On Becoming A Personal Scientist interactive computer elicitation of personal models of the world Mi/dred L. G. Show @ Academic Press • _ __ ~ I _ _ _ al _ _ __ ,, _......J _ "T' _ _ _ _ ... _ " •• .-1____ ,, __ .-____ =_ _ _ On Becoming A Personal Scientist interactive computer elicitation of personal models of the world Computers and People Series Edited by B. R. GAINES The series is concerned with all aspects of man-computer relationships, including interaction, interfacing, modelling and artificial intelligence. Books are interdisciplinary, communicating results derived in one area of study to workers in another. Applied, experimental, theoretical and tutorial studies are included. 1. On Becoming A Personal Scientist: interactive computer elicitation of personal models of the world, Mildred L. G. Shaw 1979 On Becoming A Personal Scientist interactive computer elicitation of personal models of the world MILDRED L. G. SHAW Middlesex Polytechnic, Trent Park, Barnet, Herts., England 1980 ACADEMIC PRESS London · New York · San Francisco A Subsidiary of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers ACADEMIC PRESS INC. (LONDON) L TD 24-28 Oval Road, London NW] U.S. Edition published by ACADEMIC PRESS INC. 111 Fifth Avenue New York, New York 10003 Copyright © 1980 by ACADEMIC PRESS INC. (LONDON) LTD All Rights Reserved No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by photostat, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publishers British Library Cataloguing ill Publication Data Shaw, M L G On becoming a personal scientist. 1. Repertory grid technique-Data processing 2. Interactive computer systems I. Title 155.2 BF698.8.R38 78-73891 ISBN 0-12-639280-3 Printed in Great Britain by Page Bros. (Norwich) Ltd. Mile Cross Lane, Norwich Foreword This book presents a highly perceptive account of new technologies for the exploration of the mind in its structuring of a world. The use of an interactive computer to implement and extend Kelly's "repertory grid" technique both makes it more accessible and practically useful, and also throws new light on the "personal" nature of personal computing. I have seen the programs described in this book in use by a number of people for the first time and have been fascinated by the intense personal reaction of those taking part. The scientist exploring the way in which he comprehends fundamental concepts in his field; the manager exploring the way in which he views the activities of his staff; the individual in a non-professional role just browsing through his personal world of friends, tasks, or problems-all ofthem become involved, excited, and engrossed in what they are doing-all of them feel strongly that they are finding out new things. What people seem to find most exciting and unusual is that they are finding out new things about themselves, and coming to understand that the way that they think matters-it actually effects the way they perceive things, make decisions, take action. Perhaps our culture brain-washes us into believing that we do not matter, or should not matter-that "reality" dominates our ways of thought and that it is our task to perceive it correctly--J.eviations are to be removed, or tolerated as defects if they cannot. Certainly, our approach to "science" strongly encourages that viewpoint-we, our thought processes, are contaminants to the "ideal observer". It is symptomatic of the new viewpoint of knowledge and reality that one will take after interacting with these programs that Mildred Shaw has used Kelly's term personal scientist in the title. It is almost a contradiction in terms-"impersonal scientist" would be far more appropriate to our conventional. stereotype. Yet philosophically our viewpoint of the scientist finds little support, despite very many attempts by some ofthe best minds over at least two millenia to give it adequate foundations. It is because the process of knowledge acquisition is so intensely personal that we, in attempting to establish "universal laws", have had to stress so much that it is not. H would be wrong of me in this preface to over-stress the philosophical aspects of KeIly's work and Shaw's developments of it. This is an immensely practical book that teaches through example and case history--it is not what "might" be done-it is not just a set of "clever" programs-it shows what has been done and how others may do it-how v vi Foreword the te~hnologies are useful and how the resultant tools may be used. Some of the programs and techniques are simple enough for any hobbiest to implement on a very small home computer-both the author and I hope this will happen because these programs do represent an aspect of truly "personal computing" that could be of great significance to the individual use of low-cost machines. None of the programs requires massive computing facilities. Where do these programs differ from conventional computer analysis of the Kelly repertory grid? I believe the most significant aspect is the use of close interaction to have the computer probe the constructs and elements and the relationships within them as the user enters his answers. It does not suggest the answers but it forces the user to think about what he is saying and what it means. It aids his comprehension of his own process of construing reality. I would go further than this and suggest that these programs have a force of their own which is independent of Kelly's theory and its presuppositions. Someone unaware of either could go on to develop this work in interesting and original ways-once a theory becomes operational it is its actualisation not its foundations that dominate. We may not understand Newtonian dynamics but, on using one hammer, we