George Kelly

Personal Construct Theory

___________________ are an individual's conclusions, interpretations, or deductions about life.

An intellectual hypothesis that we devise and use to interpret or explain life events.

šIf constructs appear to fit our subsequent experience, we find them useful and hold onto them.

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If the construct does not lead to behaviors that help us adjust to events in the world, we will seek to alter or change the construct.

____________ is the idea that, while there is only one true reality, reality is always experienced from one or another perspective, or alternative construction.

š"A person anticipates events by construing their replications.“

šThat is, we construct our anticipations using our past experience.

šWe expect things to happen as they've happened before

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š“A construct is convenient for the anticipation of a finite range of events only.”

šNo construct is useful for everything

šIn other words, a construct is limited to a particular range of convenience (i.e. to whatever range your construct can be applied to)

šThere is comprehensive range of convenience and then there is incidental or narrow range of convenience

šThe construct of mother wouldn’t be applicable on laptops

šTo 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.“

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šPeople will share similar constructs if they have similar experiences

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šWe spend a great deal of our time seeking validation from other people, in doing so we end up developing similar constructs

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šCultural similarities

š“A person's construction system varies as he successively construes the replication of events.”

šWhen things don't happen the way they have in the past, we have to adapt, to reconstruct. This new experience alters our future anticipations. We learn.

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š"A person's construction system is composed of a finite number of dichotomous (bi-polar) constructs."

šWe store our experience in the form of constructs

šOften called personal constructs and they are bi-polar in nature

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šMany constructs have names or are easily nameable:

šgood-bad, happy-sad, introvert-extravert, dark-light....But they need not! They can be unnamed.

šBabies, even animals, have constructs: food-I-like vs. food-I-spit-out, danger vs. safety, Mommy vs. stranger.

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šIndividual constructs are organized into a pattern according to our view of their interrelationships, that is, their similarities and differences.

šPeople who hold similar constructs may still differ from one another if they organize those constructs in different patterns.

šPeople organize their personal constructs in a hierarchical system, with some constructs in a superordinate position and others subordinate to them.

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šConstructs differ in their permeability. To permeate means to penetrate or pass through something.

šA permeable construct is one that allows new elements to penetrate or be admitted to the range of convenience. Such a construct is open to new events and experiences and is capable of being revised or extended by .

šA construct is permeable if new elements can be added to it.

šImpermeable or concrete constructs do not admit new elements.

š"A person chooses for himself that alternative in a dichotomized construct through which he anticipates the greater possibility for extension and definition of his system“

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šPeople choose those actions that are most likely to extend their future range of choices or that is more compatible with their overall construction/view of the world and self

š"Persons differ from each other in their construction of events.“

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šNo two people put an experience together in exactly the same way.

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

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šIn different situations we act differently and play out different construction systems

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šFor e.g. A man might be a cop at night, and act tough, authoritarian, efficient. But in the daytime, he might be a father, and act gentle, tender, affectionate.

š“To the extent that one person construes the construction processes of another, he may play a role in a social process involving the other person.”

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

šKelly introduced the notion of role with his sociality corollary.

šA role refers to a pattern of behavior that results from a person’s understanding of the constructs of others with whom that person is engaged in a task

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Clinical Applications

CONSTRUCTS OF TRANSITION:

The shift in experience as we move from viewing the world or ourselves in one way to another

CONSTRUCTS OF TRANSITION:

When you are suddenly aware that your constructs aren't functioning well, you feel anxiety

šThe situation lies outside of one’s range of convenience hence already existing constructs aren’t sufficient to explain the new situation

šWhen anticipations fail, you feel anxiety

šSimilar to the idea of cognitive dissonance

CONSTRUCTS OF TRANSITION:

The awareness of imminent change to core structures or constructs about self or the world

šYou anticipate great changes coming to your core constructs

šBecoming a parent for the first time

CONSTRUCTS OF TRANSITION:

šAn incidental rather than a comprehensive restructuring of one's construct system š

CONSTRUCTS OF TRANSITION:

š“the sense of having lost one’s core role structure.” This means that people will feel guilty when they behave in ways that are incompatible with their core role.

Choices : The C-P-C cycle

1. Circumspection

Choices : The C-P-C cycle

2. Preemption

Choices : The C-P-C cycle

3. Control

(constructs about the world, others, and even one's self)

(constructs that are most significant to you)

A _______________ refers to a pattern of behaviour that results from a person’s understanding of the constructs of others with whom that person is engaged in a task