Archana Mani (003)Dhara Damani (061)Shivani Bhatt (103)

Anuja Tendulkar (162)

Repertory grids

INTRODUCTION

PCT

Personal Construct TheoryConstruct theory (PCT) is a psychological theory of

human cognition Kelly inferred that psychology as a science was an

attempt to set in order the facts of human experience so that the psychologist could make good predictions about what people will do when confronted by new situations

Then the accuracy of that constructed knowledge can be tested by performing those actions the constructs suggest.

From the theory, Kelly derived a psychotherapy approach and also a technique called The Repertory Grid Interview that helped his patients to uncover their own "constructs" with minimal intervention or interpretation by the therapist. The Repertory Grid was later adapted for various uses within organizations, including decision-making and interpretation of other people's world-views.

Personal Construct Theory (contd..)Constructs are often defined by words, but

can also be non-verbal and hard to explain, such as the feeling you get when your football team just won the championship.

When constructs are challenged or incomplete the result is emotional states such as anxiety, confusion, anger and fear.

Constructs are often polar in that they have opposites (and are hence dichotomous). Thus the construct of good implies another of bad. Polar constructs create one another: thus 'good' cannot exist without 'bad'.

Personal Construct Theory (contd..)Although people share the idea of constructs

through words, the detail of constructs are particular to the individual and hence are called personal constructs.

Constructs that are important to the person are core constructs, whilst others are called peripheral constructs.

While Kelly’s original focus was on applications to psychotherapy and counselling, personal construct concepts and methods have been used to understand such topics as diverse as stuttering, the development and breakdown of close relationships, vocational decision making, education, and organisational behaviour.

3 key assertions to PCT

Three key assertions are seen to underlie PCT: -that people make sense of their world through contrast

and similarity; -that people seek to explain their world (why is it so?

what made it so?); -and that people seek to understand the significance of

their world by organising concepts hierarchically.

In the traditional application of PCT, individuals are asked to express their view of the world in terms of constructs, each having a positive and negative pole (expressing the concept and its perceived opposite). The relationship between the constructs is then evaluated through an exhaustive paired or three-way comparison to develop what are known as Repertory Grids.

Equally the relationships between the constructs may be reflected in a more visual approach, as developed in a related technique known as CM

Cognitive MappingCM was originally developed by Eden (1983) as a

technique for use in strategic decision making in organisations. It adopts Kelly’s concept of constructs, but uses them in a much less rigid way than RGA

Constructs are identified from the statements individuals use in describing a situation during an interview and are represented as brief phrases in natural language. Sometimes the negative pole will be given, but often it is assumed to be implicit.

Rather than carry out the Repertory Grid comparison, the links between constructs are identified from the chain of argument employed in describing the situation.

The relationship between constructs is assumed to take the form of explanations and consequences as shown in Figure.

Cognitive Mapping (contd..)

Cognitive Mapping (contd..)

The relationship may be positive (i.e. construct A reinforces construct B) or negative (construct A operates in the opposite direction to construct B - reinforcing the negative pole), or connotative (implying a relationship between the constructs, but of unknown or neutral effect).

The product of a CM exercise is therefore a map (in the style of a directed network) made up of nodes (consisting of phrases used by the individual to describe the situation) and arcs (links identified from the individual’s description of the situation).

PCT (contd..)Kelly's (1955) basic postulate is that 'A person's

processes are psychologically channelized by the ways in which he anticipates events'. He followed this with few corollaries.

The construction corollary: We conservatively construct anticipation based on past experiences.

The experience corollary: When things do not happen as expected, we change our constructs (thus reconstructing). This changes our future expectations.

The dichotomy corollary: We store experience as constructs, and then look at the world through them.

The organizational corollary: Constructs are connected to one another in hierarchies and network of relationships. These relationships may be loose or tight.

PCT (contd..)

 The choice corollary: We can choose to gain new experiences to expand our constructs or stay in the safe but limiting zone of current constructs.

The individuality corollary: As everyone's experience is different, their constructs are different.

The commonality corollary: Many of our experiences are similar and/or shared, leading to similarity of constructs with others. Discussing constructs also helps to build shared constructs.

The fragmentation corollary: Many of our constructs conflict with one another. These may be dictated by different contexts and roles.

The sociality corollary: We interact with others through understanding of their constructs.

METHOD

The Repertory Grid

 Repertory Grid was devised by George Kelly in around 1955 and is based on his Personal Constructs theory of personality

The Repertory Grid is an interviewing technique which uses factor analysis to determine an idiographic measure of personality.

The repertory grid is a technique for identifying the ways a person construes (interprets/ gives meaning to) his or her experience. It provides information from which inferences about personality can be made, but it is not a personality test in the conventional sense.

Origin of Repertory GridBecause of their flexibility, repertory grids (or

repgrids) have been used in approximately 3,000 studies of a broad variety of topics, ranging from children’s understandings of physical science principles and consumer preferences, to formal structures of self-reflection within cognitive science and the mutual validation of belief systems between friends. But, base is clinical psychology

Matrix: The Repertory Grid is a matrix

Rows: Constructs Columns: Elements Cells: Position of each element within each construct

A Topic: it is about some part of the person's experience Set of Constructs: The unique system of interconnected meanings

that define his or her perceived relationships to others Set of Elements:which are examples or instances of the Topic A set of ratings of Elements on Constructs: Each element is

positioned between the two extremes of the construct using a 5- or 7-point rating scale system

MethodTake 3 elements at a timeIdentify a way in which 2 elements are alike

but distinct from thirdAll elements are rated on the constructFurther constructs are elicitedInterview would continue till no further

constructs are obtained

Analysis of the resultContent analysis (Eye ball inspection, idiographic ):

Prompting the respondent to rate or rank each of the elements on the resulting construct dimensions columns going across the sheet, representing where each figure would fall on, say, a 7-point scale anchored by the poles of each construct.

