A Manual for Repertory Grid Technique

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.

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 available
* Supporting website with grid analysis programs available to download
* Extended annotated bibliography of the many examples of grid usage
 
This 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.

Repertory Grid Technique is a way of quantifying personal constructs, the basis of George Kelly's famous theory. This now classic manual revises and updates the structure and content of the first edition, including different forms of the Grid; advances in understanding the complexities of the analyses of grid matrices; and the use and analysis of multiple grids.

About the Authors.
 
Preface.
 
Acknowledgements.
 
1. The Basis of Repertory Grid Technique.
 
Grids: What Are They?
 
The Grid as Part of Personal Construct Theory.
 
Grids: a Measure of What?.
 
Grids are about Constructs.
 
Some Personal Construct Theory Corollaries.
 
Different Kinds of Construct.
 
Constructs in Transition.
 
Conclusions.
 
2. Constructs And Elements.
 
What is an Element?
 
What is a Construct?
 
Elements in a Grid.
 
The Nature and Types of Constructs in a Grid.
 
Ways of Eliciting Personal Constructs from 'Elements'.
 
Eliciting Personal Constructs in Ways other than from 'Elements'.
 
Eliciting Constructs from Constructs.
 
To Elicit or to Supply Constructs?
 
Classification of Constructs.
 
Which are more Important in a Grid - Elements or Constructs?
 
Constructs and Elements: the Debate.
 
Comment.
 
3. Varieties Of Grid In Use Today.
 
The Grid Form of the Role Construct Repertory Test.
 
The Split-Half Method of Allocating Elements.
 
A Grid Using Rankings.
 
A Grid Using Ratings.
 
Implications and Resistance-to-Change Grids..
 
Resistance-to-Change Grid.
 
A Bipolar Implications Grid.
 
Dependency Grid.
 
A Textual Grid.
 
A Qualitative Grid.
 
Comment.
 
4. Analyzing Grid Data.
 
Repertory Grids.
 
Analyzing Constructs.
 
Analyzing Elements.
 
Joint Representations of Constructs and Elements.
 
Representations of Multiple Repertory Grid Data.
 
Dependency Grids.
 
Implications Grids.
 
Comments.
 
5. Some Summary Measures Of Structure.
 
Cognitive Complexity.
 
Extremity and Ordination.
 
Conflict.
 
Element Indices.
 
Measures of Superordinacy.
 
Measures of Intransitivity.
 
Implications Grids.
 
Dependency Grids.
 
Comment.
 
6. Reliability and Validity.
 
Reliability.
 
Conclusions.
 
Validity.
 
Conclusions.
 
7. Specific Ways Of Using Grids.
 
The Individual and the Grid.
 
A Decision-Making Grid.
 
Wholly or Partially Standardized Grid Formats.
 
Conclusions.
 
8. Some Uses To Which Grids Have Been Put.
 
Grids in General.
 
In the Clinical Setting.
 
Working with Children.
 
Teachers and Teaching.
 
The Construing of Professionals.
 
Those With Learning Difficulties.
 
Social Relationships.
 
Language.
 
Dependency.
 
The Use and Abuse of Drugs.
 
The Family.
 
Forensic Work.
 
Maps, Planning and Environment.
 
Market Research.
 
Politics.
 
Careers.
 
Sport.
 
Organizational and Business Applications.
 
More Unusual Uses of Grids.
 
Appendix Computer Programs and Websites.
 
References.
 
Author Index.
 
Subject Index.

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