Repertory grid technique

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Definitions

The repertory grid technique (RGT) is a method for eliciting personal constructs. It is based on George Kelly's Personal Construct Theory in 1955 and was also initially developed within this context. As methodology, it can be used in a variety fundamental and applied research projects. It is also popular outside academia e.g. in counseling and marketing.

Today, various variants of the global concpt seem to exist, some more complex than others. Also within "main stream" RGT, several kinds of elicitation methods to extract constructs and to analyse them exits.

Some definitions of RGT (emphasized text by Daniel K. Schneider).

“The RGT (Kelly, 1955) originally stems from the psychological study of personality (see Banister et al., 1994; Fransella & Bannister, 1977, for an overview). Kelly assumed that the meaning we attach to events or objects defines our subjective reality, and thereby the way we interact with our environment. The idiosyncratic views of individuals, that is, the different ways of seeing, and the differences to other individuals define unique personalities. It is stated that our view of the objects (persons, events) we interact with is made up of a collection of similarity–difference dimensions, referred to as personal constructs. For example, ifweperceive two cars as being different, we may come up with the personal construct fancy–conservative to differentiate them. On one hand, this personal construct tells something about the person who uses it, namely his or her perceptions and concerns. On the other hand, it also reveals information about the cars, that is, their attributes.” (Hassenzahl & Wessler, 2000:444)

“[..]The “Repertory Grid” [...] is an amazingly ingenious and simple ideographic device to explore how people experience their world. It is a table in which, apart from the outer two columns, the other columns are headed by the names of objects or people (traditionally up to 21 of them). These names are also written on cards, which the tester shows to the subject in groups of three, always asking the same question: “How are two of these similar and the third one different?” [...] The answer constitutes a “construct”, one of the dimensions along which the subject divides up her or his world. There are conventions for keeping track of the constructs. When the grid is complete, there are several ways of rating or ranking all of the elements against all the constructs, so as to permit sophisticated analysis of core constructs and underlying factors (see Bannister and Mair, 1968) and of course there are programs which will do this for you.” (Personal Construct Psychology, retrieved 14:09, 26 January 2009 (UTC).)

“The Repertory Grid is an instrument designed to capture the dimensions and structure of personal meaning. Its aim is to describe the ways in which people give meaning to their experience in their own terms. It is not so much a test in the conventional sense of the word as a structured interview designed to make those constructs with which persons organise their world more explicit. The way in which we get to know and interpret our milieu, our understanding of ourselves and others, is guided by an implicit theory which is the result of conclusions drawn from our experiences. The repertory grid, in its many forms, is a method used to explore the structure and content of these implicit theories/personal meanings through which we perceive and act in our day-to-day existence.” (A manual for the repertory grid, retrieved 12:18, 26 January 2009 (UTC)).

“The term repertory derives, of course, from repertoire - the repertoire of constructs which the person had developed. Because constructs represent some form of judgment or evaluation, by definition they are scalar: that is, the concept good can only exist in contrast to the concept bad, the concept gentle can only exist as a contrast to the concept harsh. Any evaluation we make - when we describe a car as sporty, or a politician as right-wing, or a sore toe as painful - could reasonably be answered with the question 'Compared with what?' The process of taking three elements and asking for two of them to be paired in contrast with the third is the most efficient way in which the two poles of the construct can be elicited.”. (Enquire Within, Kelly's Theory Summarised), retrieved 12:18, 26 January 2009 (UTC).

“The repertory grid technique is used in many fields for eliciting and analysing knowledge and for self-help and counselling purposes.” (Repertory Grid Technique, retrieved 12:18, 26 January 2009 (UTC).)

