OpenRepGrid & Friends Tools for the Analysis of Repertory Grid Data

ICPCP Conference, Sydney, July 21, 2013

Mark Heckmann University of Bremen, Germany

PART I •  Motivation for OpenRepGrid •  Why R? •  The OpenRepGrid project

PART II •  Getting started with R •  Getting started with OpenRepGrid •  Creating analysis reports •  How to add new features

PART III •  Graphical User Interfaces for OpenRepGrid •  Preview: A grid administration software

Part I

General requirements for (grid) software

•  Durability

•  Availability

•  Functionality

•  Compatibility

•  Documentation

•  Openness

•  Extensibility

•  Usability

Current    situa+on  

 

No grid software offers all methods

of analysis that have been

devised in the literature

Source: http://callcentersindia.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/selection-process.png

1

THE STRUCTURAL QUADRANTS METHOD:A NEW APPROACH TO THE ASSESSMENT OF CONSTRUCT

SYSTEM COMPLEXITY VIA THE REPERTORY GRID

JOSEP GALLIFA and LUIS BOTELLA

Department of Psychology, Ramon Llull University, Barcelona, Spain

This article presents a new mathematical method (the Structural Quadrants Method)for the assessment of construct system complexity via the repertory grid. The Struc-tural Quadrants Method (SQM) is presented step by step, and its sensitivity togrid structure is illustrated by applying it to five case studies. A validational studydemonstrating the discriminative power of the SQM and comparing it to tradi-tional measures is included. Results indicate that the SQM discriminates between agroup of 11 experts and one of 11 novices in terms of grid complexity as expected(i.e., detecting high degrees of differentiation and integration in the experts’ gridsand low degrees of differentiation and integration in the novices’ grids). The dis-criminative power of the SQM is unparalleled by the traditional measures of gridstructure compared in this article. The article ends with a section on the distinctiveadvantages of the SQM and some suggest ions for future research.

The term cognitive complexity was initially introduced by Bieri (1955),and defined as “the capacity to construe social behavior in a multidi-mensional way” (Bieri et al., 1966, p. 185). As discussed by G. J. Neimeyer(1992, p. 94), such a definition of construct system complexity empha-sizes differentiation, understood as “the relative number of differentdimensions of judgment used by a person.” In line with this notion ofcomplexity as differentiation, traditional measures of construct systemcomplexity have relied on an attempt to assess the degree of overlapor redundancy in the use of constructs, with higher degrees of overlapreflecting lower levels of differentiation and complexity (G. J. Neimeyer,1992).

A theoretically coherent notion of construct system complexity can-not solely rely on the system’s level of differentiation but must also

Received 7 May 1997; accepted 24 July 1998.The authors would like to thank Robert A. Neimeyer and two anonymous review-

ers for their insightful comments on earlier drafts.Address correspondence to Luis Botella, Department of Psychology, Ramon Llull

University, Cister 24–34, 08022-Barce lona, Spain. E-mail: lluisbg@blanquerna.url.es

Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 13:1–26, 2000Copyright ã 2000 Taylor & Francis1072-0537/00 $12.00 + .00

Not extensible by user

No framework to support experimental types of analysis

The output of most programs does not easily

lend itself to subsequent

computation

Source: http://www.jacksofscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/computing_occurs.jpg

Development by a single person or a

small group of researchers, each with

their own special competencies in a

certain field of research and often

limited time resources. (Fromm, 2009)

Source: http://www.kirchen-und-kapellen.de/images/content/Community.jpg

No joint community effort

to improve a program:

Development and documentation is delegated to the

software providers

Source:  h1p://evolu+on.berkeley.edu/evosite/misconceps/images/misconcep+ons_beavers2.gif  

Discontinued development

once its initiators have moved on to

other fields or retired

“the programs that are currently available have a short shelf-life in that they are unlikely to be updated once their creators have retired”

(Fransella, Bannister & Bell, 2004, p. 38)

What to do? •  Software design that enables users

to contribute to its development •  Set up infra- and communication

structures to foster participation in a joint development

Go  Open  Source!  

Why ?

•  Because I am familiar with it J

•  is the lingua franca in the field of

statistics

•  runs on all major platforms

•  is managable by non-programmers

•  becomes increasingly popular within

the social sciences

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•  provides an underlying framework for

further computations

•  provides a wealth of functionality

•  extensible (GUI, 3D etc.)

