title: The application of Kelly's Repotory Grid Technique to investigate disabled people's perceptions of their professional workers.
abstract: Blaxter, (1976), has shown that there is an amount of confusion and misunderstanding of British medical and social services among disabled people. This study attempts to explore the perceptions of just two young disabled women to ascertain their individual views of what is seemingly a very complex array of services. No attempt has been made to generalise the findings, although future work, using group data, may be completed at a later date. The main objective of the study was to find out if Kelly's Repertory Grid Technique could be applied to this particular problem. The technique was used alongside indepth interviews. In general, the grid analysis did concur with the content analysis of the indepth interviews, particularly if the subject used her own elicited constructs. Both informal and formal agents of help were investigated, but due to lack of space, only the analyses of the three formal agents are permitted. In both case studies, the subjects' perceptions of each formal agent varied according to her attitude towards that agent and the experiences she had in dealing with him. This was verified by comparing the relationship between constructs and elements (agents) with the discriptions given during the indepth interviews. By using McQuitty's, (1960), elementary linkage analysis, two main clusters of agents were obtained. Inclusion within either cluster was largely dependant upon whether the subject considered the agent to be an authoritarian, or peer-like figure. A number of possible applications of the reportory grid technique, for future research, are also discussed.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D003125:Colostomy / Q000523:psychology; D000013:Congenital Abnormalities / Q000523:psychology; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D012929:Psychological Distance; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012947:Social Work