Overview

Most repertory grid analyses use the following principle:

  • The designer has to select a series of elements that are representative of a topic. E.g. to analyze perception of teaching styles, the elements would be teachers. To analyze learning materials, the elements could be learning objects. To analyze perception of laptop functionalities, the elements are various laptop models.
  • The next step is knowledge elicitation of personal constructs. To understand how an individual perceives (understands/compares) these elements, scalar constructs about these elements then have to be elicitated. E.g. using the so-called triadic method, interviewed people will have to compare learning object A with B and C and then state in what regards they are being different. E.g. Pick the two teachers that are most similar and tell me why. then tell me how the third one is different. The output will be contrasted attributes (e.g. motivating vs. boring or organized vs. a mess). This procedure should be repeated until no more new constructs (words) come up.
  • These constructs are then reused to rate all the elements in a matrix (rating grid), usually on a simple five or seven point scale. A construct always has two poles, i.e. attribute pairs with two opposites.

Elicitation methods can vary. The basic procedures are either monadic, dyadic or triadic.

  • In the 'monadic procedure, participants must describe an element with a single word or a short phrase. The the opposite of this term is asked.
  • In the dyadic procedure, the participant is asked to look at pairs of elements and tell if they are similar or dissimilar in some way. If they are judged dissimilar, he has to explain how, again with a single word or a short phrase and again also tell the opposite of this term. If they are judged similar, then he is asked to select a third and dissimilar element and then again explain similarities and dissimilarities with simple phrases.
  • The triadic procedure has been defined above, i.e. participants are given three elements, must identify two similar and a different one and then explain. The elements in each triad are usually randomly selected and then replaced for the next iteration.

The knowledge elicitation procedure can be stopped when the participant stops coming up with new constructs.

Phrases that emerge for similarities are called the similarity pole (also called emergent pole. The opposing pole is called constrast pole or implicit pole. Numerical scale then should be consistent, e.g. the emergent poles always must have either a high or a low score. Certain software can require a direction.

Ranking/rating of elements in a matrix also can be done with various procedures. Examples:

  • Rating: Participants must judge each element on a Likert-type scale, usually with five or seven points. E.g. Please rate yourself on the following scale or Please rate the comfort of this car model.
  • Ranking: Participants can be asked to rank each element with respect to a given construct. E.g. rank 10 learning management systems in terms of "easy to use - difficult to use". A system like Dokeos would rank higher than a system like WebCT.
  • Binary ranking: Yes/no with respect to the emergent (positive) pole

Below we summarized 2-3 other overviews we initially found.

Feixas and Alvarez

According to Feixas and Alvarez, the repertory grid is applied in four basic steps: (1) The design phase is where the parameters that define the area of application are set out. (2) In the administration phase, the type of structured interview for grid elicitation and the resulting numerical matrix is defined. (3) The repertory grid data can then subjected to a variety of mathematical analyzes. (4) The structural characteristics of the construct system can then be described.

“The elements selected for the grid depend on which aspects of the interviewee's construing are to be evaluated. Elements can be elicited by either asking for role relations (e.g., your mother, employer, best friend) or by focusing on a particular area of interest. A market research study might, for example, use products representative of that market as elements (e.g., cleaning products, models of cars, etc.).”(http://www.terapiacognitiva.net/record/pag/man2.htm Design Phase])

“The type of rating method used (dichotomous, ordinal or interval) determines the type of mathematical analysis to be carried out as well as the the length and duration of the test administration. As before, the criteria for selection depend on the researcher's objectives and on the capacities of the person to be assessed.” (http://www.terapiacognitiva.net/record/pag/man2.htm Design Phase (2)])

Feixas and Alvarez then outline three methods to elicit constructs:

A) Elicitation of constructs using triads of elements. This is the original method used by Kelly. It involves the presentation of three elements followed by the question, "How are two of these elements similar, and thereby different from a third element?" and then "How is the third element different from the other two?" [...] B) Elicitation of constructs using dyads of elements. Epting, Schuman and Nickeson (1971) argue that more explicit contrast poles can be obtained using only two elements at a time. This procedure usually involves an initial question such as, "Do you see these people as more similar or different?" This prompt can then be followed by questions of similarity such as, "How are these two elements alike?" or "What characteristics do these two elements share?" Questions referring to differences such as "How are these two elements different?" are also appropriate. [...]

