Repertory Grid Procedure Research Articles

Individual perspectives and mental maps of working conditions and intention to stay of physicians in academic medicine.

Job satisfaction has a strong impact on the intention to stay which is an important aspect to counter skills shortage in academic medicine. The purpose of the three studies reported here is to find out what specific factors are relevant for the intention to stay and turnover intention of physicians in academic medicine -and what measures might have a positive impact on employee retention. In an interview study combining qualitative and quantitative methods, we investigated how the individual mental representation of working conditions influences job satisfaction and its impact on the intention to stay. In total, 178 physicians from German university hospitals, residents, and physicians, in 15 departments of anesthesiology were interviewed and surveyed. In a first study, chief physicians participated in interviews about job satisfaction in academic hospitals. Answers were segmented into statements, ordered by topics, and rated according to their valence. In a second study, assistant physicians during and after their training period talked about strengths, weaknesses, and potential improvements of working conditions. Answers were segmented, ordered, rated, and used to develop a "satisfaction scale." In a third study, physicians participated in a computer-led repertory grid procedure composing 'mental maps' of job satisfaction factors, filled in the job satisfaction scale and rated if they would recommend work and training in their clinic as well as their intention to stay. Comparing the interview results with recommendation rates and intention to stay show that high workload and poor career perspectives are linked to a negative attitude. A positive attitude towards work environment and high intention to stay is based on sufficient personnel and technical capacities, reliable duty scheduling and fair salaries. The third study using repertory grids showed that the perception of current teamwork and future developments concerning work environment were the main aspects to improve job satisfaction and the intention to stay. The results of the interview studies were used to develop an array of adaptive improvement measure. The results support prior findings that job dissatisfaction is mostly based on generally known "hygiene factors" and whereas job satisfaction is due to individual aspects.

The users' perspective on how creativity techniques help in the idea generation process—A repertory grid study

Despite the large number of available creativity techniques such as Brainstorming and Six Thinking Hats and their widespread use in idea generation workshops, it remains unclear what specific aspects creativity technique users perceive as helpful. We conducted five large‐scale product development workshops with 216 inexperienced students in groups of four to six people and personally interviewed a subset of 87 participants using the repertory grid procedure. The results reveal a framework of facilitating and impeding factors users associate with the methodological frame, the process view and anticipated idea characteristics of creativity techniques. Particularly helpful and differentiating factors cover visual, cognitive and emotional processing systems. In addition, we evaluate 11 commonly used creativity techniques and present underlying reasons for why some of them are perceived as more helpful than others by inexperienced users. The results thus provide a stepping stone to understand the users' perspective on creativity techniques, improve existing techniques and develop better versions of them.

I percorsi del processo di radicalizzazione rivelati dall’analisi dei costrutti personali dei terroristi jihadisti

To contribute to an understanding of the individual psychologies that characterise people who carry out acts of terrorism, four distinct themes are proposed that can each dominate Islamic terrorist’s conceptualisations of his/her own actions: Islamic Jihad, Political Jihad, Social and Criminal. These themes are illustrated from interviews with people convicted of Jihadi-related acts of terrorism within India. The interviews utilised Kelly’s Repertory Grid procedure, thus allowing the Personal Construct System of the interviewees to be explored in association with their accounts of their lives. These case studies provide rare insights from the terrorists themselves, indicating important similarities across individuals as well as distinct differences in the structure of their thinking that inform considerations of radicalisation and approaches to facilitating disengagement.

Reasons to Randomize: Sort-Specific Effects on Construct Content in Cross-Sectional Repertory Grid Studies

Several articles have discussed the effect of variations in the repertory grid procedure on measures derived from the data it generates. Largely unexplored, in contrast, is the effect of a more subtle variation inherent in the grid procedure itself: the specific combination of elements used in a dyad or triad during elicitation. This study investigates the differential effects of a specific element combination on the elicited constructs by means of data-driven content analysis. Three independent repertory grid samples were collected, one using nutrition styles (N = 70) and two using occupational profiles as elements (both N = 60). For the latter two studies, the sorting technique (dyad vs. triad) was varied. A pronounced specific effect of the sorts on elicited construct content was found across all three studies.