can see how to make bigger, stronger ones, and smaller, more precise ones! Apart from the hobbiest, many others will find this book relevant and useful. The manager and management scientist will find examples immediately and obviously applicable to their own work, particularly the programs for the comparison of the constructs of different groups, e.g. management and workers. The methodologist will find the programs useful in eliciting the fundamental constructs of a particular discipline. The systems analyst will find that he can use the techniques described here to bring out the structures that people, pre~computer, are using in doing their work-if he is wise he will take account of this in writing computer programs for them to use. And then of course there are the applications in clinical psychology. I have often thought that it was most unfortunate that Kelly oriented his work in this direction. Its far wider and more fundamental importance was for so long missed. This becomes very obvious when people who have met programs such as those in this book in a management decision context express their amazement that they can "also be used in psychiatry"! We are very loth to admit that a tool to aid the mentally disturbed is relevant to our (highly professional and most rational) activities. Yet what is normality?-what is deviation ?- what is rational? It may be disturbing to have these questions raised in areas that we think we "know about"-yet that is one profound, and very important, aspect of being a user of these programs. I feel it is significant that the author of this work is basically an educationalist. These programs are very much learning tools, inducing self-learning slowly but surely, and making it fun. If we interpret education in its widest sense to be the process of "facilitating the acquisition of knowledge", then these are some of the most educational programs in existence. It is also significant that the work was carried out in the Centre for the Study of Human Learning at BruneI University under the supervision of Dr Laurie Thomas. His wide-ranging practical interest in the applications of the work have strongly influenced the case studies given. Finally, let me give one of my favourite quotes from Kelly that I believe Mildred Shaw has not used. He saw the process of construing as being fundamental to epistemology-all Foreword vii events are different and it is only we who create similarities between them for purposes to which we give such terms as "learning", "decision", "action", etc. (Kelly saw a major part of his work to be the removal of such terms as explanatory primitives by giving them operational definitions.) In his prime work he says: "To construe is to hear the whisper of the recurrent themes in the events that reverberate around us" (Kelly, 1955, p. 76). That may well be no logical answer to Hume's apparently conclusive arguments that our experiences of today are no guide to those of tomorrow. As a psychological answer, however, it has a feeling of truth-certainly, how we construe events indicates how we will hear the whispers of tomorrow-understanding how others construe them may let us hear their whispers of tomorrow. In both cases we are learning something of importance and use to us, and that is the significance of this book. November, 1979 Brian Gaines Centre for Man-Computer Studies Preface When he has read and fully digested this book the reader should be able to: form a model of any topic in his own terms; discover hidden aspects of himself and his personality; find new ways of tackling and solving immediate problems; apply these techniques to improving his job satisfaction. This set of psychological tools exists in the form of computer interactions to help man or woman in becoming a personal scientist. Personal construct psychology was developed by George Kelly to explain how similar events could produce different behaviour in different people. He used the repertory grid to elicit the unique dimensions along which each individual classifies his world. In 1955 he published his major work in which he describes his theory and attempts to understand man as a personal scientist who forms theories about his world, testing these against his personal experience, reviewing and revising his theories, anticipating on the basis of them, and acting on the basis of his anticipation. The system of constructs is monitored by the computer in such a way as to provide immediate feedback to the participant on cross-references within the system as it is elicited from him at the terminal. Using the basic philosophy of personal construct theory the computer offers the facility of interactive and participative methods of analysis of this data, which extracts and displays the essence of the subjectively and personally meaningful relationships in a single grid, a pair of grids, or a group of grids. In this way each person is offered a view of himself and his relationships in a non-directive and supportive environment as he is developing his personal models of the world. These techniques have been applied in a wide variety of situations. Among those described in the book are studies on aspects of self represented by role perspectives, the personal and family relationships of two adolescents, staff appraisal in industry, and quality control in a knitwear factory. In each case these highly innovative tools are used to shed new light on potentially difficult problem areas. The reader is invited to try the methods for himself and to contact the author for further information about the implementation or use of the programs, and the availability of a grid analysis and advisory service. November, 1979 Mildred L. G. Shaw IX