Chapter 17: Psychology of Personal Constructs (George Kelly)

Question 1

George Kelly’s theory of personal constructs is like no other personality theory. It has been variously called a cognitive theory, a behavioral theory, an existential theory, and a phenomenological theory. Yet it is none of these. Perhaps the most appropriate term is “_____,” or a theory about theories.

Answer 1

metatheory

Question 2

According to Kelly, all people (including those who build personality theories) anticipate events by the meanings or interpretations they place on those events. These meanings or interpretations are called _____.

Answer 2

constructs

Question 3

People exist in a real world, but their behavior is shaped by their gradually expanding interpretation or _____ of that world.

Answer 3

construction

Question 4

They construe the world in their own way, and every construction is open to revision or replacement. People are not victims of circumstances, because alternative constructions are always available. Kelly called this philosophical position _____.

Answer 4

constructive alternativism

Question 5

The _____ assumes that people are constantly active and that their activity is guided by the way they anticipate events

Answer 5

basic postulate

Question 6

Is human behavior based on reality or on people’s perception of reality?

George Kelly would say both. He did not accept _____ position that behavior is shaped by the environment, that is, reality. On the other hand, he also rejected extreme phenomenology, which holds that the only reality is what people perceive.

Answer 6

Skinner’s

Question 7

1. Person as Scientist
2. Scientist as Person
3. Constructive Alternativism

Answer 7

Kelly’s Philosophical Position

Question 8

Kelly’s Philosophical Position

Answer 8

1. Person as Scientist
2. Scientist as Person
3. Constructive Alternativism

Question 9

When you decide what foods to eat for lunch, what television shows to watch, or what occupation to enter, you are acting in much the same manner as a scientist. That is, you ask questions, formulate hypotheses, test them, draw conclusions, and try to predict future events.

Answer 9

Person as Scientist

Question 10

If people can be seen as scientists, then scientists can also be seen as people. Therefore, the pronouncements of scientists should be regarded with the same skepticism with which we view any behavior. Every scientific observation can be looked at from a different perspective. Every theory can be slightly tilted and viewed from a new angle.

Answer 10

Scientist as Person

Question 11

Different people construe reality in different ways, and the same person is capable of changing his or her view of the world.

Answer 11

Constructive Alternativism

Question 12

In other words, people always have alternative ways of looking at things. Kelly assumed “that all of our present interpretations of the universe are subject to revision or replacement”. He referred to this assumption as _____ and summed up the notion with these words: “The events we face today are subject to as great a variety of constructions as our wits will enable us to contrive”

Answer 12

constructive alternativism

Question 13

A _____ is one’s way of seeing how things (or people) are alike and yet different from other things (or people).

Answer 13

personal construct

Question 14

11 Supporting Corollaries

Answer 14

1) Similarities Among Events
2) Differences Among People
3) Relationships Among Constructs
4) Dichotomy of Constructs
5) Choice Between Dichotomies
6) Range of Convenience
7) Experience and Learning
8) Adaptation to Experience
9) Incompatible Constructs
10) Similarities Among People
11) Social Processes

Question 15

1) Similarities Among Events
2) Differences Among People
3) Relationships Among Constructs
4) Dichotomy of Constructs
5) Choice Between Dichotomies
6) Range of Convenience
7) Experience and Learning
8) Adaptation to Experience
9) Incompatible Constructs
10) Similarities Among People
11) Social Processes

Answer 15

11 Supporting Corollaries

Question 16

No two events are exactly alike, yet we construe similar events so that they are perceived as being the same.

Answer 16

Similarities Among Events

Question 17

Kelly’s second corollary is equally obvious. “Persons differ from each other in their construction of events”.

Answer 17

Differences Among People

Question 18

Kelly’s third corollary, the organization corollary, emphasizes relationships among constructs and states that people “characteristically evolve, for [their] convenience in anticipating events, a construction system embracing ordinal relationships between constructs”.

Answer 18

Relationships Among Constructs

Question 19

Now we come to a corollary that is not so obvious. The dichotomy corollary states that “a person’s construction system is composed of a finite number of dichotomous constructs”

Answer 19

Dichotomy of Constructs

Question 20

If people construe events in dichotomized fashion, then it follows that they have some choice in following alternative courses of action.

This is Kelly’s choice corollary, paraphrased as follows: People choose for themselves that alternative in a dichotomized construct through which they anticipate the greater possibility for extension and definition of future constructs.

Answer 20

Choice Between Dichotomies

Question 21

Kelly’s range corollary assumes that personal constructs are finite and not relevant to everything. “A construct is convenient for the anticipation of a finite range of events only”. In other words, a construct is limited to a particular range of convenience.

Answer 21

Range of Convenience

Question 22

The experience corollary states: “A person’s construction system varies as he [or she] successively construes the replications of events”. Kelly used the word “successively” to point out that we pay attention to only one thing at a time. “The events of one’s construing march single file along the path of time”.

Answer 22

Experience and Learning

Question 23

Arlene’s flexibility illustrates Kelly’s modulation corollary. “The variation in a person’s construction system is limited by the permeability of the constructs within whose range of convenience the variants lie”.

