Director of the Center for Personal Construct Psychology, Emeritus Reader in Clinical Psychology, University of London and Visiting Professor of Personal Construct Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire. She has written 11 books, eight of them specifically relating to personal construct psychology and the use of repertory grids, and she has published over 150 journal papers and book chapters. She wrote the first edition of A Manual for Repertory Grid Technique with Don Bannister for Academic Press in 1977.
She trained and worked as an occupational therapist for 10 years before taking a degree in psychology and a postgraduate diploma in clinical psychology in 1962. It was during her first job as a lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, London, that she was introduced to George Kelly’s personal construct psychology and his repertory grid method. Both were revolutionary alternatives to the dominant behaviorism of the time. She found the view that we are all free agents responsible for what we make of the events which continually confront us particularly liberating. Since that time she has conducted research, together with teaching and writing, within the framework of Kelly’s ideas. Her main area of research has been stuttering, for which she used a form of repertory grid. She has also conducted research on weight disorders and various psychological problems.

Richard Bell is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Melbourne. He is interested practical problems of measurement in clinical, organizational and educational settings. He has written extensively on the analysis of repertory grid data and has authored widely used software for the analysis of such data.

The influence of Don Bannister in arousing interest in George Kelly’s theory and methods of assessment has been profound. Even after his untimely death in 1986 his influence continues, through those he inspired, through his professional research and writings, and also through his four novels. In the year in which this second edition of the Manual for Repertory Grid Techniques is published the 15th International Congress in Personal Construct Psychology was held in Huddersfield, UK, focusing on that outstanding influence. He spent much of his professional life carrying out research for the UK Medical Research Council, which included a year working with George Kelly at Ohio State University in 1965. He saw the psychology of personal constructs as an approach to the person that was empowering, democratic and, above all, valuable in helping people understand themselves and others. He was insistent that psychologists should use what power and influence they have to make a difference in the lives of people. He would have taken great interest in the vast amount of new work that has been carried out with and into that tool which is detailed in this second edition of the book that he co-authored in 1977.

Table of Contents

About the Authors	ix
Preface	xi
Acknowledgements	xiii
1. The Basis of Repertory Grid Technique	1	(14)
Grids: What Are They?	1	(4)
The Grid as Part of Personal Construct Theory	5	(1)
Grids: a Measure of What?	5	(2)
Grids are about Constructs	7	(2)
Some Personal Construct Theory Corollaries	9	(3)
Different Kinds of Construct	12	(1)
Constructs in Transition	12	(1)
Conclusions	12	(3)
2. Constructs And Elements	15	(39)
What is an Element?	15	(1)
What is a Construct?	15	(3)
Elements in a Grid	18	(5)
The Nature and Types of Constructs in a Grid	23	(4)
Ways of Eliciting Personal Constructs from 'Elements'	27	(3)
Eliciting Personal Constructs in Ways other than from 'Elements'	30	(9)
Eliciting Constructs from Constructs	39	(7)
To Elicit or to Supply Constructs?	46	(3)
Classification of Constructs	49	(1)
Which are more Important in a Grid - Elements or Constructs?	50	(1)
Constructs and Elements: the Debate	50	(2)
Comment	52	(2)
3. Varieties Of Grid In Use Today	54	(28)
The Grid Form of the Role Construct Repertory Test	54	(1)
The Split-Half Method of Allocating Elements	54	(2)
A Grid Using Rankings	56	(3)
A Grid Using Ratings	59	(6)
Implications and Resistance-to-Change Grids	65	(5)
Resistance-to-Change Grid	70	(3)
A Bipolar Implications Grid	73	(3)
Dependency Grid	76	(2)
A Textual Grid	78	(1)
A Qualitative Grid	79	(1)
Comment	80	(2)
4. Analyzing Grid Data	82	(31)
Repertory Grids	82	(1)
Analyzing Constructs	83	(8)
Analyzing Elements	91	(2)
Joint Representations of Constructs and Elements	93	(5)
Representations of Multiple Repertory Grid Data	98	(3)
Dependency Grids	101	(3)
Implications Grids	104	(4)
Comments	108	(5)
5. Some Summary Measures Of Structure	113	(19)
Cognitive Complexity	114	(7)
Extremity and Ordination	121	(1)
Conflict	122	(2)
Element Indices	124	(2)
Measures of Superordinacy	126	(1)
Measures of Intransitivity	127	(1)
Implications Grids	128	(1)
Dependency Grids	129	(1)
Comment	130	(2)
6. Reliability and Validity	132	(21)
Reliability	132	(11)
Conclusions	143	(1)
Validity	143	(8)
Conclusions	151	(2)
7. Specific Ways Of Using Grids	153	(15)
The Individual and the Grid	154	(8)
A Decision-Making Grid	162	(1)
Wholly or Partially Standardized Grid Formats	163	(4)
Conclusions	167	(1)
8. Some Uses To Which Grids Have Been Put	168	(62)
Grids in General	169	(1)
In the Clinical Setting	170	(18)
Working with Children	188	(4)
Teachers and Teaching	192	(3)
The Construing of Professionals	195	(1)
Those With Learning Difficulties	196	(3)
Social Relationships	199	(5)
Language	204	(6)
Dependency	210	(1)
The Use and Abuse of Drugs	211	(1)
The Family	212	(1)
Forensic Work	213	(2)
Maps, Planning and Environment	215	(2)
Market Research	217	(1)
Politics	218	(1)
Careers	219	(1)
Sport	220	(1)
Organizational and Business Applications	220	(6)
More Unusual Uses of Grids	226	(4)
Appendix Computer Programs and Websites	230	(2)
References	232	(26)
Author Index	258	(4)
Subject Index	262