### 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).

### R-Code

The index can be prompted in OpenRepGrid as follows. It calculates an intensity score for each construct and each element, an average score for both types and an overall intensity value (cf. Feixas & Cornejo, 2002).

indexIntensity(bell2010)

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Intensity index
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Total intensity: 0.19

Average intensity of constructs: 0.16

Itensity by construct:
intensity
1 relaxed - worried & tense              0.18
2 not so smart (a - smart (academic      0.14
3 dislikes sports - loves sports         0.05
4 not interactive - loves people         0.15
5 not transparent - transparent          0.13
6 insensitive - sensitive                0.16
7 fearful&timid - fearless               0.25
8 rough - gentle                         0.25
9 accept as it is - loves to argue       0.12

Average intensity of elements: 0.14

Itensity by element:
intensity
1 (1) self                                 0.16
2 (2) closest friend of the same sex       0.16
3 (3) the unhappiest person you know       0.04
4 (4) A person of the opposite sex t       0.14
5 (5) A teacher you respected              0.19
6 (6) Mother (or the person who fill       0.10
7 (7) A person of the opposite sex t       0.13
8 (8) The most confident person you        0.22
9 (9) A person you work well with (a       0.14
10 (10) A teacher you did not respect      0.09

### Literature

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

Bannister, D., & Mair, J. M. M. (1968). The evaluation of personal constructs. London: Academic Press.

Feixas, G., & Cornejo, J. M. (2002). GRIDCOR: Correspondence analysis for grid data (version 4.0). Barcelona: Centro de Terapia Cognitiva. Retrieved from www.terapiacognitiva.net/record.

Kelly, G. A. (1991). The psychology of personal constructs: Volume one: Theory and personality. London, New York: Routledge.