Chapter 13: George Kelly Flashcards
George Kelly background
Started as a clinical psychologist with no formal clinical training - gave him lots of room to experiment, had to improvise his own techniques. This lead to a very unique/independent theory
Kelly believed his theory was too fluid to be pinned down by verbal labels
Categorization of Kelly’s Theory:
“Phenomenologist”- believed that intact conscious experience should be psychology’s focus of attention. The important thing to study is a person’s individual conscious experiences, without breaking them down into component parts or attempting to determine their origin. Kelly was interested in how thought processes were used while interacting with the environment
Cognitive- emphasizes mental events, how ppl view and think about reality (does not emphasize behavior and its causal relationships with/ the environment, also not psychoanalytic bc it doesn’t stress unconscious mechanisms)
Existential- emphasizes the present & future rather than the past & bc assumes humans are free to choose own destinies
Humanistic- stresses the human capacity for improvement
People as Scientists
Kelly used scientists as the model for describing all humans
Like scientists, all humans are attempting to reduce uncertainty
All humans are like scientists: they are interested in the future & use present to test a theory’s ability to anticipate events
Personal Construct: Major tool used to anticipate events. used by individuals to construe or interpret, explain, give meaning to, or predict experiences. Construct is like mini sci theory that makes predictions about reality
“Personality”- collection of constructs that constitutes a person’s construct system at any given time
Constructive Alternativism- each person creates her own constructs for dealing with teh world—free to construe reality any way they wish. Whether one lives an open, creative life or a restrictive one is largely a matter of personal choice.
Main claim of Kelly’s theory (his basic postulate)
An individual’s activities (behavior and thoughts) are guided in certain directions by the personal constructs used to predict future events.
Kelly, Vaihinger, and Adler
Propositional Thinking: Experimenting with ideas to see where they lead. Also explored by Vaihinger and Adler
All three believed that the interpretation of events is more important than the events themselves. Subjective reality is a more important determinant of behavior than objective reality
The Eleven Corollaries - these all elaborate on his basic postulate (an individual’s activities (behavior and thoughts) are guided in certain directions by the personal constructs used to predict future events
- Construction- A person anticipates events by construing their replications (events in our life tend to occur w/ regularity)
- Individuality- each person differs in the constructs they use to construe events (reality is what we perceive it to be)
- Organization- each person differs in how they organize their constructs
- Dichotomy- all constructs are bipolar/dichotomous. Ppl choose the poles of a constructor (ie friendly vs overbearing)
- Choice- when presented with a new experience one can either apply previously effective constructs in order to further validate one’s construct system (this is called definition) or one can instead use the occasion to try a new construct that, if validated, would further expand one’s construct system, making it better able to assimilate experiences that were previously foreign to it (this is called extension)
- Range- each construct has a range of convenience that includes all of the events to which the construct is relevant (ie hot vs cold cannot be applied to good vs bad judgement)
The Eleven Corollaries Cont…
- Experience- experience alone is not the best teacher. The active construing of experience is. Must identify recurrent themes
- Modulation- some constructs are more permeable/open to new experience than others (those that will admit new elements that are not yet construed within its framework to its range of convenience)
- Fragmentation- a person’s construct system is in a state of continual flux and will sometimes contradict itself
- Commonality- it is not common experiences that make people similar but the fact that they construe their experiences in a similar way.
- Sociality- *role: an ongoing pattern of behavior that follows from a person’s understanding of how the others who are associated with him in this task think”- acting in accordance with the expectations of others. To play a role, one must understand another person’s construct system. Our understanding of another person’s outlook and expectations is a “role construct.” In order to engage in constructive interactions with others we must first determine how they see thigns and then take their perceptions into consideration when dealing with them. The deepest social interaction occurs when role playing is reciprocal.
Superordinate Construct:
A construct that subsumes (is an umbrella term for) other constructs
The constructs that are subsumed under a superordinate construct are called subordinate constructs
People arrange and organize constructs in a way that reduces contradictions and increases predictive efficiency
Slot Movements
Under pressure ppl sometimes abruptly switch from construing events with one pole of an important construct (ie: friendly) to construing them using the opposite pole (ie: unfriendly).
