Informing policymaking with concept mapping

Abstract

Concept mapping is a technique designed to capture a person's view or conception of an issue or problem in a diagrammatic, rather than linear, form. The map can capture the values, beliefs, and assumptions, in addition to associative relationships, that an individual has about a problem.  mapping owes its origins to Kelly's (1955.) Theory of Personal Constructs. He asserted that "scientist continually checks the sense he makes of his world by using the current understanding (construct system) to anticipate and reach out for the future." He developed a formal "repertory grid" technique as a means for identifying this construct system and the constructs' relationships to each other. Concept mapping evolved from Kelly's repertory grid as a process that, unconstrained by formal structure, follows a "natural" conversation through which additional richness could be ascertained (Brown 1992;1998:258).