Personal construct theory

(look over slides for more details)

George Kelly

• Personal Construct Theory - first published 1955

  • referred to as a “cognitive” theory later by others

• born in Kansas

  • “Midwesteren pragmatism” -

• Aviation psychologist; professor of psych at OSU and Brandeis

Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory

Invitational mood – inviting different interpretations or explanations to develop a hypothesis, being open and generative

• Believed theories have

  • Range of convenience – what phenomena does it cover

  • Focus on convenience – where does it work best

• Theories can be modified or eliminated

  • Did not want to defend a theory forever if new info comes up

  • Not dogmatic

• Deemphasized measurement and statistics

  • Criticized psychology’s fear of looking unscientific

• Liked clinical and experimental methods

• A good theory addresses important psychological concerns and issues

Kelly’s View of the person

• everyone is a scientist

• we do meta theorizing about ourselves, others, and the world to move through life

• we are future-oriented and think actively about the environment and try on different constructs

Constructs

Necessary conditions to form a construct

• Two of the elements must be perceived as similar to each other and the third element must be perceived as different from the other two

• Two elements that are similar are the similarity pole

• The contrast with the third element is the contrast pole

  • ex: Need to see 2 instances of kindness and 1 instance of being mean to develop a cruel vs kind construct we need to see the three elements

• We update constructs using other constructs like quantity and quality

• Use personal constructs to understand events and plan for the future

• Use cruel vs kind to plan for the future

• (slide 8)

Types of Constructs

• People reveal aspects of their personality in the constructs they use to describe others

• Verbal construct: expressed in words

• preverbal construct: used but no words to describe

  • learned before language is developed (safe v. unsafe)

• Submerged construct: not available for verbalization

  • insisting that others only do “good” things suggests awareness of the opposite construct of “bad,” but cannot be accessed

PCT: Structure

• Core construct - basic to functioning and can only be changed w/ significant consequences to a person’s overall construct system

  • Someone holds certain religious belief and then encounters an experience that shifts someone’s belief, that can shake someone to their core

• Peripheral construct - less basic, altered more easily

  • strong vs. weak beliefs

• Constructs are organized hierarchically and differ in breadth/inclusiveness

  • Superordinate constructs: broad

    • animal, dog

  • Subordinate constructs

    • corgi, welsh corgi

• Constructs are interrelated, and personality is made up of a construct system

• a person uses constructs to interpret the world and to anticipate events

• people naturally differ from one another in the constructs they use

The Role Construct Repertory (REP) Test

Emphasized self-report for assessing personality

• Thought people best described their own experiences

• Two steps to rep test:

  • 1. List 20-30 people who play a role in your life

  • 2. Pick 3 figures from the list and indicate how two of these people are alike and are different from a third (elicit constructs)

• This “test” has been shown to account for more variation in personality than big 5 questionnaires

• Complicated and convoluted test, but it can give you a lot of info the big 5 can’

PCT; Process

• Anxiety – confronted with an event that lies outside our existing construction system

  • Can respond by broadening or restricting a construct

    • Good student construct, but receive feedback outside of that and broaden construct of what it means to be a good student or restrict it to pull myself out of the good student construct

• Fear – a new construct is about to enter the construct system

  • Have to be open to new or bad experiences in the future when

    broadening or developing a new construct

• Threat – awareness that an imminent comprehensive change is about to occur in one’s core structure

• Death, the general construct is that it happens to older people

• If one of your young friends passes away it changes your construct of death

• role of active prediction: we gain insights into the potential outcomes of various events or situations

Personal Construct

an element of knowledge; a concept used to interpret, or construe, the world

• help us to categorize events and make sense of them

• Automatic process using the knowledge you already possess

  • we observe patterns and regularities

Cognitive complexity and simplicity

People differ in complexity across systems

• That can contribute to individual differences

• A cognitively complex construct system is one that contains many constructs that do not overlap and may represent expertise in a particular area

• Provides flexibility, predictive power, able to adapt to new experiences

• Social and emotional intelligence, serves you well in social interactions