CPC Cycle
The three phases that characterize the actions of a person confronted with a novel situation
Circumspection Phase- ponder several constructs that seem to be pertinent to the situation (my fault—other drivers fault, vehicle damage—no damage, injury—no injury) hypothetical and tentative thinking, cognitive trial and error
Preemption Phase- choose from the constructs pondered in the preceding phase (my fault—other driver’s fault). Choose a strategy for dealing with the situation
Control phase- choose the pole of the chosen construct that seems most useful under the circumstances and act on it. (Accept responsibility —> check on wellbeing of other driver, exchange insurance info, apologize, etc.) We try to control the situation. If the course of action is successful the construct “my fault—other driver’s fault” is validated and will tend to dominate our thinking if we are at some time later in another traffic accident
Creativity Cycle
Cycle employed when a person seeks innovative solutions to problems or a fresh way of construing experiences (3 phases)
Loosened Construct Phase- creative thinking involves loosening ones construct system which allows varying alignments of elements and constructs & cognitive experimentation. “Creativity always arises out of preposterous thinking”
Tightened Construct Phase- construct system loosened to explore new ideas in preceding phase but once an idea that might be useful arises the cognitive experimentation must stop/ be tightened and the idea must be evaluated.
Test Phase- submit the creative idea discovered in loosened construction phase to be tested. If validated by subsequent experience it is retained as part of one’s construct system. If not, it is discarded and the cycle repeats
Kelly’s Interpretations/Redefinitions of Traditional Psychological Concepts:
Motivation: Thought trad views of motivation looked on humans as naturally inert and therefore in need of being set in motion by something (need a drive/goal/stimulus). Believed trad theories are either “push” (drive, motive, stimulus) or “pull” (purpose, value, need). Push theories include those of Freud, Skinner, Dollard & Miller. Pull includes Jung and Adler. Kelly believed humans are born motivated and nothing more needs to be said.
Anxiety: Kelly defined anxiety as the “recognition that the events with which one is confronted lie outside the range of convenience of one’s construct system.” The ability to predict the future accurately is everyone’s goal. The extent to which our predictions are invalid is the extent to which we experience anxiety—evidence of a failed construct system that requires modification.
Kelly’s Interpretations/Redefinitions of Traditional Psychological Concepts cont…
Hostility: Kelly defined hostility as “the continued effort to extort validational evidence in favor of a type of social prediction which has already proven itself a failure.” It’s related to anxiety in that anxiety is experienced when one’s predictions are incorrect and then one refuses’s to accept this fact and attempts to demand validation from the environment. Such demands characterize hostility. Ie: in order to preserve one’s construct system one simply cannot afford to be wrong
Aggression: Kelly defined aggression as “the active elaboration or one’s perceptual field” The opposite of hostility. Aggressive individuals opt to extend their construct system rather than define it. Seeks adventure rather than security. Seeks to expand construct system so that it includes an increasing range of events.
Kelly’s Interpretations/Redefinitions of Traditional Psychological Concepts cont…
Guilt: Kelly defined guilt as “the perception of one’s apparent dislodgement from his core role structure (the role we play when interacting with the the relevant individuals and groups in our lives)” Guilt is felt when he individual becomes aware that he is alienated from the roles by which he maintains his most important relationships to other persons.
Threat: Kelly defined Threat as “the awareness of imminent comprehensive change in one’s core structure.” our core structures are used to make sense out of life. When they suddenly seem no longer validated by experience, we feel threatened. To challenge our core concstructs is to challenge our very existence.
Fear: similar to threat but less severe. Results when a peripheral element of one’s construct system is invalidated rather than one’s core constructs. Ie: previously friendly dog growls at you —necessitates a minor change in one’s construct system.
Kelly’s Interpretations/Redefinitions of Traditional Psychological Concepts cont..
Unconscious: Kelly believed constructs could be described in terms of their cognitive awareness. Constructs with low cognitive awareness are considered unconscious. There are 3 types of constructs with low cognitive awareness:
Preverbal constructs - one which continues to be used even though it has no consistent word symbol. Typically formed early in life before language is available
Submergence - sometimes a person acts as if only one of the poles of a construct exists. Ie: believing that all people are good. The pole that is ignored is the submerged pole. (Similar to Fred’s repression)
Suspension - an experience is suspended when it cannot be used constructively in one’s construct system. It’s as if an experience is kept in a holding pattern until a construct system that can assimilate it is created. Adler and Kelly both believed that only those experiences capable of assimilation into one’s personality structure can be experienced consciously
