Making the Most of your Matrices: Hermeneutics, Statistics, and the Repertory Grid

Abstract

Statistical analysis can tell us what is worth taking seriously but cannot impute meaning to data. Statistical analysis can be understood as the hermeneutics of numbers and part of a general hermeneutic exercise. This article discusses the antecedent requirements for insight and emergence of structure in the interpretive process and how these can facilitate understanding of the repertory grid. It is argued that repertory grid technique can be understood as a dialogue between the investigator, the informant, and the data, a position that questions conventional notions of validity