Chapter 15 Personality Personal Construct Theory

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George Kelly

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born in farming town near wichita, KS; only child of presebterian Minister

Earned ba in physics and math in 1926

ma of educationa sociology u of Kansas

phd in psychology at state U of Iowa

was known as an ******* until a heart attack in his later years.**

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Initially adopted a freudian appraoch

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i began fabricating insights. i deliberately offered preposterous interpretations to my clients as un freudian as i could make them my only criteria were that the explanation account for the crucial facts as the client saw them and that it carry implications for approaching the future in a different way.

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what was his work?

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psychology of personal constructs

"...all of us would be better off if we set out to be something other than what we are"

died of massive heart attack in 1967

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Personal Contstruct Theory

postulate

11 cuolorates.

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psychology of personal construct begins: 'all of our present interpretations of the universe are subject to revision or replacement"

based on the idea that we experiment.

there are always alternative constructions available to choose among other than what we presently know and believe

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constructive alternativeism*

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this philosphical position is known as constructie alternativeism. there are always alternative constructions avvalable to choose amongst reguarding your interpretation of the world.

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Scientists

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kelly believed humans are scientists who go into the world to test theories. the therories are about ourselves, other people, and the events and things in our lives.

Personal theories have the purpose of predicting what will happen

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what is a construct?

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man looks at his world through transparent patterns or templates which he creates then attempts to fit over the realities of which the world is composed

construct is a template we create and fit over the real world

let us give the name constructs to these patterns that are tentatively tried on for size. they are ways of construing the world.

its how we understand the world and make senes of what's around us. it is our interpretation.

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Fundamental Postulate

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a person's processes are psychologically channelized by the ways in which he anticipates events (kelly, 1955)

describes movement from anticipation (hypothesis) to experience (experiment).

this construct postuate is elaborated by ***11 colollaries

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What dies Kelly define personality as?

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the corollaries define personality the attributes of the scientific person

it a the constellation of constructs— the construct system that a person holds

if the constructs are changed in an important way, there is a different personality

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construction corollary

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a person anticipates an event by constructing their replications

construct our anticipations using our past experiences

the step from theory to hypothesis

because repeated events are similar, we can predict or anticipate how we will experience such an event in the future

example: if i set my alarm i expect it to ring at the right time.

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the individuality corollary

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persons differ from each other in their construction of events

since everyone has different experiences, everyone's construction of reality is different

people pereive events in different ways.

that is, the notion of "individual differences"

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Organization Corollary

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each person characteristically evolves, for his convenience in anticipating events, a construction system embracing ordinal relationships between consturcts.

construct systems are organized hierarchiclally with some concepts subsuming others.

we arrange our constructs in patterns, according to our view of their similarities and differences.

animals, plants—flowers, tree's— roses and carnations.

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Dichotomy Corollary

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a person's construction system is composed of a finite number of dichotomous constructs

constructs transparent templates have two poles; where there is up there is down

core vs. peripheral constructs.

constructs are bipolar.

ex: if we have an opinion about honesty we also must include the concept of dishonesty.

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choice corollary

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a person chooses for himself that alternative construct through which he anticipates the greater possibility for extension and definition of his system.

we choose our behavior according to what will most likely elaborate our construction system (i.e., improve our understanding, our ability to anticipate)

choose the alternative that works best for us the one that allows us to predict the outcome of anticipated events.

we prefer certainty over uncertainty

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Range Corollary

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a construct is convenient for the anticipation of a finite range of events only

no construct is useful for everything (example male-female).

some constructs are broad (good-bad): others are incidental (floresent- incandescent)

constructs may apply to many situations or people

they also may be limited to a single person or situation

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Experience Corollary

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a person's construct system varies as he successively construes the replication of events

when things don't happen the way they have in the past, we have to adapt, to reconstruct.

we continually test our constructs against life's experiences to ensure usefulness

the enviroment and time affet our construct systems. constructs at 18 differ from constructs at 40.

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Modulation corollary

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the variation in a person's construction system is limited by the permeability of the constructs within whos range of convenience the variants lie.

permeability means open to increasted range.

we may modify our constructs as afunction of new experiences.

can be a barrier to learning and to new ideas.

example: bigotry

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fragmentation corollary

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a person may successively employ a variety of construction subsystems which are inferentially incompatible with each other.

because constructs change over time we're bound to make modifications that don't match or fit with eachother

we may sometimes have contradictory or inconsistent suboridate constructs within our overall construct system.

example- we befriend someone in class and then found out you don't share interest in movies.

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Commonality corollary

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to the extent that one person employs a construction of experience which is similar to that employed by another, his psychological processes are similar to the other person.

our common ground with others lies not in shared experiences but in shared constructs.

example wel'll look for support from those who are similar to ourselves

people in compantible groups or cultures may hold similar constructs

ex rider pride

social corollary: to the extent that one person construes the construction processes of another, he may play a role in the social processes of the other person

even if you are not really similar to another person, you can still relate to them.

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sociality

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we try to understand how people think and predict what they will do and we modify our behavior accordingly.

we fit ourselves into the other person's constructs

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Fixed-role therapy

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assumes people in psychological trouble are people whose constructs fail in a predictive sense

solution is to change the ways people think or conceive of personal distress, problem relationships, or overwhelming events.

therapist scripts a new role for client complete with a personality based on constructs very different than the client's.

client must play the role in therapy and daily life for 2 week period.

goal is to help client discover there are alternative ways to construe experiences.