Suitable for Open Source grid software development

OpenRepGrid project

OpenRepGrid R package OpenRepGrid Wiki

User entry points

•  Give feedback: bug reports, suggestions ...

•  Supply method descriptions to trigger development

•  Provide R code snippets

•  Generate tutorials and case studies

•  Join the R package development team

Development process

Adding graphical user interface(s)

Create wide range of analysis methods

Documentation in Wiki

2011 2013

Phase 2 Phase 1

Researchers with basic R skills Anyone

Part II

Getting Started with R

Setup

+  www.r-project.org www.rstudio.org

30  

31  

Using R as a calculator

4 + 4 ! ! ! ! !# Addition!4 - 1 ! ! ! !# Subtraction!!2 + 2 * 3! ! !# standard calculating rules !(2-1) * (2+2) ! !# standard use of brackets!

32  

Variable assignments

a <- 2 + 2 ! ! !# assignment operator!a ! ! ! ! !# variable value is 4!!a <- 100 ! ! # change variable value!a * 10 ! ! ! ! !# use the variable !

33  

Objects

Objects (Variables) names may contain numbers, letters, underscores or dots. The name must not contain a function (+, - *, / etc.).

object1 <- 10!

object.1 <- “hallo”!

34  

Functions

Function (lat. performance, execution) Every function uses round brackets    rnorm(4)!!!!!

36  

“Nurse, get on the internet, go to SURGERY.COM, scroll down and click on the ,‘Are you totally

lost?’ icon.“

37  

Objects

Opening help files

?rnorm!

!Commands inside the function’s round brackets are called arguments. A function may take zero to many arguments.

rnorm(4, mean=10)!

!

Generate 10 random numbers with mean 100

and a standard deviation of 15.

You have 2 minutes

Your turn

Getting started with

OpenRepGrid

www.openrepgrid.org

Web Repository with 3.500+ packages

OpenRepGrid

Load package when starting R

44  

OpenRepGrid is shipped with several sample grid data sets from the literature. Type in the name of a data set and press enter

boeker!

!

!

8 - martin ! george - 7 | 9 - elizabeth ! karl - 6 | | | 10 - therapist ! kurt - 5 | | | | | 11 - irene ! father - 4 | | | | | | | 12 - childhood self ! mother - 3 | | | | | | | | | 13 - self before illness ! ideal self - 2 | | | | | | | | | | | 14 - self with delusion! self - 1 | | | | | | | | | | | | | 15 - self as dreamer ! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ! balanced (1) 1 4 2 2 3 5 2 5 4 2 6 2 2 3 3 (1) get along wit! isolated (2) 3 6 3 5 5 4 5 4 5 4 4 4 2 2 3 (2) sociable !ely integrated (3) 2 2 2 3 5 3 2 3 2 3 3 4 4 5 3 (3) excluded ! discursive (4) 4 1 3 1 2 4 2 3 3 2 3 3 3 5 4 (4) passive ! open minded (5) 2 1 2 1 2 4 4 2 4 2 6 3 2 2 3 (5) indifferent ! dreamy (6) 4 5 3 5 4 5 4 5 4 4 6 3 3 3 2 (6) dispassionate!cally oriented (7) 2 1 3 2 3 3 3 2 2 3 2 3 3 3 3 (7) depressed ! playful (8) 4 5 4 3 4 3 2 3 4 4 5 3 2 4 3 (8) serious !ocially minded (9) 2 1 3 2 4 5 4 1 3 2 6 3 3 3 3 (9) selfish ! quarrelsome (10) 5 5 5 5 5 2 5 2 4 4 1 6 5 5 5 (10) peaceful ! artistic (11) 5 1 2 4 3 5 3 2 4 3 3 4 4 4 4 (11) technical ! scientific (12) 2 1 5 3 4 4 5 3 4 1 6 4 2 3 3 (12) emotional ! introvert (13) 4 5 4 6 5 3 5 3 5 2 5 2 2 2 3 (13) extrovert ! wanderlust (14) 1 1 4 2 4 5 2 5 5 3 6 1 1 2 1 (14) home oriente!

For easier handling we save the boeker dataset in the object x!

x <- boeker!

!

!

!

Importing a dataset from a .txt file!!!x <- importTxt() # interactive dialog!!# sample file path on windows!x <- importTxt(“C:mark/grid_1.txt") !!# sample file path on MacOs / Unix!x <- importTxt(“~/mark/grid_1.txt") !