Real listening – using personal construct assessment with people with intellectual disabilities: two case studies

Accessible summary People with intellectual disabilities are still not being listened to by services. When upset, people with intellectual disabilities are often seen as mentally ill. This paper describes a procedure [repertory grid] for understanding how people with intellectual disabilities make sense of their experiences. SummaryMany people with intellectual disabilities are still not being listened to by the services providing them with care and support, and when they become upset and frustrated, they are all too readily regarded as being mentally ill. To help people with intellectual disabilities describe and make sense of their experiences and feelings in a non‐judgemental manner, and without the need for these experiences to be interpreted and explained, this paper describes the use of an adapted repertory grid procedure developed from George Kelley’s personal construct psychology. Although such an approach has been identified as being particularly suitable for working with people with intellectual disabilities in a person‐centred manner, little information has been presented and to remedy this, this paper presents an outline of PCP, its application with people with intellectual disabilities and two case reports to illustrate its use in clinical practice.

Cognitive segmentation: Modeling the structure and content of customers' thoughts

AbstractThis paper proposes a cognitive segmentation technique that models both customers' cognitive content and structure. Cognitive segmentation provides a quantitative operationalization of idiographic cognitions that can be compared and integrated across customers to move beyond the in‐depth understanding and wide generalizing trade‐off. In addition, cognitive segmentation utilizes participants' own semantics for eliciting and aggregating cognitions. This method allows researchers to understand content in light of structure, as participants' elicited cognitive contents are further interpreted as a function of the complexity of their cognitive structures. The conceptual foundations from personal construct theory as well as a description of the nine‐step implementation process whereby participants fill out a modified version of Kelly's Repertory Grid and complete Borman's trait implication procedure are provided. An application illustrates how cognitive segmentation can identify and assess the size potential of each customer target as a function of their cognitive content and structure. A discussion of the results and directions for further research are also provided. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A methodology to identify workplace features that can facilitate or impede reflective practice: a National Health Service UK study

An increasing number of academic and professional development programmes engender reflective practice. There is little doubt that participants leave such programmes equipped and keen to utilize reflective practice in their own workplace practices. There is evidence to suggest however that the workplace itself may conspire to limit the extent to which reflection is practised. Reflecting at a meta‐level upon why and how reflective practice is inhibited may be valuable in helping reflective practitioners secure more widespread reflection at work. This paper reports a methodology for an exploration of the workplace features of a National Health Service (NHS) manager’s job that determined the ‘reflective space’ in his work sphere. The study involved a provisional classification of work events where reflection was notably high or low and the subsequent use of the repertory grid procedure to elicit the personal constructs of this notion of reflective space. A principal components analysis and factor analysis of the repertory grid data indicated five major characteristics of the reflective practitioner’s workplace that can inhibit or facilitate reflective practice. These were the degrees of prescriptiveness; engagement; role‐based, demarcated and political features; threat; and task versus process orientation. A discussion of the implications of these findings and the potential of the methodology is held.

Reliability of Coordinate Grid Data

The reliability of data obtained from a modified repertory grid procedure was examined. The coordinate grid, developed by Chambers (1983), measures the logical inconsistency and integrative complexity of an individual's view of different people. 56 college students completed two forms of the coordinate grid on each of two testing occasions. Analysis indicated low reliability for measures of both logical inconsistency (r = -.04) and integrative complexity (r = .31) with respect to the people entered into the grid. The test-retest results were better (r = .51 for logical inconsistency; r = .35 for integrative complexity) but still well below acceptable reliability. Hence, generalizations beyond a particular grid may be unwarranted.

The body image structured interview: a new method for the exploration of body image in women with eating disorders

AbstractExisting measures of body image concern may be helpful for quantifying such concerns, but are arguably of only limited value in exploring how an individual perceives and experiences his or her body. The Body Image Structured Interview (BISI) is designed to provide a structured but individualized approach to exploring the issue of body image and consists of two main parts: a semi‐structured interview focused on issues concerning the ideal woman and her body and a personal construct and repertory grid procedure for exploring body image construction in different areas of the body. In this preliminary exploratory study, we aim to assess the appropriateness and validity of the BISI in a clinical sample of 16 women with eating disorders and explore similarities and differences between them and a comparison group of 11 non‐eating‐disordered women. Results from this preliminary study suggest that the BISI is suitable for use with subjects with eating disorders and may be valuable in highlighting personal issues associated with body image, including those specific to particular body parts. Preliminary results also suggest that whilst both clinical and non‐clinical subjects place a similar emphasis on the importance of slimness and physical appearance, for non‐eating‐disordered young women such construction is less all‐pervasive in how they view themselves. Such findings will need confirmation and elaboration in a larger scale study. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.