Structure analysis (Cluster analysis, nomothtic): This might involve correlating and factor analyzing the matrix of ratings to see at a glance which constructs “go together” for the respondent. These linkages among constructs often suggest why people remain “stuck” in symptomatic patterns

6-16 constructs are generally used in any interview

There is software available to produce several reports and graphs from these Grids, such as the popular WebGrid III program available via the Internet.

USES

Uses of repertory gridMarketing and ConsultancyThe Marketing and Consultancy professions

have its applications to support management decision-makingcompare the frameworks of different parties

with complementary or conflicting views on the same situation

download the cognitive map of an expert, perhaps as part of the design of an expert system

support a management change programme; change management

Change Needs

Determine organizational culture

understand the perceptions of an expert; Expert Knowledgewhy a particular sales representative has a high

success rate; how to differentiate employees who are effective

in a new environment; how an interviewer is more accurate than

others; how to design a process such as mental health

differential diagnosis, using local medical expertise, as part of a medical expert system;

how to build profiles to identify likely characteristics of serial offenders;

how to understand knowledge familiar to a specialist;

Knowledge About Effective Performance: The comparisons in a case were:-

in terms of their performance at work; in terms of their performance on the

assessment programme; in terms of their psychological test results; in terms of their personal history.

The constructs were:- This is a very simple application of grid to

design and administer. Measuring Success Laterdesign management competences; support personal and professional

development such as part of a Continuing Professional Development Program;

support market research How your product or service compares with

others

Develop person-specifications for an existing job or for concentrating attention on the demands of a new job, i.e., Person specifications for a particular job category

Person specifications for a new team member: examine some what-if scenario

Person specifications for a completely new position

In Human Resources:evaluate the effectiveness of training: Are

you getting value for money from your training investment?Knowledge-based trainingTraining in specific skillsComplex training and development

developing management competencies:Many competency studies have failed to

deliver because of some reasons like…But using repertory grid helps to get a set

of competencies whichis the organization's own, expressed in their

language and reflecting their business priorities,

involves managers in their development, thus ensuring their commitment to the competences and to the demands which might be made on them in order to bring the competences to life;

ensures that the gap between past and future competences has been addressed, with action plans as appropriate

Advantages & Disadvantages

AdvantagesOne reason why repertory grid technique is

popular is that they “have three major advantages over other quantitative and qualitative techniques. These advantages are :

1.the ability to determine the relationship between constructs,

2.ease of use, 3.and the absence of researcher bias. Repertory grids allow for the precise defining

of concepts and the relationship between these concepts.” (Boyle, 2005).

Advantages………………The advantages of the technique lie in the fact

that while it focuses on the individual's subjective assessment of the world, it does so in a way that (given certain scaling assumptions) readily lends itself to statistical analysis.

Where subjects generate their own constructs there is unlikely to be confusion with test concepts or the terminology employed.

Researchers employing this technique can expect to obtain as rich a variety of data as may be obtained from in-depth interviews but in a form that can be more easily numerically treated.

Advantages………………People based technique - One of the greatest

advantages is that people are involved in the process, so that language used is appropriate to & comfortable within the organisation.

Open approach - Doesn't pre-determine the outcome of the analysis by confining the responses to the predetermined format & therefore maybe effective in both picking up unexpected competencies & avoiding existing bias or prejudices.

The main advantage of this procedure is the clarity with which any similarities appear without the aid of any graphic or mathematical support.

Advantages…………………RepGrids were used during the interview process

because they bring structure to the interview while allowing flexibility and reducing researcher bias.

It allows interviewees to articulate their experience in the way they see the world

Useful in designing the screening process ( recruitment & selection), since it can be used to draw out examples of experience similar to those derived from the grid.

Useful in performance appraisal, since difference between performance can be analysed to draw out competencies that cause performance difference

DisadvantagesIt’s an observation based method .Therefore Needs skilled practitioners to

undertake them , even then there is unstructured leap between competencies required & activities undertaken

It becomes matter of skilled judgement which is open to the bias of the observer/interviewer.

Disadvantages………………..Disadvantage of this technique is the

possibility that participants may not understand the distinctions provided by the investigator. In this scenario, subjects may not be able to accurately complete the matrix, and may require training from investigators, which introduces significant bias

Disadvantages……………..In case we use it to judge performance appraisal,We have to rely upon viewpoints of effective

performance.Therefore biases about the way jobs should be

performed creep into the processCompetencies which the experts believe are imp

may not be key to successful performanceEg- Manager may describe a ‘better’ way of

doing the job. But the ‘poor’ way maybe just as effective.

.

Disadvantages……………..Sex bias-• males give excessive importance to male

traits like aggression.• whereas the females may give importance

to feminine characteristics like empathy.In case of testing, people may find the

observation process to be intimidating & intrusive.

People feel intimidated being watched & even checklists are viewed as intimidating.

Disadvantages………………….Repertory grid will provide evidence of the

key differentiators between poor, average & successful performers……..but will down play or overlook the core standards which are essential to all levels of performance

While the protean quality of Repertory Grid Technique makes it adaptable to a variety of psychological purposes, only long term usage can establish the relative validity of its various forms.

Ideal approachThe ideal approach is to use a range of

techniques so that the end result is comprehensive and balanced out

Equal thought needs to be given to the outcome of each analytical method

References…………..http://books.google.co.in/books?

id=937PxbuNcecC&pg=PA90&lpg=PA90&dq=repertory+grid-advantages&source=bl&ots=8vuRwt6P6W&sig=YN_UqhOoPKXSf5fn3sQkM9PicRM&hl=en

http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~adillon/Journals/Towards%20a%20classification.htm

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