Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Australia, 2008.

Thesis--University of Florida. / Description based on print version record. Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 132-135).

Over 200 railway suicides occur on the British Rail Network (BRN) every year. Research into the physical and psychological effects of this traumatic event on train drivers has been limited, and has focused very little on the mediating influence of personal factors. Kelly’s Personal Construct Psychology (PCP, 1955) was used in the current study to explore the relationship between train drivers’ views of themselves and others, and the psychological impact of witnessing a railway suicide. This was achieved through the use of repertory grid technique. Repertory grid measures of tightness of the overall construct system, level of elaboration of the self and others, construed distances between the self and others, conflict, extremity of ratings, and superordinacy were compared with participants’ scores on a measure of the psychological impact of the event (Impact of Event Scale Revised, IES-R, Weiss & Marmar, 1997). The fifteen participants in the study also completed a background information questionnaire. A content analysis of the constructs used in the repertory grids, and a thematic analysis of a follow up interview with two of the participants was also conducted. The findings indicated that most drivers experienced symptoms suggestive of a significant posttraumatic stress (PTS) reaction following the incident. For many this appeared to be short-lived, but for some the incident had longer lasting effects, and a third of the sample had been given an official diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Possibly due to the small sample size, many of the correlations did not achieve statistical significance. However, discrepancy between the self and ideal self, and the number of moral constructs employed by participants, were both positively associated with reported levels of psychological distress. The superordinacy of the traumatised construct, and the number of emotional constructs employed by participants, were both negatively associated with reported levels of psychological distress. These findings therefore gave some support to Sewell and Cromwell’s (1990) PCP model of trauma, and to the importance of emotional processing of traumatic events. The thematic analyses added information about the nature of the changes experienced by train drivers following these events, and the impact of contextual factors. The repertory grid technique proved useful in measuring the influence of personal meaning making on the impact of traumatic events. The findings suggest that drivers can best be supported clinically by reducing the discrepancy between their self after the event and their ideal self, increasing their ability to emotionally process their experience, and by giving consideration to issues such as anger and blame. Limitations of the research are presented, as well as suggestions for further research.

Empirical investigation of the tenets of Object Relations Theory is recent. This study of the theoretical convergence between Object Relations Theory and Personal Construct Theory brought a new direction to the empirical investigation. It was hypothesized that individuals who displayed a well developed level of object relations, as measured by Object Relations Theory, would also display a highly adaptive blend of cognitive complexity and ordination, as described by Personal Construct Theory, and vice versa. A correlational analysis of personality measures on 136 college students approached but did not attain statistical significance. Results indicated no significant theoretical convergence between Object Relations Theory and Personal Construct Theory. Further research is warranted only if greater variability in sample age, life experience, and psychopathology is assured.

[Truncated abstract] Resilience is a concept that originated from behavioural science; a branch of research aimed at explaining unexpected benign or malignant outcomes associated with human development. It is a psychological construct that encompasses both cognitive and behavioural responses to negative situations and appears to exist at both an individual and group level. As a concept, resilience receives considerable attention from researchers within developmental psychology fields, who primarily identify numerous risk and protective factors. Within sport, however, researchers have demonstrated a preference for the examination of more traditional concepts, such as coping strategies. Moreover, few investigations in either domain employ a cogent theoretical framework to guide the research. Therefore, the present research program utilises Personal Construct Psychology (PCP; Kelly, 1955) principles to direct the proposed research. PCP is a theory about theories that emphasised our underlying ambition to make sense of the world, the events people encounter and themselves. According to Kelly, PCP is guided by the fundamental postulate and 11 corollaries. The PCP research template employed by the current research program promotes the utilisation of multimethod designs (i.e., qualitative and quantitative investigations) in order to understand and facilitate the development of resilience in swimming. Three research investigations are proposed to examine resilience in swimming, and are structured according to PCP. Each investigation is outlined below. Study 1. An interview protocol based upon key elements of Kelly s (1955) psychotherapy retrospective interview protocol was employed to elicit an understanding of resilience in swimming. Fourteen interviews were scheduled with elite Australian swimmers and swimming coaches, utilising the interview schedule. ... Study 3. The aim of this study was to design, implement and evaluate a resilience intervention for youth swimmers. Utilising the data generated from the first study, a resilience enhancement program was designed and delivered to 16 developmental swimmers over a period of three months. Resilience was measured pre, during and post intervention, and three months after the intervention. Resilience was also measured on an age and ability matched control group (n = 20), at the same time points. Results revealed improvements in resilience for the experimental group following the completion of the resilience program. In summary, the present research program employed a PCP (Kelly, 1955) research template to guide the aforementioned studies of resilience. The data collected from the research investigations contributed considerable knowledge to the resilience concept, and the sport psychology field. The qualitative study was the first of its kind to examine the concept in swimming, revealing several elements and process pertaining to resilience that later formed the foundations for the resilience intervention. General conclusions propose that future research combine psychological measurement of resilience and more traditional sport psychology concepts, in addition to the development of a sport specific psychometric measure of resilience.