Answer 23

Adaptation to Experience

Question 24

Although Kelly assumed an overall stability or consistency of a person’s construction system, his fragmentation corollary allows for the incompatibility of specific elements. “A person may successively employ a variety of constructive subsystems which are inferentially incompatible with each other”

Answer 24

Incompatible Constructs

Question 25

Although Kelly’s second supporting corollary assumes that people are different from each other, his commonality corollary assumes similarities among people.

Answer 25

Similarities Among People

Question 26

The final supporting corollary, the sociality corollary can be paraphrased to read as follows: To the extent that people accurately construe the belief system of others, they may play a role in a social process involving those other people.

Answer 26

Social Processes

Question 27

Abnormal Development

Answer 27

Applications of Personal Construct Theory

Question 28

In Kelly’s view, _____ validate their personal constructs against their experiences with the real world. They are like competent scientists who test reasonable hypotheses, accept the results without denial or distortion, and then willingly alter their theories to match available data. Healthy individuals not only anticipate events but are also able to make satisfactory adjustments when things do not turn out as they expected.

Answer 28

psychologically healthy people

Question 29

_____, on the other hand, stubbornly cling to outdated personal constructs, fearing validation of any new constructs that would upset their present comfortable view of the world. Such people are similar to incompetent scientists who test unreasonable hypotheses, reject or distort legitimate results, and refuse to amend or abandon old theories that are no longer useful. Kelly defined a disorder as “any personal construction which is used repeatedly in spite of consistent invalidation”.

Answer 29

Unhealthy people

Question 30

A person’s construction system exists in the present—not the past or future. _____, therefore, also exist in the present; they are caused neither by childhood experiences nor by future events.

Answer 30

Psychological disorders

Question 31

Although Kelly did not use traditional labels in describing psychopathology, he did identify four common elements in most human disturbance:

Answer 31

threat, fear, anxiety, and guilt.

Question 32

People experience _____ when they perceive that the stability of their basic constructs is likely to be shaken. Kelly defined threat as “the awareness of imminent comprehensive change in one’s core structures”. One can be threatened by either people or events, and sometimes the two cannot be separated.

Answer 32

threat

Question 33

By Kelly’s definition, threat involves a comprehensive change in a person’s core structures. Fear, on the other hand, is more specific and incidental.

Threat demands a comprehensive restructuring—_____, an incidental one.

Answer 33

fear

Question 34

Psychological disturbance results when either _____ persistently prevents a person from feeling secure.

Answer 34

threat or fear

Question 35

Kelly defined _____ as “the recognition that the events with which one is confronted lie outside the range of convenience of one’s construct system”.

Pathological _____ exists when a person’s incompatible constructs can no longer be tolerated and the person’s construction system breaks down.

Answer 35

anxiety

Question 36

Kelly’s sociality corollary assumes that people construe a core role that gives them a sense of identity within a social environment. However, if that core role is weakened or dissolved, a person will develop a feeling of _____.

Kelly defined _____ as “the sense of having lost one’s core role structure”. That is, people feel guilty when they behave in ways that are inconsistent with their sense of who they are.

Answer 36

guilt

Question 37

The Rep Test

Answer 37

Psychotherapy

Question 38

_____ exists whenever people have difficulty validating their personal constructs, anticipating future events, and controlling their present environment. When distress becomes unmanageable, they may seek outside help in the form of psychotherapy.

Answer 38

Psychological distress

Question 39

In therapy, this approach means that _____, select the goal. Clients are active participants in the therapeutic process, and the therapist’s role is to assist them to alter their construct systems in order to improve efficiency in making predictions.

Answer 39

clients, not the therapist

Question 40

As a technique for altering the clients’ constructs, Kelly used a procedure called _____. The purpose of fixed-role therapy is to help clients change their outlook on life (personal constructs) by acting out a predetermined role, first within the relative security of the therapeutic setting and then in the environment beyond therapy where they enact the role continuously over a period of several weeks.

Answer 40

fixed-role therapy

Question 41

Another procedure used by Kelly, both inside and outside therapy, was the _____ test. The purpose of the Rep test is to discover ways in which people construe significant people in their lives.

For example, a woman can see how her father and boss are alike or different; whether or not she identifies with her mother; how her boyfriend and father are alike; or how she construes men in general.

Answer 41

Role Construct Repertory (Rep)

Question 42

With the Rep test, a person is given a _____ list and asked to designate people who fit the role titles by writing their names on a card.

Answer 42

Role Title

Question 43

Gender as a Personal Construct
Smoking and Self-Concept
Personal Constructs and the Big Five

Answer 43

Related Research

Question 44

What they found was rather stunning: There was only about _____. This means that the repertory grid was capturing aspects of people the Big Five was not and that the Big Five was capturing aspects the repertory grid was not.

Answer 44

50% overlap

Question 45

The Big Five framework has provided those common descriptors that have facilitated a great deal of research. But personality psychology is about individual differences and the importance of the individual, and, compared to the Big Five, Kelly’s _____ theory does a very good job at emphasizing the uniqueness of individuals and how individuals define themselves and those around them in their own terms.

Answer 45

personal construct