ABSTRACT
First proposed by Kelly (1955/1991) and extended by subsequent generations of personal construct theorists, repertory grid technique represents a ¯exible method for eliciting those personal dimensions of meaning that a client uses to structure some important domain of experience. By requesting that the respondent compare and contrast a relevant set of ``elements'' (e.g., family members, alternative careers, or parts of the body), grid technique prompts the person to give voice to the personal constructs that he or she uses to organize that aspect of life. Although the resulting constructs can be revealing at a clinical or impressionistic level (e.g., ®nding that a preponderance of one's constructs are concerned with themes of external compulsion versus personal resistance, or with being one up versus one down), reliable formal systems of content coding have been devised to analyze construct content into categories (e.g., moral, emotional, relational, concrete) for both clinical and research purposes (Feixas, Geldschlager, & Neimeyer, 2002). Furthermore, by rating each element on the respondent's own construct dimensions and analyzing the resulting ratings using any of a number of automated programs (Fransella et al., 2004), the clinician can obtain a quick and comprehensive visual mapping of meaning that the client uses to structure her or his experience of a relevant domain, such as the interpersonal world. Thus, rather than having the client respond to standardized questions constructed by the psychologist, grid technique in essence invites clients to construct their own questionnaire through ®rst determining the constructs, and then using them to rate or rank the relevant elements. This capacity to yield a highly personal
but systematic glimpse of the client's construction in combination with the ease of administration of grid analysis programs available at no cost through the Internet,1 help account for the technique's widespread usage in both clinical and non-clinical applications, ranging from cognitive psychology (Adams-Webber, 2001) to vocational development (G. J. Neimeyer, 1992). For our purposes, it is also worth noting that grid techniques have been used to assess aspects of all four levels of the epigenetic model, spanning bodily experiences such as the body-constructs of cancer patients (Weber, Bronner, Their, Kingreen, & Klapp, 2000), self-roles of depressed clients (R. A. Neimeyer, Klein, Gurman, & Greist, 1983), family relationships (Feixas, 1992), and broad cultural attitudes (G. J. Neimeyer & Fukuyama, 1984). Variations on the method, such as implications grids and resistance-to-change grids (Dempsey & Neimeyer, 1995; Hinkle, 1965) provide additional means of identifying core constructs that de®ne the client's key value commitments, which, paradoxically, often constrain their change in psychotherapy. This attempt to assess complex systems of meaning using rigorous cognitive assessment methods sets personal construct theory apart from other approaches to cognitive therapy that focus simply on self-statements or schemas derived from simple self-report. An easy guide to the construction and use of repertory grids in applied settings is provided by Jankowicz (2003).
