METHODS article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1630920
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancing Personal Construct Psychology: Interdisciplinary Perspectives and ApplicationsView all articles
Weighted Implication Grid: A Graph-Theoretical Approach to Modelling Psychological Change Construction
Provisionally accepted
- 1Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid, Spain
- 2FPCEE Blanquerna, Universidad Ramon Llull, Barcelona, Spain
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Introduction: Anticipation and meaning-making are foundational processes in Personal Construct Psychology. Over the years, methodologies such as the Repertory Grid and Implication Grid have provided valuable tools for examining the anticipatory structure of personal meaning systems. Building on this tradition, the Weighted Implication Grid (WimpGrid) introduces a graph-theoretic and algebraic formalization of personal construct systems, aiming to enhance the modeling of psychological change as a dynamic and networked process. Method: The WimpGrid is based on a semi-structured interview in which participants evaluate hypothetical transformations in their self-perception across a set of personal constructs. These anticipatory judgments are recorded in a numerical matrix and formalized as a weighted directed graph, where nodes represent constructs and edges quantify the perceived influence between them. From this structure, graph-theoretical indices are derived to examine properties such as construct centrality, system dynamics, and resistance to change. Applications: WimpGrid enables idiographic assessment in clinical settings, supporting case formulation, therapeutic planning, and longitudinal monitoring of psychological transformation. Additionally, it provides a formalized methodological platform for research into subjective change processes and personal meaning structures. Discussion: By combining constructivist interviewing techniques with graph-theoretical modeling, WimpGrid offers a structured and flexible framework for investigating psychological change. It complements existing constructivist methodologies by providing tools for the quantitative analysis of complex meaning systems, and opens new avenues for theoretical refinement and empirical application.
Keywords: graph theory, constructivist psychology, psychological change, Psychometrics, Weighted Implication Grid (WimpGrid)
Received: 18 May 2025; Accepted: 15 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sanfeliciano, Saúl and Botella. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Alejandro Sanfeliciano, alejandro.sanfeliciano@universidadeuropea.es
Luis Angel Saúl, lasaul@psi.uned.es
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