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Film theory has advanced concepts for explaining how it is possible for film viewers to understand what they are seeing. Many of these concepts strongly imply that the production of meaning of a film lies within the film itself - the viewer's role being reduced to that of passive spectator. This study tests that assumption using a repertory grid analysis of constructs elicited from Australian and Hong Kong Chinese subjects as they interpreted a segment of a commercial film. The results showed that the Australian sample construed more emotionally than did the Hong Kong Chinese, who responded more at the level of the film's characterisation. They were also more specific in their construals while the Australians were more diffuse. Further analysis suggested that differences between the two groups were the result of judgments about different attributes of the film, rather than because of different patterns of construing. It was concluded that since there are major differences in the two groups' interpretations of the same film, in the field of film/spectator studies where semiotics and psychology come together, the repertory grid analysis is a useful research tool. Comment le spectateur comprend-il le film qui se deroule devant l'ecran? Selon les postulats semiotiques, le sens du film emerge de la sequence cinematographique elle-měme, le role du spectateur etant reduit a celui de recepteur passif. La presente etude se propose d'evaluer le bien-fonde de ce postulat en etudiant la facon dont deux groupes de culture differente, l'un australien, l'autre chinois de Hong Kong, ont compris une courte sequence tiree d'un film de grande production. La technique du Repertory Grid Analysis a ete utilisee pour etablir pour chaque sujet une serie de constructs. Les resultats montrent que les constructions du groupe chinois etaient plus restreintes, se limitant a une ou deux des trois categories, tandis que ceux du groupe australien s'etendaient aux trois. Il se peut que, cette divergence s'explique par le fait que les deux groupes aient evalue certains attributs du film de maniere differente, et ne resulte pas d'une difference dans leur facon de comprendre celui-ci. Cette etude semble indiquer que comme il y a des differences majeures dans les interpretations d'un měme film par les deux groupes, le Repertory Grid Analysis constitue un outil de recherche valable dans l'etude de rapports spectateur/film ou la semiotique et la psychologie se rencontrent.

Summary A sample of 16 boys, with specific reading retardation and behavioural disorders, was compared with a sample of 16 boys without these problems, using a form of repertory grid testing. Problem boys saw less positive responses to reading from self, adult and peer-group figures; their own judgements of their behaviours were closer to the peer-groups', and further from those of adult figures, than was the case with controls; but they did not see any greater discrepancy between the judgements of adults and peer-group figures, nor between the judgements of parents and teachers, than did control boys. Lesser identification with adult values may contribute to the cause and persistence of reading and behavioural difficulties.

In order to set goals and evaluate progress in therapy with couples it is important to begin with a clear formulation of the problem. The technique described provides quantitative data on three aspects of a relationship. Firstly, the extent to which a couple are in fact using a common language. Second, the extent to which they agree, understand each other's point of view, and realize how they are understood. Thirdly, the differences between their perception of the present and their goals for themselves and one another in the future. The investigation uses personal constructs elicited from the couple and the results are analysed as a repertory grid. Summary measures provided by the grid analysis organize the large amount of data and provide a general context for understanding the relationship within which particular aspects can be identified for more detailed analysis.

Undertook an investigation of the construal of drugs and people by Ss to compare the perception of drugs with the perception of people. Kelly's repertory grid (1955) was used in the investigation. A significant finding of the operation of a shift from seeing people as less positive (more negative) and drugs as more positive (less negative) resulted as S's shifted from normal state of consciousness to a simulated altered state of consciousness. However, this shift was found to differ significantly in terms of more lability for Ss who were designated as seeing more similarity in different targets than Ss who were designated as seeing more differences in different targets. Language: en

Summary. The attitudes of 600 second-year and fifth-year grammar school pupils towards their school subjects were investigated using a repertory grid developed specifically for this purpose. Attitude dimensions of ‘interest,’ ‘difficulty,’ ‘freedom,’ and ‘social benefit’ were isolated. Rank orders of mean scores of pupils on these four scales were produced together with inter-correlations indicating the extent to which attitudes were specific to particular school subjects.

We report a pilot study involving the administration of a questionnaire to family members, based upon the three key target dimensions of the distance regulation theory of Kan tor and Lehr (1975). The questions, concerning family relationships and personal attributes of family members, were based on constructs derived from the theory, and the responses of family members were in a form consistent with repertory grid analysis procedures. The method allows the family researcher or therapist to explore the organization of the constructs for each family member, showing how each member is construed both by others and by themselves.

Two experiments are reported, employing repertory grid technique and designed to test predictions derived from Matza & Sykes' (1961) account of the relationship between delinquent and conventional values. These predictions were confirmed. In addition, following the demonstration of equivalence in the structure and content of value systems in delinquents and non-delinquents, certain differences between the groups were observed, which were eventually attributed to delinquency rather than socio-economic status. On the basis of the results, a two-component structural hypothesis of delinquent values is advanced. Implications for theories of delinquency are discussed and directions for further research suggested.

