indexIntensity: Intensity index

In OpenRepGrid: Tools to analyse repertory grid data

Description

The Intensity index has been suggested by Bannister (1960) as a measure of the amount of construct linkage. Bannister suggested that the score reflects the degree of organization of the construct system under investigation (Bannister & Mair, 1968). The index resulted from his and his colleagues work on construction systems of patient suffering schizophrenic thought disorder. The concept of intensity has a theoretical connection to the notion of "tight" and "loose" construing as proposed by Kelly (1991). While tight constructs lead to unvarying prediction, loose constructs allow for varying predictions. Bannister hypothesized that schizophrenic thought disorder is liked to a process of extremely loose construing leading to a loss of predictive power of the subject's construct system. The Intensity score as a structural measure is thought to reflect this type of system disintegration (Bannister, 1960).

Usage

indexIntensity(x, rc=FALSE, output=TRUE, trim=30, digits=2)

Arguments

x	repgrid object.
rc	Whether to use Cohen's rc for the calculation of inter-element correlations. See also elementCor for further explanations.
output	Logical. Whether to print the results to the console (default TRUE).
trim	The number of characters a construct is trimmed to (default is 30). If NA no trimming occurs. Trimming simply saves space when displaying correlation of constructs or elements with long names.
digits	Numeric. Number of digits to round to (default is 2).

Details

Implementation as in the Gridcor programme and explained on the correspoding help pages: "... the sum of the squared values of the correlations of each construct with the rest of the constructs, averaged by the total number of constructs minus one. This process is repeated with each element, and the overall Intensity is calculated by averaging the intensity scores of constructs and elements." http://www.terapiacognitiva.net/record/pag/man11.htm. Currently the total is calculated as the unweighted average of all single scores (for elements and construct).

Value

Invisibly returns list object containing:

c.int	Intensity scores by construct.
e.int	Intensity scores by element.
e.int	Intensity scores by element.
c.int.mean	Average intensity score for constructs.
e.int.mean	Average intensity score for elements.
total.int	Toal intensity score.

Note

TODO: Results have not been tested against other programs' results.

Author(s)

Mark Heckmann

References

Bannister, D. (1960). Conceptual structure in thought-disordered schizophrenics. The Journal of mental science, 106, 1230-49.

Examples

## Not run: 

indexIntensity(bell2010)
indexIntensity(bell2010, trim=NA)

# using Cohen's rc for element correlations
indexIntensity(bell2010, rc=T)

# prevent output to console
res <- indexIntensity(bell2010, out=F)
res

## End(Not run)

OpenRepGrid documentation built on May 2, 2019, 4:54 p.m.