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The Recognition of Psychopathology on the Repertory Grid

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Anthony Ryle  and
Dana Breen
Anthony Ryle
Affiliation:
University of Sussex Health Service, Falmer, Brighton
Dana Breen
Affiliation:
University of Sussex Health Service, Falmer, Brighton
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Extract

Repertory grid testing (Kelly, 1955; Slater, 1965) of psychiatric patients, using people of significance in the patient's life as elements and eliciting the patient's own constructs has been employed in the clinical setting to demonstrate aspects of psychopathology (Ryle, 1967; Ryle, 1969), to measure change with treatment (Ryle and Lunghi, 1969; Rowe, 1971a) and to assess how far a therapist could predict a patient's responses (Rowe, 1971b). However, no systematic examination has been reported so far into the characteristic features of the construct systems of neurotic as opposed to normal subjects, although some apparent equivalences between grid features and psychological or psychopathological formulations such as identification or splitting have been described. While repertory grid testing remains an essentially ideographic exercise, it is important to identify features characteristic of neurosis if the method is to have more than a descriptive function in the investigation of patients. As a contribution to this we have tested with an identical method a series of students consulting with neurotic problems and a control sample of new students tested on arrival at the University.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 119 , Issue 550 , September 1971 , pp. 319 - 321
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1971 

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References

Kelly, G. A. (1955). The psychology of personal constructs. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Rowe, D. (1971a). ‘Changes in the construct system with the cessation of transvestite activities following aversion therapy.’ Unpublished.Google Scholar
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Slater, P. (1965). ‘The use of the repertory grid technique in the individual case.’ Brit. J. Psychiat., 111, 965–75.Google Scholar
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