The Effects of Elicitation Techniques on Repertory Grid Outcomes: Difference, Opposite, and Contrast Methods

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop and test a new method of personal construct elicitation that preserves the advantages associated with the standard “difference” method and the “opposite” method, without incurring their documented disadvantages. Results of a mixed-sex sample of 84 participants supported the potential value of this new “contrast” method of elicitation. Overall, in comparison with the opposite method, the contrast method preserved the relatively high levels of differentiation associated with the traditional “difference” method of elicitation. Like the opposite method the contrast method yielded personal constructs that were more genuinely bipolar, but without incurring the greater negativity associated with the contrast poles of constructs elicited by way of the opposite method. The theoretical and operational implications of these findings are discussed within the context of the broader personal construct psychology literature that documents the substantial effects associated with even subtle modifications of repertory grid procedures.