Find a good, comprehensive, short, and very readable description of all
of the common non-grid techniques (excepting the FVB technique) in the
Journal of Constructivist Psychology Volume 8, Number 1- January- March 1995.
The last article by Larry Leitner entitled "Dispositional Assessment
Techniques in Experiential Personal Construct Theory" is a reprint of a
presentation in 1987. I thought it listed all non-grid techniques but I was
wrong. He is someone whom always writes well on non-grid techniques. You
may also enjoy his articles on the description of roles and Roles. If anyone
knows of other non-grid elicitation techniques, I would appreciate hearing of
them.
Two other quick textbooks:
"Personal Construct- Counseling and Psychotherapy" by Frantz Epting-
published by Wiley in 1984. This assumes little prior knowledge of the
reader of Kelly's work. For "talking others unfamiliar with Kelly and
exciting them about Kelly's work in a limited amount of time, I generally
found this to be my best asset.
The "Personal Construct Therapy Casebook" by the Neimeyers published by
Springer Publishing in 1987 is a book that I found conitive therapists whom
were learning about Kelly found useful as an introduction to methods.
Perhaps there are others more recent. I would love to hear of others
people recommend. The classic book of course was Don Bannister's paperback
which as I write this I realize was not returned....
Dennis Hinkle first developed the laddering technique in 1965 at Ohio
University in his masters thesis. It was never published and will be found
in the stacks. It is often cited, seldom found or read except at the large
universities. It remains an important paper and is certainly for me one of
the most useful techniques.
Alvin Landfield first published the pyramid technique in 1971 according
to Epting's book in a paper entitled "Personal Construct Systems in
Pschotherapy" published by Rand McNalley.
Both techniques are used to understand and elaborate a construct and how
it is related within a person's construct system. After having elicited a
single construct for which you and the client wish to explore you may
elaborate it by understanding more about what each of the dichotomous poles
means to the person.
One begins by understanding that a single construct such as (old vs
young) can sound very simple but is actually quite complex in one's system.
Some constructs subsume or are superordinate in meaning to another.
This means that they contain as a subset another construct with many less
implications than the superordinate construct.
Obtaining this relationship, is done through laddering and pyramiding:
(Laddering) To obtain the subordinate construct, one simply asks "what"
questions. When finding out about a person or thing, one asks to consider a
person or thing and to consider what this person or thing might be like. The
resulting answer helps to give the listener and the client the first of what
is often several poles of new constructs and helps to elaborate the
superordinate construct. IE: "What might a a person who is described as old
look like. Once getting an answer, one asks for the opposite giving one the
other end of a dichotomous construct which is relevant with regard to the
construct you are both exploring. The answers often are surprisining as you
begin to realize the number of assumptions you may have made about the
client's earlier description. You can further ladder down until descriptions
become extremely concrete. These constructs are the least resistant to
change.
(Pyramiding) To obtain the subordinate construct, one simply asks "why"
questions. When finding out about a person or thing, one is asked to
consider a person or thing with regard to a particular construct and to
decide which of the two poles of the construct they wish to be associated.
Once having obtained an answer, one "pyramids"to a higher superordinate
construct by asking "why this is preferred." The resulting answer helps to
give the listener and the client the first of what is often several poles of
new constructs and helps to elaborate the subordinate construct. IE: "Why
would you prefer someone described as older?. Once getting an answer, one
asks for the opposite giving the therapist the other end of a dichotomous
construct which is relevant with regard to the construct you are both
exploring. The answers often are surprisining as you begin to realize the
number of assumptions you may have made about the client's earlier
description. You can further pyramid until descriptions become extremely
self evident to the client and incresingly difficult to express. These
constructs are the most resistant to change. They are the core constructs
upon which the construction system is built. Further laddering helps to
explain for the listener what is meant by the construct. One is often
surprised with this powerful technique how quickly you get to the top and
core of a system and it should be used with care initially as I have found
people taken aback by how quickly they reveal core beliefs. One also can
quickly see discrepancies in a construct sytem and paradoxes by coexisting
constructs which appear to oppose one another.
There is my description and bibliography. Now perhaps others will
elaborate and correct. I hope this helps.
John Fallon
Thresholds Rehabilitation Center
Chicago, Il USA
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