Viv Burr

Personal Construct Psychology
A healthy diet
A good hotel
A bad father

Personal Construct Psychology
George Kelly (1930s)
The Psychology of Personal Constructs (1955)
Uniqueness of the person
Focus on personal meanings
CONSTRUCTS

Personal Construct Psychology
Poles
Bi-Polar eg friendly atmosphere vs unwelcoming

Personal Construct Psychology
Repertory Grid
Enables you to:
Examine the person’s unique pattern of constructs
(“Individuality”)
Examine the relationships between constructs
Examine the relationships between objects or events for the person
Examine shared construing (“Commonality”)

Personal Construct Psychology
Preferred pole 0
Contrast
(nonpreferred) pole X

Personal Construct Psychology
Stage 1: Role Repertory Test
Steps:
Think of a number of “Elements”
Construct elicitation using triads (groups of
3) or dyads (pairs)

Personal Construct Psychology
Stage 2: complete the grid
1. Enter the constructs on your grid
Using 0 for the left (preferred) pole and X for the right (contrast, non-preferred) pole:
Enter preferred pole
Enter contrast (non-preferred) pole
Use one row for each construct

Personal Construct Psychology
2. Score the elements on the constructs
Taking each construct (row) in turn, enter a
0 or X in the boxes in that row to represent which pole of the construct each element lies at for you.

Personal Construct Psychology
Preferred
0 not too sweet has bits hard satisfying chewy
Solid
X
0
0
0
Mars Kit-
Kat
X 0
Snickers Milky
Way
Lion
Bar
0 X 0
Bounty Ideal Nonpreferred
X
0 0 too sweet
X 0 0 X 0 X 0 smooth
0
X
X
X
0
0
0
0
X
X
X
X
X
0
0
0
X
X
X
X
0 soft
0 Still hungry
0 not chewy
0 insubstantial

Personal Construct Psychology
Related Elements:
Snickers, Ideal and Milky Way
Related constructs: satisfying/still hungry & chewy/not chewy has bits/smooth & hard/soft

Personal Construct Psychology
References
Butt and Burr (2004) An Invitation to Personal Construct
Psychology . 2nd edition. London: Whurr publishers.
Caputi, P., Viney, L., Walker, B.M. and Crittenden, N.
(eds) (2012) Personal Construct Methodology.
Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Kelly, G. (1955). The psychology of personal constructs .
New York: Norton.
Banister, P., Burman, E., Parker, I., Taylor, M. and
Tindall, C. (1994) Qualitative Methods in Psychology ,
Buckingham: Open University Press.
Fransella, F. and Bannister, D. (1977) A manual for repertory grid technique . Academic Press Inc.
Neimeyer, G. J. (1993) Constructivist Assessment .
London: Sage.