C) Elicitation of constructs using single elements. Also known as monadic elicitation, this way of obtaining constructs is the most similar to an informal conversation. It consists in asking subjects to describe in their own words the "personality" or way of being of each of the elements presented. The interviewer's task is limited to writing down the constructs as they appear and then asking for the opposite poles.

In knowledge engineering

The technique discussed by Nick Milton (Repertory Grid Technique) includes four main stages.

  • In stage 1, elements to analyze (e.g. concepts or observable items such as a pedagogical designs or roles) are selected for the grid. A similar number of attributes that allow to characterize each element are also defined.
  • In stage 2 each concept must be rated against each attribute.
  • In stage 3, a cluster analysis is performed on both the elements and the attributes. This will show similarities between elements or attributes.
  • In stage 4, the knowledge engineer walks the expert through the focus grid gaining feedback and prompting for knowledge concerning the groupings and correlations shown.

An example

The following example was taken from Sarah J. Stein, Campbell J. McRobbie and Ian Ginns (2000) research on Preservice Primary Teachers' Thinking about Technology and Technology Education. We only will show parts of the tables (in order to avoid copyright problems).

“Following a process developed by Shapiro (1996), a Repertory Grid reflecting the views of the interviewed group about the technology design process was developed. The interview and survey responses were coded and categorised into a set of dipolar constructs (ten) consisting of terms and phrases commonly used by students about technology and the conduct of technology investigations (Table 1), and a set of elements (nine) of the technology process consisting of typical situations or experiences in the conduct of an investigation (Table 2). The Repertory Grid developed consisted of a seven point rating scale situated between pole positions on the individual constructs, one set for each element. A sample Repertory grid chart is shown in Table 3.”

Table 1: Repertory Grid - Constructs

Label

Descriptor - One pole

Descriptor - Opposite pole

a.

Creating my own ideas

Just following directions

b.

Challenging, problematic, troublesome

Easy, simple

c.

Have some idea beforehand about the result

Have no idea what will result

d.

...

...

Table 2: Repertory Grid - Elements

Label

Descriptor

1.

Selection of a problem for investigation by the participant

2.

Identifying and exploring factors which may affect the outcome of the project

3

Decisions about materials and equipment may be needed

4.

Drawing of plans may be involved

5.

Building models and testing them may be required

Table 3: Sample Repertory Grid Chart

The following statement is a brief description of a typical experience you, as a participant, might have while conducting a design and technology project.

ELEMENT #1: Selection of a problem for investigation by the participant.

Rate this experience on the scale of 1 to 7 below for the following constructs, or terms and phrases, you may use when describing the steps in conducting a design and technology project. CIRCLE YOUR RESPONSE.

Construct Scale Construct

a.

Creating my own ideas

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

a.

Just following directions

b.

Challenging, problematic, troublesome

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

b.

Easy, simple

c.

Have some idea beforehand about the result

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

c.

Have no idea what will result

d.

Using the imagination or spontaneous ideas

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

d.

Recipe-like prescriptive work

All-in-one grids

Instead of presenting a new grid table for each element, one also could present participants a grid that includes the elements as a row. In this case, users have to insert numbers in the cells. This is difficult on paper, but a bit easier with a computer interface we believe.

However, if you have few elements, a paper version can be done easily. E.g. to analyse percpetion of different teachers, e.g. Steinkuehler and Derry's Repertory Grid tutorial provides the following example about teacher rating.

Similarity or
Emergent Pole
1		 Elements Contrast Pole
5
Prof. Apple Prof. Bean Prof. Carmel Prof. Dim Prof. Enuf Prof. Fly
approachable 1 1 5 4 5 1 intimidating
laid-back 3 3 1 1 1 1 task-master
challenging 4 2 3 1 2 5 unengaging
spontaneous
lecturer


scripted
lecturer
etc.


etc.
Two poles – the similarity or emergent pole and the contrast pole – are listed in columns at either end.
Elements (in the middle columns) are rated in terms of the extent to which they belong to either of the poles of a construct.
The ratings are placed in a row of the cells between the corresponding poles. The red dots indicate the elements used in each triad.

