Repertory grid technique in the study of subjective space of emotionally difficult life events: situational approach

Larisa Winogradova

Kiev (Ukraine)

Abstract
The paper is devoted to the study of subjective representations of emotionally difficult fife situa-tions. With that aim was developed repertory grid with constructs supplied by experimenter. As elements were used 24 descriptions of life situations taken from different domains of interper-sonal relationships, as constructs - 14 dichotomous statements about various aspects of situation perceptions and styles of coping. Subjects were asked to select from the list those situations that were most significant to them, and add, if necessary, their own. Later subjects filled grids decid-ing if each pole of a construct was applicable to the same situation.

In the study were discovered general cognitive characteristics that describe subjective semantic space from content perspective: subjective controllability, integration of elements of subjective experience, stability. Other cognitive characteristics - differentiation, connectedness and homo-geneity - define structural organization of the space. Two groups of subjects (normal and with deteriorated ability to adaptation) were compared and significant differences were discovered on the following characteristics: 1) subjective feeling of situation controllability; 2) desire to take responsibility in emotionally difficult life situation; 3) subjective feeling of stability in coping with difficult situation; 4) degree of similarity in evaluation of different situations; 5) degree of proximity between elements in semantic space; 6) contradictoriness in evaluation.

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