An Evaluation of Patron Perceptions of Library Space Using the Role Repertory Grid Procedure

The evaluation of library space for its effectiveness and efficiency in meeting patron needs is an important part of the process in planning library facilities. However, techniques for obtaining such information are not widely available in the library science literature. The Role Repertory Grid Procedure, a technique derived from personal construct theory in the behavioral sciences, was evaluated for its practicality and validity as a way of gathering patron perceptions about the effectiveness and efficiency of library space. The grid did provide useful information on patrons’ perceptions of library space. However, although the Role Repertory Grid Procedure was found to be fairly easy to administer, questions about its validity and reliability remain to be answered. The authors believe that further work to simplify the analysis will be necessary before the grid can be widely used in evaluating library space.

Using qualitative research to establish SME support needs

SMEs are both users of marketing research and subjects of market research. There is clear evidence that the decision processes in such firms often render the products/services designed for medium and large firms inappropriate. One of the major suppliers of services to the small firms sector is the business support infrastructure. This includes agencies associated with business start‐up/expansion and their management consultancy services concerning marketing, finance, insurance and risk management etc. This paper considers the value of using in‐depth qualitative research to establish the unique features of business support required by small firms. In addition to a review of recent studies that have adopted ethnographic, repertory grid and cognitive mapping qualitative approaches in this context, the paper presents the results from a specific study where the repertory grid procedure was used to establish the risk management practices of high technology small firms. Conclusions are drawn concerning the strengths and limitations of qualitative market research in designing SME training/development support.

Differentiation and Sociality in Terms of Elicited and Provided Constructs

Previously unacquainted undergraduates (15 men, 15 women) interacted briefly in randomly assigned pairs, and subsequently attempted to infer the self-evaluations of their partners in terms of both personal constructs elicited from the latter and a set of supplied constructs. Inferences based on elicited constructs were significantly more accurate (p < .005) than were those based on supplied ones. Also, the self-evaluations of participants with relatively less differentiated personal-construct systems, as assessed by the repertorygrid procedure, were inferred by their partners significantly more accurately (p < .01) in terms of elicited constructs than were those of participants with relatively more differentiated personal-construct systems. These findings are interpreted within the framework of personal-construct theory.

Begging to Differ? Clinicians’ and academics’ views on desirable attributes for physiotherapy students on clinical placement

ABSTRACT Transfer of physiotherapy education from a health service base to a university base has resulted in a period of dissonance and disorientation for both academic and clinical educators. This is reflected in dissatisfaction with the way students’ learning is assessed on clinical placement and its effect on the quality of students’ clinical education experience. This study used a triadic repertory grid procedure to reveal the perceptions of 20 university‐based academics and 20 clinical educators in practice placements as to the attributes of good clinical performance and bad clinical performance by undergraduate physiotherapy students. The data were subjected to factor analysis and content analysis. The results indicated that a similar broad range of assessment criteria was applied by both groups in the study, but from their individual bipolar constructs eight common dimensions were identified as being used to differentiate between students. However, there were differences in emphasis between academics and clinicians as to the relative importance of the eight dimensions. On further analysis using an unrelated t‐test, the eight dimensions were found to be consistently sensitive as discriminators of clinical performance (academics — p < 0.001; clinicians — p < 0.01). The implications of the findings are discussed with respect to the overall quality of students’ learning, the overt and covert messages being relayed to students about professional competence and the need for reliable systems of clinical assessment in an increasingly litigious health care environment.

What Do Clinical Educators Look for in Physiotherapy Students?

