Repertory grids

Intro. written & mounted by Chris Evans, if you want to be kept updated by Email of changes in this and other psychotherapy resources at this site then Email me at: C.Evans@sghms.ac.uk.
Mounted 11.iii.96, tweaked 21.vi.97

Repertory grids were an invention of the late George Kelly, a mid-West American engineer turned psychologist/psychotherapist who wrote up his work in the '50s. They consist of a rectangular matrix of ratings of things called "elements" (usually placed in the columns) each rated on adjectival phrases or simple adjectives known as "constructs". The following is an example, a grid from an (imaginary) forensic psychotherapy patient:

Domineering           2 3 4 4 5 4 2 4 5 6
Sexually attractive   2 2 3 3 6 4 5 4 4 2
Easily controlled     2 3 5 2 4 6 4 6 5 4
Rejecting             4 4 3 5 6 4 3 2 5 5
Loving                5 6 3 4 6 5 2 4 6 3
Neglecting            2 2 4 4 5 4 4 2 6 5
Sexually intimidating 2 5 3 6 6 3 2 4 2 2
Protective            1 5 1 1 5 5 1 3 2 1
Understanding         4 4 2 4 3 4 4 2 4 2

The elements here are directional relationships:

"You to your mother"
"Your mother to you"
"You to your father"
"Your father to you"
"You to your partner"
"Your partner to you"
"You to your victim"
"Your victim to you"
"You to your therapist"
"Your therapist to you"

i.e. the first element represents the way he thinks he is toward his mother, the second is how he thinks she is toward him.

There are a number of ways of using such matrices to throw light on the respondent's construing. Analyses are facilitated by computer programs and it is possible to carry out both qualitative/idiographic and nomothetic research using grids as the basic tool. I have a long standing interest in this field and first used a grid as a junior doctor in about 1982 to look at differing staff perceptions of the functioning of a "geriatric" day hospital (it would probably have a more "politically correct" name now).

I have mounted various programs for analysis of grids, see grid intro. page {4kb}