RESEARCH METHOD COHEN ok

442 PERSONAL CONSTRUCTS
of calculating relationships between constructs
in Box 20.5. For the statistically minded
researcher, a variety of programs exist for
Grid Analysis (http://www.brint.com/PCT.htm).
A fuller discussion of metric factor analysis is
given in Fransella and Bannister (1977: 73–81)
and Pope and Keen (1981: 77–91).
Non-metric methods of grid analysis make no
assumptions about the linearity of relationships
between the variables and the factors. Moreover,
where the researcher is primarily interested in the
relationships between elements, multidimensional
scaling may prove a more useful approach to the
data than principal components analysis.
The choice of one method rather than
another must ultimately rest both upon what is
statistically correct and what is psychologically
desirable. The danger in the use of advanced
computer programs, as Fransella and Bannister
(1977) point out, is being caught up in the
numbers game. Their plea is that grid users
should have at least an intuitive grasp of the
processes being so competently executed by their
computers.
Strengths of repertory grid technique
It is in the application of interpretive perspectives
in social research, where the investigator seeks
to understand the meaning of events to those
participating, that repertory grid technique offers
exciting possibilities. It is particularly able to
provide the researcher with an abundance and
arichnessofinterpretablematerial.Repertorygrid
is, of course, especially suitable for the exploration
of relationships between an individual’s personal
constructs as the studies of Foster (1992) and
Neimeyer (1992), for example, show. Foster
(1992) employed a Grids Review and Organizing
Workbook (GROW), a structured exercise based
on personal construct theory, to help a 16-yearold
boy articulate constructs relevant to his career
goals. Neimeyer’s (1992) career counselling used
aVocationalReptestwitha19-year-oldfemale
student who compared and contrasted various
vocational elements (occupations), laddering
techniques being employed to determine construct
hierarchies. Repertory grid is equally adaptable to
the problem of identifying changes in individuals
that occur as a result of some educational
experience. By way of example, Burke et al.
(1992) 1 identified changes in the constructs of
acohortoftechnicalteachertraineesduringthe
course of their two-year studies leading to qualified
status.
In modified formats (the ‘dyad’ and the ‘double
dyad’) repertory grid has employed relationships
between people as elements, rather than people
themselves, and demonstrated the increased
sensitivity of this type of grid in identifying
problems of adjustment in such diverse fields
as family counselling (Alexander and Neimeyer
1989) and sports psychology (Feixas et al.1989).
Finally, repertory grid can be used in studying
the changing nature of construing and the
patterning of relationships between constructs
in groups of children from relatively young ages
as the work of Salmon (1969), Applebee (1976)
and Epting (1988) have shown.
Difficulties in the use of repertory grid
technique
Fransella and Bannister (1977) point to a
number of difficulties in the development and
use of grid technique, the most important of
which is, perhaps, the widening gulf between
technical advances in grid forms and analyses
and the theoretical basis from which these
are derived. There is, it seems, a rapidly
expanding grid industry (see, for example
http://www.brint.com/PCT.htm).
Aseconddifficultyrelatestothequestionof
bipolarity in those forms of the grid in which
customarily only one pole of the construct is used.
Researchers may make unwarranted inferences
about constructs’ polar opposites. Yorke’s (1978)
illustration of the possibility of the researcher
obtaining ‘bent’ constructs suggests the usefulness
of the opposite method (Epting et al. 1971) in
ensuring the bipolarity of elicited constructs.
Athirdcautionisurgedwithrespecttothe
elicitation and laddering of constructs. Laddering,
note Fransella and Bannister (1977), is an art, not