Attempts to achieve greater objectivity in the assessment of students on clinical placement may be complicated by differing perceptions of professional competence and the extent to which implicit criteria contribute to decision making. This study used a triadic repertory grid procedure to reveal the criteria used by 20 clinical educators to differentiate between good and bad clinical performance by undergraduate physiotherapy students. The data were subjected to factor analysis and content analysis. The results indicated that a broad range of assessment criteria was applied by the clinical educators in the study, but from their individual bioplar constructs eight common dimensions were identified as being used to differentiate between students. Of these, the most influential were least amenable to objective assessment. On further analysis using an unrelated t-test, the eight dimensions were found to be consistently sensitive as discriminators of clinical performance (p < 0.01). The implications of the findings are discussed with respect to content validation of assessment instruments, staff development and students' learning outcomes. Attempts to achieve greater objectivity in the assessment of students on clinical placement may be complicated by differing perceptions of professional competence and the extent to which implicit criteria contribute to decision making. This study used a triadic repertory grid procedure to reveal the criteria used by 20 clinical educators to differentiate between good and bad clinical performance by undergraduate physiotherapy students. The data were subjected to factor analysis and content analysis. The results indicated that a broad range of assessment criteria was applied by the clinical educators in the study, but from their individual bioplar constructs eight common dimensions were identified as being used to differentiate between students. Of these, the most influential were least amenable to objective assessment. On further analysis using an unrelated t-test, the eight dimensions were found to be consistently sensitive as discriminators of clinical performance (p < 0.01). The implications of the findings are discussed with respect to content validation of assessment instruments, staff development and students' learning outcomes.

Symptomatology and the use of affect constructs to influence value and behavior constructs.

This study examined participants' tendency to use affective constructs to influence nonaffective constructs (behavioral and valuative), as well as their ability to generate affective constructs. Using a modified repertory grid procedure, 131 participants compared each combination of affective, valuative, and behavioral constructs so as to make decisions about the relative influence of these constructs. Low-symptom participants did not differ from high-symptom participants in the frequency of affective constructs generated. However, when participants were asked to make decisions about personal change, low-symptom participants' affective constructs influenced their nonaffective constructs more frequently than did those of high-symptom participants. It is suggested that high-symptom participants do not necessarily have difficulty in identifying affective experiences but have difficulty in using affect to alter their constructions.

Development of the self-system: How children perceive their own and others' ideas about themselves

The purpose of this article is to present a model for the development of the self-system in which six concepts within and related to the self-system are distinguished as follows: Four intraindividual self-concepts involving the real and the ideal self-concepts, the perceived real concepts of others about the self, and the perceived ideal concepts or expectancies of others about the self and two environmental concepts involving the actual ideas of others about the child and the others' ideal concepts of or expectancies toward the child. The development and interrelationships among these concepts were studied with 204 children from six age groups (i.e., 6-, 8-, 10-, 12-, 14- and 16-year-olds) with respect to their fit. The intraindividual self-concepts of the children were assessed by means of a Repertory Grid procedure presented to the children. The environmental concepts were obtained by interviewing both parents. The results suggest that although adolescents believe that they do not fulfill their parents expectations, their parents are reasonably satisfied with the extent to which their children have met their ideal expectations.

Television Formats and Children's Classifications of their Viewing

Abstract Children's ability to classify television programmes by genre has been depicted as significant in the development of children as viewers and employed as a variable in researching such development. This article reports a research study, employing the repertory grid procedure with 9‐10 year olds, designed to investigate the constructs children employ in describing and differentiating television programmes. Recent approaches to children's viewing have begun to prioritise their construction of meaning in relation to broadcast television. This study indicates that 9‐10 year olds' classifications of their viewing do not conform to those assumed in many earlier studies.

Field Dependence-Independence and the Differentiation of Self and Others

Summary The intrapersonal and interpersonal correlates of field dependence-independence (FDI) were examined with respect to judgmental differentiation of self and others. Employing a modified version of the Kelly Repertory Grid procedure, 43 female subjects rated themselves and familiar stimulus persons on a number of personality dimensions. Results showed that FIs produced judgments reflecting greater self-other differentiation than FDs, but there were no significant differences for within-self, within-other, or between-other differentiation, suggesting a specific meaning for the concept of psychological differentiation in the interpersonal domain.

Definitions of alcoholism among treatment personnel: a repertory grid study.

Definitions of alcoholism were assessed among 20 treatment personnel using a repertory grid procedure which gave them the freedom to define alcoholism in any way they wished. The wide range of definitions produced, covering both physiological and psychological models, appeared to reflect the disagreement within the scientific community about the role of physiological variables in alcoholic drinking. Although some respondents produced physiologically based definitions, none referred to “illness,” “sickness,” or “disease.” Implications for research and staff training are discussed.

Colour and Base in Urban Planning Maps

Four map formats, differing in chromaticity and extent of base are compared for readability in an urban planning context. To test readability a repertory grid procedure and derived measures were used. The composition of the sampies was based on seven biographical variables by analysis of covariance. Hypotheses with respect to the effect on readab?lity of map colour, but not of amount of base, were supported.