Secondary hypothyroidism is caused by treatment for hyperthyroidism and is a chronic condition. After adequate treatment, people can continue to experience persistent physical and depressive symptoms. There is a lack of research into the psychological factors involved in the condition, such as how people adjust to hypothyroidism. The study used Kelly’s (1955) Personal Construct Theory to explore the way in which patients construe (appraise) themselves with hypothyroidism and how this relates to coping, depression and hypothyroid symptoms. Twenty participants were recruited from an endocrinology clinic and online, through thyroid support organisations. Participants completed a semi-structured interview called a repertory grid and self-report measures of coping (Brief COPE), depression (HADS) and hypothyroid symptoms (ThySRQ). Repertory grid measures were extracted such as distances between different views of the self. The results showed that how unfavourably the self now was viewed compared to self before a thyroid disorder was positively correlated with depression, dysfunctional coping and hypothyroid symptoms. Identification with a negative view of hypothyroidism was associated with poorer mental and physical health and with dysfunctional coping. Polarized (i.e. black-and-white) construing and tight (i.e. rigid) construing were significantly and positively related to depression scores. Tightness of construing was also related to the number of hypothyroid symptoms experienced. Dysfunctional coping was positively correlated with depression and hypothyroid symptoms. Those with a history of depression experienced significantly more hypothyroid symptoms. Exploratory multiple regression analyses uncovered that how unfavourably the person viewed themselves now compared with before any thyroid problem, hypothyroid symptom frequency and dysfunctional coping accounted for 82.9% of the variance in depression. This highlights the importance of understanding how people construe the experience of hypothyroidism and their coping strategies and therefore psychological interventions may be helpful. Limitations include a small sample size and a correlational design, whereby cause and effect conclusions cannot be drawn.

This study examined teacher pedagogical content knowledge changes through a Middle School Mathematics Program professional development workshop, development of noticing use of student representations, and teacher changes in hypothetical learning trajectories due to noticed aspects of student representation corresponding to the hypothetical learning trajectory model. Using constant comparatives and repertory grid analysis, data was collected in two phases. Phase one, the teacher pre-test, occurred at the beginning of the summer of the 2003 professional development workshop. Phase two, the teacher post-test, occurred at the end of the workshop. Twenty-four teachers supplied data on pre- and post-tests during phases one and two. Eleven teachers were from Texas and 13 from Delaware. Six Texas and eight Delaware teachers worked with the algebraic expression concepts. Five Texas and five Delaware teachers worked with the equivalent fraction concepts. Four mathematics education researchers from Texas, three from Delaware, and two from the American Association for the Advancement of Science participated in facilitating the professional development. The results show that teacher pedagogical content knowledge changes with the help of a professional development partnership. The differences in knowledge can be measured with a hierarchal cluster analysis of the repertory grid by analyzing relationships between constructs and elements. Teacher hypothetical learning trajectories change depending on student representations of what they do and do not know about concepts. The study encourages teachers to use knowledge of students’ representation about a concept to determine what to teach next and how the concept should be taught. Teachers should use different types of representations including formal, imagistic, and action representations in teaching mathematical ideas. This will promote student development in all process standards including reasoning and proof, communication, problem solving, and connection. The findings suggest that teacher pedagogical content knowledge can be redefined during professional development partnerships. Furthermore, teachers’ knowledge of representation is varied and emphasis on the imagistic representation should be explored further. Finally, professional development models that facilitate how to extract what a student does and does not know based on representation, can be the basis for defining hypothetical learning trajectories.

This thesis describes a research study that examined how collaborative reflective practice with three staff members in a middle years school affected their psychological constructs of what constitutes a good school. Using an action research design, the study made use of personal construct psychology and the methodology of repertory grid technique. Repertory grid results were analyzed using methods developed from personal construct theory (cluster analysis, principal components analysis and messy change grid analysis). This permitted insight into the nature and processes of changes that occurred. These processes were examined in light of Leithwood’s work on teacher development and Fullan’s thoughts on educational change. Using these models as an analytical framework, an evaluation was made of the potential uses and value of repertory grid technique in middle schools. The technique aligns well with the Leithwood and Fullan models and has notable benefits and advantages to offer the field of educational leadership.

This thesis describes a research study that examined how collaborative reflective practice with three staff members in a middle years school affected their psychological constructs of what constitutes a good school. Using an action research design, the study made use of personal construct psychology and the methodology of repertory grid technique. Repertory grid results were analyzed using methods developed from personal construct theory (cluster analysis, principal components analysis and messy change grid analysis). This permitted insight into the nature and processes of changes that occurred. These processes were examined in light of Leithwood’s work on teacher development and Fullan’s thoughts on educational change. Using these models as an analytical framework, an evaluation was made of the potential uses and value of repertory grid technique in middle schools. The technique aligns well with the Leithwood and Fullan models and has notable benefits and advantages to offer the field of educational leadership.

The thesis is based on the notion that a person's behaviour is largely a result of the interplay between his beliefs and values. A model is described which ccmbines Personal Construct Theo~J (as a means of describing beliefs) and Multi-Attributed Utility Theory (as a means of describing values) in order to predict purposive choice behaviour. The model is applied to choice of records, books, clothes and role behaviours and is found to predict choices with a high degree of accuracy. Prediction using personal constructs is shown to be superior to that using supplied dimensions. Furthermore, construct weights elicited by a lottery tech~que are shown generally to be purposespecific and to give better predictions of behaviour than UIUt weights. The model is then used to investigate the sentencing of offenders by magistrates and is again found to predict behaviour with a high degree of accuracy. The data also indicate the problems inherent in using verbal measures of construct similarity since the same words may be used differently and different words may be used similarly. Claims for the model's broad applicability are illustrated by using the model to reformulate the concepts of 'attention' and 'role' and a means of operationally defining role conflict is suggested.