New directions in the analysis and interactive elicitation of personal construct systems

Abstract

The computer elicitation and analysis of personal construct systems has become a technique of great interest and wide application in recent years. This paper takes the current state of the art as a starting point and explores further developments that are natural extensions of it. The overall objective of the work described is to develop man-computer symbiotic systems in which the computer is a truly dialectical partner to the person in forming theories and making decisions. A logical model of constructs as predicates applying to elements is used to develop a logical analysis of construct structures and this is contrasted with various distance-based clustering techniques. A grid analysis program called ENTAIL is described based on these techniques which derives a network of entailments from a grid. This is compared and contrasted with various programs for repertory grid analysis such as INGRID, FOCUS and Q-Analysis. Entailment is discussed in relation to Kelly's superordination hierarchy over constructs and preference relations over elements. The entailment analysis is extended to rating-scale data using a fuzzy semantic model. The significance of Kelly's notion of the opposite to a construct as opposed to its negation is discussed and related to other epistemological models and the role of relevance. Finally, the interactive construct elicitation program PEGASUS is considered in terms of the psychological and philosophical importance of the dialectical processes of grid elicitation and analysis, and recommendations are made about its generalization and extension based on the logical foundations described. Links are established between the work on repertory grids and that on relational data bases and expert systems.