Transforming identities: a repertory grid case study of the transition to motherhood.
This study follows one woman through her pregnancy and the transition to motherhood, exploring the relationship between this life-event and aspects of her personal identity. Repertory grids were obtained from her four times during the transition, and at the end of the study she completed retrospective grids for how she thought she was during the pregnancy. Changes in the grids were analysed and the contemporaneous and retrospective grids compared. The graphical analysis was discussed with the participant. The study finds a growing integration in the woman's personal construct system (both intrapersonal and interpersonal) during the pregnancy. Discrepancies in the woman's retrospective perception were also found, and are discussed in terms of selective self-perception or construction. The woman's reaction to the analysis is included in the paper. The study illustrates a methodology for exploring reflexivity, which is of growing concern in a number of areas of social science.
Smith
J A
JA
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, UK.
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008425:Maternal Behavior; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D010556:Personality Tests; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000523:psychology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies