CONSTRUCT INTEGRATION THEORY
Submitted to Department of Psychology, MA - Clinical Psychology
Polytechnic University of the Philippines
Advanced Theories of Personalities
Dr. Rosenda De Gracia
August 18, 2022
John Ray C. Padilla, RPm
MAP – Clinical Psychology
Introduction
View of human nature is a crucial discussion at this point in time since if an
individual wants to better explain its etiological foundations, Although multiple theories are
already utilized because of its conciseness, coherence, systematic, predictive, and broad
application (Bradford, et.al 2022), openness to modern theories are strongly needed to better
understand mankind. Because it is perceived that for every generation, the civilization is
constantly evolving. Their physical structure, cognitive processes, mentality, intelligence, and
perceptions, and norms. Are greatly affected.
In this hypothetical theory attempts to integrate each theory from different forces of
psychology such as the influence of Object Relations Theory, the concept of predeterminism,
free will from existentialism, and the construct formations from Personal Construct Theory.
Object Relations Theory suggests that the way mothers and infants interact plays a
crucial role in infant growth and development. If care is adequate or good enough, children
are able to develop their true selves, which is the part of the baby that is creative and
spontaneous (Fritscher, 2020). This hypothetical theory holds firmly to the idea that the
importance of proximity. The initial providers who tend to the need of the child gives strong
foundation for relationship that would play vital role on later stages in life.
Predeterminism and Free will are both added in this theory since humans would
experience despondency, helplessness, and incapability to change external factors. When
humans interact with their own environment, conflicts and distortions are precipitated,
thereby giving challenges to his predeterminate attitude to his life, free will on the other
hand, is believed to be a product of overwhelming belief to predestination, because at some
point of a person’s life, resistance is necessary, although unrequired, but still crucial.
The way Personal Construct Theory explains that all individuals form unique
constructs to construe on how the world works, is among the point of discussion in this
hypothetical theory. When an infant learns that basic needs are not the only requirement to
basic survival, he also needed to understand the objective reality further by acquiring
information through different sources of experiences. Cultural factors, social relationships,
and values are the primary foundations of this theory in order to form constructs on a singular
concept.
Although this theory is falsifiable and a mere attempt to expound the complications of
human nature, it is strongly believed that it is well versed, due to the integration of different
theories. Combination of each concepts from different forces of psychology is the most
modern approach to better understand human nature.
Voidness of an infantile mind (0 months – 24 months old)
When we were unleashed from our mother’s womb, our existence is nothing even if
life can be perceived as present from other’s point of view, a new born does not recognize its
own form, own purpose, and own reason for living. It is just a dormant creature where
vulnerability is easily compromised when slight changes transpire from its surroundings.
Obliviousness is a primary attribute to this phase where an infant is does not recognize its
own entity. This certain nullity, emptiness of idea where a living thing exists is called
Voidness. Just how we perceive a dark room without any signs of life or a mechanism to
sustain life. This phase continues until the baby learns to adapt to its own environment, to its
enclosed space where danger or ally could be steps away from his proximity; it would surely
resort into its first expression of language—crying. Crying is a very important aspect of being
an infant since it is an initial desire to commence communication towards the objective
reality. A bairn hungers for a company due to its shortening tolerance for blankness, a sort of
initiative to enthral signs of life from the unknown.
Since an infant came from the womb of a mother, thus it is obvious indeed that the
first person who would provide a response is the mother herself. As the infant continues to
live in weeks, crying gradually fades because it successively obtains its motives that he
wants— physical warmth from a maternal figure, food, and security. The importance of
providing the basic needs of an infant would serve as a primary foundation for later
communication method, with the following months, variation of expressive language can be
observed such as eye contact, giggling, rapid reflexes of its extremities, incomprehensible
utterance, and firmness of grip. Presence of these only mean that the bond has already been
established between the mother figure and the baby. The infant recognizes that it is truly
existing and the apparent vulnerability has been safeguarded by its provider. Thus, the
pronoun ‘’ it ‘’ will spontaneously move to ‘’ I ‘’ now due to its awareness that he was really
born in this world; a firm amazement and realization that from his every atomical structures
that is imperceptible to a regular vision to the anatomical framework truly exists.
In addition, the mother is not the point of interest in this stage since the first person to
interact within his vicinity can be a potential provider of his basic needs or an immediate
threat that would provide nothingness. Being unable to meet the needs of the baby when it is
in the crucial stage of searching for the providers would result into serious problems later
such as being unable to express itself, absence of reaction when his biological needs are still
unsatisfied, irritability, oversensitivity to movement, resistance to other people, refusal to be
physically carried, and lack of desire to interact.
External Absorption (24 months – 5 years old)
This is also known as environmental influences or factors. The mother is also a part of
the environment because she is still a component of an objective reality. In this stage of life,
the child adapts to his surroundings, he will eventually learn that the provider is not a singular
individual who can be perceived as an exclusive source of all needs. It can be his father as
well, sibling, relative, grandparents, or caregiver. Secondly, the child’s preference no longer
depends on basic needs alone because he is adapting. The more he exposes himself, the more
information he desires to have. Similarly, providers in his age are not also limited to food
consumption, warmth, social interaction, and security but also responsible for the inchoate
progress of his personality. Lastly, expansion of his proximity is discerned and interaction to
wider possible providers is immeasurable. The child continuously explores his domain and
absorbs all information he can consume to better construe himself and his surroundings. In
this chapter of his journey, different source of providers can be categorized into three (3)
namely, Cultural factors, social relationships, and Values. These concepts under External
Absorption are to be expounded in the following:
Cultural factors
When pertaining about the providers, it is no longer a person that gives it. Providers
can also act as a whole form of an entire people, such as the culture itself. Culture is a very
influential factor to shape a child because it is considered a backbone of child’s development.
Traditions, rituals, norms, language, and beliefs are among the factors that influence the mind
of a child. If a child, for an instance, came from an environment where their set of ideations
are composed of gender stereotypes and racism, he registers this information in his cognitive
processing and it will later dictate his next move in the future. As a consequence, it will leave
long lasting impact on how he constructs the gender differences, it might be for example that,
all men are superior, vicious, competent, and strong. On the other hand, women for him are
fragile, inferior, incompetent, and dependent.
Values
Since cultural factors plays a vital role in a child’s mind, the definition of morality is
not an exception, in this stage of life. The concept of good and bad depends on every
circumstance or where the person came from—his environment. Hence, the concept of good
might vary from other people. If a child came from an environment where swearing is
considered to be an appropriate gesture to greet your friends and pleasurable consequences
are obtained instead of receiving punishment, then saying bad words is under the umbrella of
being “Good”, another example, if a child is oriented by his family to not share edible items,
objects such as toys or any devices to anyone, then the child might perceive sharing as “bad”
instead of good. Concepts like these are very crucial to the child since this is the time where
Respect, Dignity, Honor, and Pride are introduced. All four (4) of them shall be met in this
stage because in order to be a psychologically health individual, these four should be present
as well. Not being able to differentiate what is inappropriate from appropriate will be difficult
since any actions executed will greatly affect these four (4) and it will leave impression from
other people.
Social relationships
As stated from the aforementioned concepts, in this period of life, providers are no
longer limited to basic needs because their responsibility now has shifted to the child’s selfworth, confidence, character, behavior, and attributes. Providers not only act as giver of all
needs but they also serve as a role model to a child. Since the provider is perceived to be
strong, can be relied to, independent, mature, and determined, characters such as these are
very prone to Mirroring. Mirroring is a process of replicating the individual characteristics of
a provider due to its competence, determination, and independence. Although characteristics
are more prone to be copied by an exploring child (assertiveness, , it is tremendously possible
that they would also copy even the smallest detail of their habitual activities such as the way
they walk, communicate, provide facial gestures
According to psychoanalytic theory, the first five (5) years of life is very important to
the formation of adult personality, so all information that has been registered in childhood are
unbreakable, irreparable, and resistant to alterations. Changes in perceptions, view of life, and
insight during adulthood are possible, but experiences from childhood are still a strong
foundation; meaning, even if change is feasible, the apparition of the past still conveys
messages. In External Absorption we learn that a child is more receptive, dependent on his
environment, and controlled by the outside forces. A child learns that he should adhere firmly
in this objective reality because a slight gap of missing the current ideas or trends will be very
stressful for him. As he wanders excessively, he is becoming a product of his own
environment, his behavior is also shaped by it, he believes that he is a marionette of all the
external conditions to the point that he is predetermined. He confronts the world, but the
world acts as a mirror who looks back at him.
Predestination (5 years old - 12 years old)
Being unable to alter a specific event due to its lack of chance to redefine a
phenomenon is a stage of a child’s life called Predestination. Children who are at the age
range from five (5) years old to twelve (12) years are the most affected. It is a phase where a
child is condemned to be a receiver of information exclusively, a sort of spectator to a
moving world without any clue of when it is going to stop. The child perceives himself to be
a mere witness to all of this occurrence in front of him. Predestination is characterized by
three (3) concepts that a child goes through during this stage: Passivity, Conformity, and
Submissiveness. Passivity refers to a phase in a child’s life where everything that might occur
in every situation will be accepted, erroneous or applicable. Conformity states that
compliance on rules and regulations set by the society is mandatory because it acts as a
guideline on what to do and what not to do. Lastly, Submissiveness is the quality of being
obedient to individuals who have the authority to give commands. These three (3) concepts
are related to the concepts of the External Absorptions. Resistance can be executed but futile
because it is dictated by the sociocultural standards. Providers are the givers and too much
display of information and ideas drive a child’s mind to perceive it as the dogmas and
doctrines of what should he do in his life. Since the providers give decorations in a child’s
life, it is still considered a normal phase in his journey because he is still in the experiential
processing of learning new things in his territory. Predestination is not a permanent phase
where a child acts only as a receiver of all information because there would be a point in his
life where defiance is needed. It is explained that resistance can happen but futile, if you push
hard enough, results will be different. It is also important to note that in this stage of life,
child forms a Construct in order to understand, confront, and resolve a situation. Construct is
defined as an accumulated ideas instilled within the mental framework to construe a concept
when demanded by the objective reality itself. As for example, a child develops a construct
about Love, Happiness, Comfort, War, Party, Traffic, Morality, Intelligence, Family and so
on and so forth. The interaction of cultural factors, values, and social relationships acted as a
foundation to the Constructs.
Discourse of Predestination versus Free Will (12 years old – 17 years old)
Since defiance is already occurring on predeterminate phase, it will happen when the
concept of “control” is introduced. Constructs formulated in the previous stage of life is
similar to Skinner’s reinforcement theory where learned behaviors are increased when
pleasurable consequences are obtained. In the same line, ideas retained within the mental
framework are only retained when it is still applicable to a certain situation, for example,
your previous experiences in relationships brought you to a conclusion where relationships
are only defined by the capability of both partners to engage in copulations. The most
challenging part in this stage of life where several conflicts would arise when individual’s
objective reality expands; encounter with a new situation would be perceived as problematic.
As a matter of fact, it instigates threat to an individual’s construct that is firmly protected by
the consistency of his subjective experiences. From the previous example, if a person’s
perception with regards to relationship is all about sexual activities and he encounters a
person where his definition of relationship is all about acts of service, loyalty, and the
capability to provide comfort on one another, then confusion would surely occur in this
situation. Construct Distortion is the process where a former construct is jeopardized by the
existence of a similar construct with different definition.
Since Predestination is under threat by the existence of other constructs given by other
people, its polar opposite will be born. Free Will is defined as the process of unlatching all
pathways of the mental framework to receive new information in order to reconstruct, reorganize the gathered ideas, and redefine the main concept of a construct. If the person gives
his environment the permission to process his constructs, then free will is commenced.
This is the phase where rivalry of predestination and free will are the main focus because it
depends upon the individual if what he would allow to take over, if he firmly grasps his
current constructs about relationships, then predestination devours his present stage of life:
the phenomenon where his ability to control his own life by starting to redefine his constructs
are impossible. On the other hand, if a person adapts to new ideas, changes, and flexible, then
free will takes charge, the phenomenon where an individual recognizes himself as a master of
own self is possible. Generally, the individuals who are in the free will pole are more
psychologically, emotionally, mentally, and developmentally healthy.
