What Is the Repertory Grid?

The repertory grid is a measurement tool, a chart, used in Personal Construct Theory (PCT). The PCT is a psychological assessment that looks for connected meaning in a person's relationships and, more recently, also in groups and businesses. The repertory grid makes numeric correlations.

Constructs

• A construct is how a person perceives something. For example, a person believes that working is hard and not fun. Using the repertory grid technique, it may be revealed that his father hated his job. The grid may show that the patient loved his father: his father hated his job and so the patient hates his. The patient understands that he learned the behavior that work is hard.

Repertory

• The word "repertory" refers to the range of belief systems a person has created. The constructs are a type of evaluation or judgment seen in terms of comparisons. For example, if a woman considers her husband a bad man, she may be comparing him to her brother, her father, women or children.

Function

• George Kelly, the creator of the system, used interview techniques to understand a patient's constructs and the elements of his particular situation. For example, a patient is unhappy and his life contains many unhappy situations (elements) and constructs. Through the patient's own self-description, reasons for the unhappiness are uncovered and ways to increase happiness are discovered.

Using the Grid

• The therapist and patient create the grid by first listing an issue, such as "Unhappy." A numeric value is given to related situations. For example, the father is listed in the "Unhappy" grid and the patient gives his father a five, as being very unhappy, and his mother a one. The patient gives himself a four for unhappiness. Through many comparisons the patient begins to see how he learned to be unhappy.