A MANUAL FOR THE

REPERTORY GRID

Notes

  1. Daniel had attended a few group psychotherapy sessions and had spoken to the group therapist several times. It was therefore decided to include the therapist as an element in the grid.
  2. Shubsachs (1975) carried out a study in which he concluded that the most frequently repeated constructs were the most important. This is logical considering that they are more easily accessible to memory.
  3. Inverted poles are generally involuntarily set in the construct elicitation phase of test administration but cannot be detected until later. The distortion that this can produce at the level of data analysis has been underestimated. The casual arrangement of the construct poles can distort most mathematical analyses of the data (see MacKay, 1992). As a result, the GRIDCOR programme analyses the grid titled "Focused Grid" rather than the one that has the "Original Data" (see below).
  4. This statistical method is gaining recognition especially after the creation of the SPAD statistical package (Lebart et al, 1985), although very similar techniques have appeared in other places under different names (e.g., "Optimal Scaling", "Dual Analysis").
  5. The matrix's "trace" represents the inertia, information or variance produced by the grid's constructs and elements. It is equal to the sum of all the eigenvalues that correspond to the different projection axes of the diagonally arranged matrix. In terms of chi-squares, the trace is equivalent to the ratio between chi-square and the total sum of the data matrix, when a hypothesis of independence between constructs and elements is made. The population is the sum of all the ratings appearing in the data matrices (one for each construct pole).
  6. The GRIDCOR programme carries out some calculations after creating the OTHERS element by averaging the scores of all the elements except the self and IDEAL elements. This is a necessary step to take in the calculation of some of the cognitive measures (see further ahead) and does not distort other calculations.
  7. Ryle and Green (1972) verified the hypothesis that the self-parents distance is greater in clients with neurotic symptoms. They therefore consider seeing oneself as very different from one's parents as a cognitive characteristic of neurotic disorders.
  8. This profile, taken alone, does not guarantee the existence of a depression. It could be indicative of a person with another disorder (e.g., anxiety) who feels hopeless, in which case the depression could be just another symptom. Norris et al. (1976) have identified this profile in subjects with anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorders, as well as in alcoholics.
  9. Landfield (1977) has advocated a similar taxonomy based on his research with these complementary aspects of system structure, although using a different set of measures.