The relationship between the degree to which people see others as like themselves (assimilative projection) and the frequency with which they use positive adjectives to describe people was examined in the context of changing role perspectives. The assimilative projection scores of those persons who use a preponderance of positive over negative adjectives were found to be influenced by changes in role perspectives. By contrast, the assimilative projection scores of those persons whose use of adjectives was less ‘maldistributed’ were stable across roles. These results suggest that Boucher & Osgood's (1968) ‘Pollyanna hypothesis’ applies more precisely to persons whose views of themselves are influenced more readily by changing perspectives than to persons who maintain relatively stable conceptions of their own identities in relation to others. The results also have implications for repertory grid methodology, specifically for the practice of controlling for maldistribution. The effect of this control upon the mathematical structure of grids is examined.

The flexibility of G. A. Kelly's repertory grid as a methodological paradigm has facilitated its application to a diverse range of current measurement problems. However, the discriminant validity of several grid indices has become an important methodological issue. The results of the present study suggest that considerable clarification can be gained through the systematic comparison of grid measures which have been used to assess presumably ‘different’ variables. The evidence reported here generally indicates that the segregation of construct and figure comparisons in a structural analysis of repertory grids is unwarranted. Specifically, measures of ‘cognitive simplicity’, ‘identification’ and ‘constellatoriness’ were found to be functionally similar, an observation which is consistent with the internal logic of Kelly's ‘personal construct’ theory.

Summary. A two-stage investigation of applicants' choices of university was undertaken, using group versions of tests based on Kelly's repertory grid technique. In the course of the first stage nine major constructs were elicited from 32 subjects, and these were used as provided constructs in a second stage test which was completed by 70 subjects. Data were also collected on the personal and educational backgrounds of these subjects, and analyses carried out to indicate possible relationships between the choices they expressed on their UCCA forms, their assessment of universities (both those they had chosen and some they had not) on the constructs, and the background data. It is concluded that these analyses provide important insights into the determinants of the choices which applicants make, and indicate that repertory grids may profitably be used on a group basis to investigate choice situations of this type.

A case of marital therapy is described in which the presenting problem, one of non-consummation, is treated by the standard Masters and Johnson's technique. Using repertory grids at the start and finish of treatment the changing perceptions of both partners and the therapist were determined. In spite of an ostensibly behavioural treatment, substantial changes occurred in the couple's understanding of the nature of their problem. The changes undergone in the couple's perceptions, and their differences from the therapist's assessments of change give rise to speculations about the nature of the therapeutic interaction and suggest further lines of exploration.

Effects of colour and base on construing urban planning maps are examined in relation to measures of grid structure and content. Four sets of seven redevelopment plans, differing in colour and/or base, were shown to random samples of 50 local women. Individuals construed the plans in a typical repgrid procedure. Differentiation measures, including percent variance of grid elements and principal components, and construct-type frequencies are compared across map sets by analysis of covariance, using biographical variables as covariates. Some effects of colour on plan construing are demonstrated, though for base the evidence is equivocal. Information available in the grid-structure measures is illustrated further.

Data obtained by giving a personal questionnaire to a patient on a series of occasions during a course of treatment for a psychiatric disorder were analysed by the standard program provided by the MRC Service for analysing repertory grids. The results identify the plane where the greatest fluctuations occurred in the patient's mental state (including 72 per cent of the total variation) and they provide co-ordinates for mapping the course the fluctuations followed, which proves to be a remarkably complicated one. Further analyses enable changes after psychotherapy and occupational therapy to be compared. The complete procedure for collecting such data and submitting them to such analysis offers interesting possibilities for monitoring a patient's progress and comparing his responses to different forms of treatment. It widens the range of psychological phenomena that can be brought within the range of measurement.

The presentation of repertory grid data in the form of three-dimensional (3-D) graphs is offered as an ergonomic means of communicating complex data to the patient. Graph papers for manual plotting of 3-D graphs are reviewed. A program written in BASIC is described which enables automated plotting of such graphs on microcomputer systems with conventional printers.

Previous research indicates that there is more intersubject agreement concerning patterns of correlations between constructs than concerning how specific elements are rated on each construct. In this study, Canadian undergraduates (15 women, 15 men) rank-ordered eight photographs of strangers separately on the basis of the positive and negative poles of six constructs. The results indicated that there is more consensus concerning specific patterns of relationships between the positive poles of constructs than concerning those between their negative poles. Some implications of this finding for repertory grid assessment and research were discussed.

This study addressed the cognitive processes associated with eating restraint, a subclinical form of disordered eating marked by chronic dietary consciousness, food deprivation and binging-purging. Results of a repertory grid testing of 68 college women indicated that higher levels of restraint were related to more negative and simplistic self-schema. Findings are interpreted as suggesting the importance of considering possible cognitive – as well as behavioural and affective – components in the treatment of disordered eating. This interpretation is discussed in relation to an account of disordered eating based on Kelly's (1955) personal construct theory and treatment implications are noted.

A BASIC computer program is described for analysing individual repertory grids. The analysis results in a rearranged version of the grid, with similar constructs and similar elements grouped together. Element and construct similarities are assessed using single-link hierarchical cluster analysis. The program works with rating, ranked or dichotomous grids and copes with missing entries.