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The Measurement of Consistency in Repertory Grids

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Patrick Slater*
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London, S.E.5

Extract

A Consistency of Relationship score for comparing two grids was proposed by Bannister in 1960, revised slightly in 1962 and again, more substantially, in 1966. The theory behind it is that schizophrenic thought disorder results from repeated experiences of invalidation in construing. If a subject is repeatedly compelled to change his evaluation of an element in terms of a construct, that construct's relationship to the others composing his system may gradually become weakened—e.g. if his evaluations of an intimate acquaintance fluctuate repeatedly between loving and hating, the relationship between ‘loving’ and 'sincere’ or ‘reliable’ in his construct-system may tend to become looser. Progressive weakening and loss of stability in the system as a whole through repeated invalidation of parts of it is the mechanism which supposedly results in schizophrenic thought disorder.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1972 

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