Re: affect (cultural differences in...)

Arne Raeithel (raeithel who-is-at informatik.uni-hamburg.de)
Thu, 9 May 1996 17:16:46 +0200

Robin: that's interesting.
Your triad method sounds like a variant of George
A. Kelly's role construct repertory (grid) technique -- which is my
specialty in methods, having constructed a tool that we sell for use in
business and organisations (too expensive for European unis).
Using this technique, you would gather the words used
by the mothers for describing emotions, i.e. their so-called personal
constructs for describing differences between situations, differences
that make a difference for *them*, and not necessarily for the
researcher. Of course, an ethnographically inclined researcher would
be very interested, while the usual comparator of variables would
be horrified, because standardization seems im*poss*ible.
It is not. But I won't tell why without further asking.

Arne.

At 07:24 9.5.1996, Robin Harwood wrote:
> For what it's worth, we're currently using "triads" in an attempt to
>map cultural differences in the semantic space of certain words
>our San Juan and Connecticut mothers have used to describe qualities
>they'd like their children to possess (e.g., independent, secure,
>friendly, respectful, obedient, etc.). Basically, mothers are given
>a list of 11 different qualities combined in different sets of three,
>and for each set of three ("triad"), they select the one word which
>is least like the other two words in meaning. This yields a
>topological "diagram" of the semantic relationship of these words,
>which we would expect to be different among the two groups of
>mothers (e.g., is responsible closer to intelligent or closer to
>respectful?). ...

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