Introduction to the Repertory Grid Interview

Although the so-called 'cognitive move' in psychology and the development of constructivist approaches of all kinds have changed psychology considerably over the last decades, Personal Construct Psychology (PCP) and the repertory grid technique have preserved the quality of a challenge.

The grid method today is used in many different fields. While applications in the original field of counselling are still important, there are a wide range of other applications in medical diagnosis, personnel placement and development, market research, town planning, development of knowledge bases and expert systems, etc. However, although the grid method has been accepted and found useful both in PCP and beyond, it still remains a method for 'insiders' because in the past it has been difficult to obtain a thorough introduction and supervised training.

This book is intended to fill the gap. It begins with a short introduction to the theoretical background and moves on to discuss typical steps of the grid method before it describes selected variants. While the existing literature is mainly concerned with the analysis of grid data, the present book stresses the processes leading up to the collection of data. The initial focus is on how meaningful data can be produced. In the description and discussion of the process of data collection, special attention is given to the typical problems beginners experience experimenting with the grid interview.

Pressestimmen

So ist FROMMs Lehrbuch [...] die einzig vorliegende ausführliche Einführung in deutscher Sprache. [...] Gliederung und Text wurden nahezu unverändert beibehalten, einige neuere Quellen wurden ergänzt. [...] Der Band ist ein gelungenes Beispiel dafür, dass detaillierte operative Hinweise in methodischen Leitfäden gelingen, ohne dabei die Offenheit des Vorgehens zu gefährden. [...] Der Band stellt eine seriöse, gut verständliche und ausführliche Einführung in die Technik des Repertory-Grid-Interviews dar.
Michael Dick in: Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung [On-line Journal], 7(2), Art. 6. vom 02.02.2006.