Emancipation from Predestination (18 years old and above)
If an individual succeeds on progressing on free will phase, then he could proceed in
this stage where he releases himself from predeterminate view of life, the unlocking of chains
in this stage precipitates the threshold to free will. The individual is more adaptive; therefore,
he is open to all changes in his surroundings, the willingness to learn further about the
existence of other individual’s construct, and the openness to all experiences is perceived to
be beneficial rather than an object of discomfort
This stage focuses on the individual’s orientation towards controlling himself as a part
of recognizing his existence. Realization that predestination would only hamper his
development will send enough shockwaves to empower his motivation to go through the free
will phase.
When an individual recognizes that he is in the free will phase, he is now under the final
phase called metamorphization. Metamorphosis is the act of facilitating an overall
transmutation to his capability to alter his constructs. In this final phase, his power to
transcend beyond the limitations of construct is guided by three (3) dimensions of
Metamorphization. It is the interaction of the past, present, and future.
Past
Traveling into retrospective forms is necessary when altering a specific construct. Although
previous experiences are no longer necessary in forming constructs especially when it is
oriented in current state and beyond, its influence still remains firm because they are a part of
experiences that cannot be abandoned. In forming constructs, Retrospection is enacted before
changing a construct. For example, your newly adapted construct of Family is defined as a
source of comfort, happiness, and home, going backwards in time to see for yourself on how
you define family such as a source of discomfort and a place where violence is a
commonplace occurrence, it will provide more fuel on why it is essential for you to change
your construct.
Present
Present is the most powerful dimension because it focuses in the state of nowness, the
existence of the time being where both past and future meets. This theory stresses the
importance of what an individual does today because it would mostly affect the future. Past
can give impact to present state but not highly influential compared to future. History
although important so we can have information to confront challenges ahead, it is only a part
of alternative resources when new challenges are presented. Future is highly influential
because it focuses on things that still do not happen and all predictions are susceptible to
error.
Future
This dimension is the primary focus of metamorphization since it serves as an influential
factor on why should an individual alter his perception on a specific concept. When a man
sets up a date to a potential partner, his current construct for his opposite sex is all about
materialism, therefore, he perceives women to be a materialistic being. Since his construct of
women are now flexible for it is guided by the influences of past and present, he can change
his approaches when the time comes when they meet, providing gifts could be his first choice
since it embodies his construct of women, providing more quality time could be his second
choice, bring her to some places where they will both enjoy would be the third move, or they
could invest in further experiences by travelling to a different town is the last resort.
Speculation is the process where an individual calculates the upcoming circumstance by
organizing his accumulated ideas in hierarchical order from lowly preferred actions to highly
preferred actions.
The interaction of the three (3) dimensions of metamorphization such as the past, present, and
future were crucial, no dimension is more above than the other since each dimension fuels
one another. Past is a retrospective token to guide an individual at present, in order to secure
his future.
A Psychologically healthy individual
Coming back from the start, before a person is categorized to be a psychological
healthy individual, we should go back to its primary foundation, and that is his infantile stage,
as discussed in the first phase, an infant does not recognize his entity until he finds his
providers that would give his basic needs. A healthy environment who provides his needs
would serve as his primary foundation to realize his existence “I”.
As an infant progresses to become more reliant to his environment, his area of vicinity
expands as well, he absorbs all information by his external providers namely: cultural factors,
social relationships, and values. Influences from these three (3) sources would highly impact
his later stages since this is considered his first interaction with different form of providers. A
strong and good upbringing is necessary.
In the phase of predestination, the individual recognizes that he is condemned to be a
receiver of information exclusively, a sort of spectator to a moving world without any clue of
when it is going to stop. The child perceives himself to be a mere witness to all of this
occurrence in front of him. Although it may be perceived as negative since the incapability to
change is futile. It is still considered normal since resistance is already existing.
Free will is now introduced in the next phase because the concept of predestination is
being questioned, it happens when an individual learns that free will is born as a product of
threat to his predestined constructs. He learns that constructs are changeable, flexible, and
independent from the forces of objective reality.
Lastly, emancipation from predestined phase is the last requirement to become a
psychologically healthy individual because recognizing that you have the power to control
your own constructs over the influences of environment, will lead to the metamorphization
phase where facilitation to change will occur through the interaction of its three (3)
dimensions: past, present, and future.
Theoretical Framework