!

!

!

!!

Subsetting a grid using the squared brackets operator, e.g. extracting rows 1 to 5

x[1:5, ]!

!

!

!

8 - martin ! george - 7 | 9 - elizabeth ! karl - 6 | | | 10 - therapist ! kurt - 5 | | | | | 11 - irene ! father - 4 | | | | | | | 12 - childhood self ! mother - 3 | | | | | | | | | 13 - self before illness ! ideal self - 2 | | | | | | | | | | | 14 - self with delusion! self - 1 | | | | | | | | | | | | | 15 - self as dreamer ! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ! balanced (1) 1 4 2 2 3 5 2 5 4 2 6 2 2 3 3 (1) get along wit! isolated (2) 3 6 3 5 5 4 5 4 5 4 4 4 2 2 3 (2) sociable !ely integrated (3) 2 2 2 3 5 3 2 3 2 3 3 4 4 5 3 (3) excluded ! discursive (4) 4 1 3 1 2 4 2 3 3 2 3 3 3 5 4 (4) passive ! open minded (5) 2 1 2 1 2 4 4 2 4 2 6 3 2 2 3 (5) indifferent !

Creating a bertin plot

bertin(x)!

!!

Opening the documentation

?bertin!

!!

Changing the look by modifying the arguments

bertin(x, colors=c("white","darkblue"))!

!

Creating biplots of elements and constructs

biplot2d(x)!

!

Creating composite plots of elements and constructs

biplot3d(x)!

!

Detect implicative dilemmas using correlations

indexDilemma(x, self=1, ideal=2)!

###################!Implicative Dilemma!###################!!Dilemmatic Self-Ideal Construct Pairs!#####################################!!By A Priori Criteria:!! RexSI Rtot Constructs!1 0.52 0.63 1 balanced - get along * <==> 5 open minde - indifferen!2 0.60 0.64 1 balanced - get along * <==> 6 dreamy - dispassion!3 -0.35 -0.54 1 balanced - get along * <==> 7 practicall - depressed!4  0.35 0.42 1 balanced - get along * <==> 8 playful – serious!

RexSI = Correlations excluding Self & ideal!Rtot = Correlations including Self & ideal!Rtot was used as criterion!* = discrepant construct pair!

Generate a cluster dendrogram for the

boeker grid. You have 2 minutes

Your turn

Writing things down

out now!

Press  to  generate    document  

Insert  tags  

Using R markdown

•  Markdown is a lightweight language to structure a document

•  R code chunks can be directly included •  Include R code between the following

tags

```{r}

# Some R Code here

```

Generate a report with inter-construct correlations for the boeker dataset.

You have 2 minutes

Your turn

Adding new features

Create a function that counts the number of

midpoint ratings

Task

Writing new functions

f <- function(){!!# some R commands!

}!f()!!!f <- function(x){!!x!

}!f(12)!! !

!midpoints <- function(x) { !!scores <- getRatingLayer(x) !!midpoint <- getScaleMidpoint(x) !!sum(scores == midpoint)!

}!!midpoints(bell2010)!

The Midpoint Function

Part III

Graphical User Interfaces

OpenRepGrid  -­‐  the  workhorse  

Web  based     Local  

Building GUIs on top of OpenRepGrid

PC / Server

GUI type

OnAir  Other  special  purpose  implementa+ons  ?  

www.onair.openrepgrid.org

gridhub: computer-guided grid adminstration

Preview  

gridhub developers

Matthias Kaulartz (programming) Mark Heckmann (concept)

Want to participate?

You have suggestions or ideas?

Just get in touch!

Thanks!

Literature

•  Fransella, F., Bell, R. C., & Bannister, D. (2004). A manual for repertory grid technique (2nd ed.). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.

•  Fromm, M. (2009). Grid Software. European Personal Construct Association. Retrieved July 25, 2010, from http://www.epca-net.org/repgrid/software.

•  Heckmann, M. (2011). OpenRepGrid - An R package for the analysis of repertory grids (Unpublished diploma thesis). University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany.

•  Muenchen, R. A. (2011). The Popularity of Data Analysis Software. Retrieved March 28, 2011, from http://sites.google.com/site/r4statistics/popularity.

•  R Development Core Team. (2011). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. ISBN 3-900051-07-0, URL http://www.R-project.org/.