Analysis techniques

Individual grids can be analyzed using various statistical data reduction techniques on both rows and columns, e.g. cluster analysis, principal component analysis or methods like correspondence analysis for both.

A simple descriptive technique to look at multiple grids that use the same constructs (e.g. as in some marketing research or knowledge engineering) is to simply chart the values for each participant as graph between the poles (opposite attributes). Otherwise, with grids that differ between individuals, it gets more complicated ...

Software

Specialized software can do either or all of three things:

  1. Help to design repertory grids
  2. Help to administer repertory grids.
  3. Perform a series of analysis.

An alternative method is to do the first part "by hand", the second with a web-based survey manager tool and the last with a normal statistics package. Many statistics programs can do cluster analysis and component analysis. Correspondence analysis is less available. None of the specialized software below has been tested in depth (26 January 2009 - DKS)

List of Software

Commercial
  • Gridcore Correspondence analysis tool for grid data. Between euros 50 and 150.
  • GridLab (no link)
  • RepGrid (A free 15 elements/15 constructions) version is available)
Free
  • Idiogrid by James W. Grice. Idiographic Analysis with Repertory Grids. Free since 2008, but users that get funding are expected to pay 105 $US.
  • WinGrid (became a tool for artists).
Free online

Idiogrid

With the mostly free Idiogrid program, a generic repertory grid is built in four stages according to the version 2.4 built-in help:

  1. Introduction. An introductory screen with instructions and a general description of the successive tasks is shown to the participant. The contents of this screen can be edited and saved by the user.
  2. Element elicitation. In this stage the participant is asked to elicit the names of individuals he or she knows who fit particular role titles (for example, "a close friend" or "someone you confide in"). The user can request that this stage be skipped if the names are already known and entered into Idiogrid.
  3. Construct elicitation. The participant works through the monadic, dyadic, or triadic elicitation procedures to derive his or her bipolar, personal constructs. The user determines which elicitation procedure is used and also determines the number of constructs to be elicited.
  4. Ratings or Rankings. The participant rates or ranks all of the elements on each of the constructs. The user can set two to thirteen scale points, define a neutral point on the scale, define a "does not apply" option, and edit the instructions that accompany the scale – to name a few options that are available.

The program runs in a parent window and uses three child windows.

Idiogrid 2.4 software overview. Source: James W. Grice, Help pages of Version 2.4, reproduced without permission so far.

A large variety of statistical analysis are available: Descriptive Statistics, Bivariate Statistics, Summary Indices, Singular Value Decomposition, Principal Components Analysis, Multiple Group Components Analysis, Generalized Procrustes Analysis, Slater Analysis (Single Grid), Slater Analysis (Two Grids), Slater Analysis (Multiple Grids), Self-Identity Plot, Compare Two Grids, Coordinate Grid Analysis, Polarity Analysis, Dependency Analysis, Implicative Dilemmas, Profile Analysis.

Repertory grid analysis in specific fields

Design of artifacts

Let's shortly discuss an example. The problem described by Hassenzahl & Wessler was how to evaluate early prototypes made in parallel. “The user-based evaluation of artifacts in a parallel design situation requires an efficient but open method that produces data rich and concrete enough to guide design. (Hassenzahl & Wessler, 2000:453)”. Unstructured methods (e.g. interviews or observations) require a huge amount of work. On the opposite, structured methods like questionnaires is their "insensitivity to topics, thoughts, and feelings—in short, information— that do not fit into the predetermined structure." (idem, 442). “The most important advantages of the RGT are (a) its ability to gather design-relevant information, (b) its ability to illuminate important topics without the need to have a preconception of these, (c) its relative efficiency, and (d) the wide variety of types of analyses that can be applied to the gathered data. (Hasszenzahl & Wessler, 2000:455).”

Below, we reproduce a table from Hassenzahl & Wessler that

Links

Journals

Associations and centres

Links of links

Short introductions

Manuals

Bibliography

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