Repertory grids

Written & mounted by Chris Evans, if you want to be kept updated by Email of changes in this and other psychotherapy resources at this site then Email me!
Mounted 9.i.96, last updated 11.ii.04


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I have mounted a WWW form that allows you to input the data, element and construct labels and top and bottom ratings, in order to get an INGRID style analysis done for you. The program is relative untested as yet though it builds on SAS/IML, S+ and now R scripts I have been using for some time. Use entirely at your own risk and please Email me problems and suggestions/requests.

You can try the form and program

The program does log your data and host address (to help me deal with it if it is abused) so don't use free text that could identify someone who wouldn't want to be identified. Currently it runs on old hardware on a broadband connection so you'll have to wait a minute or two for the results to be returned to you.

You can see some fictional data analysed if you don't want to overstress the server or waste your own time typing in data but do want to see what you get out.

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Repertory grids were an invention of the late George Kelly, see introduction to grids {3kb}. They were a part of his much more general Personal Construct Theory. With Malcolm Cross I used to co-administer the mailbase list devoted to that now administered by Brian Gaines and (I think) Maureen Pope For information on that list (including the list archive and how to join): Another excellent resource for people in Europe is the European Personal Construct Association (E.P.C.A.).

I have mounted my own version of the late Patrick Slater's INGRID program for the analysis of single grids by construct correlation, inter-element distance and principal component methods. My version, ingrid2.sas {19kb} uses SAS/IML to do the maths. The program is copyleft: I claim the copyright but you are welcome to copy and distribute it provided you neither change it nor make a profit. The data currently in the program (but easily replaced with your own) are from the grid in the intro. {3kb} noted above and the full listing (edited with the construct names shortened to make things easier to read on screen) is mounted: ingrid2.lis {16kb} together with the ingrid2.gif {3kb} file from the SAS/GRAPH plot of the first two principal components. (This is a very poor GIF, the only way I've found to get from SAS to GIF quickly is to capture the screenshot using Hi-Jaak Pro which, as I've also found when getting from PowerPoint 4.0 to GIF) is a very bad way to do things. If you have SAS/IML and SAS/GRAPH you should get much better plots to screen and hardcopy much more easily.).

I have mounted some free programs:

There are other programs for grid analysis with their own sites on the WWW

I also have some information on packages that are available commercially.

I'll be mounting more information and probably more software and resources in due course. You might like to look at my review {7kb} of a book on multidimensional scaling (MDS) which is another excellent way of analysing grid data. The book comes with simple but powerful software for MDS which could be applied to grid data and I've written to the authors to find out if they'd be willing for their programs to be placed here as "copyleft". Alternatively, you can use the MDS options in the major mainstream statistics packages. For example, the ALSCAL parts of SPSS and SAS which I have used, and comparable facilities which I know exist in SYSTAT and I think in most of the other major packages now.