Chapter 19 Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs
Chapter 19
Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs
Learning Objectives
After reading Chapter 19, you should be able to:
1.
State Kelly's philosophical position of constructive alternativism.
2.
Discuss the fundamental postulate of Kelly's theory.
3.
List and explain the 11 supporting corollaries to the
fundamental postulate of personal construct theory.
4.
Define Kelly's concept of role, including core role and peripheral
role.
5.
Define threat from Kelly's point of view.
6.
Define anxiety from Kelly's point of view.
7.
Discuss Kelly's view of abnormal development.
8.
Describe the procedure for fixed-role therapy.
Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e
Student Study Guide-19 | 1
Chapter 19 Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs
9.
Explain the use of the Rep Test in personality assessment.
10. Discuss recent research using the Rep Test.
Summary Outline
I.
Overview of Kelly's Personal Construct Theory
Kelly's theory of personal constructs can be seen as a metatheory,
or a theory about theories. It holds that people anticipate events
by the meanings or interpretations that they place on those events.
Kelly called these interpretations personal constructs. His
philosophical position, called constructive alternativism, assumes
that alternative interpretations are always available to people.
II.
Biography of George Kelly
George Kelly was born on a farm in Kansas in 1905. During his
school years and his early professional career, he dabbled in a
wide variety of jobs, but he eventually received a PhD in
psychology from the University of Iowa. He began his academic
career at Fort Hays State College in Kansas; then after World War
II, he took a position at Ohio State. He remained there until 1965
when he joined the faculty at Brandeis University. He died 2
years later at age 61.
III.
Kelly's Philosophical Position
Kelly believed that people construe events according to their
personal constructs, rather than reality.
Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e
Student Study Guide-19 | 2
Chapter 19 Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs
A. Person as Scientist
People generally attempt to solve everyday problems in much the
same fashion as do scientists; that is, they observe, ask questions,
formulate hypotheses, infer conclusions, and predict future
events.
B. Scientist as Person
Because scientists are people, their pronouncements should be
regarded with the same skepticism as any other data. Every
scientific theory can be viewed from an alternate angle, and every
competent scientist should be open to changing his or her theory.
C. Constructive Alternativism
Kelly believed that all our interpretations of the world are subject
to revision or replacement, an assumption he called constructive
alternativism. He further stressed that, because people can
construe their world from different angles, observations that are
valid at one time may be false at a later time.
IV.
Personal Constructs
Kelly believed that people look at their world through templates
that they create and then attempt to fit over the realities of the
world. He called these templates, or transparent patterns,
personal constructs, which he believed shape behavior.
A. Basic Postulate
Kelly expressed his theory in one basic postulate and 11
supporting corollaries. The basic postulate assumes that human
behavior is shaped by the way people anticipate the future.
B. Supporting Corollaries
Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e
Student Study Guide-19 | 3
Chapter 19 Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs
The 11 supporting corollaries can all be inferred from this basic
postulate. (1) Although no two events are exactly alike, we
construe similar events as if they were the same, and this is
Kelly's construction corollary. (2) The individuality corollary
states that because people have different experiences, they can
construe the same event in different ways. (3) The organizational
corollary assumes that people organize their personal constructs
in a hierarchical system, with some constructs in a superordinate
position and other subordinate to them. (4) The dichotomy
corollary assumes that people construe events in an either/or
manner, e.g., good or bad. (5) Kelly's choice corollary assumes
that people tend to choose the alternative in a dichotomized
construct that they see as extending the range of their future
choices. (6) The range corollary states that constructs are
limited to a particular range of convenience; that is, they are not
relevant to all situations. (7) Kelly's experience corollary
suggests that people continually revise their personal constructs
as the result of their experiences. (8) The modulation corollary
assumes that only permeable constructs lead to change; concrete
constructs resist modification through experience. (9) The
fragmentation corollary states that people's behavior can be
inconsistent because their construct systems can readily admit
incompatible elements. (10) The commonality corollary
suggests that our personal constructs tend to be similar to the
construction systems of other people to the extent that we share
experiences with them. (11) The sociality corollary states that
Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e
Student Study Guide-19 | 4
Chapter 19 Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs
people are able to communicate with other people because they
can construe those people's constructions. With the sociality
corollary, Kelly introduced the concept of role, which refers to a
pattern of behavior that stems from people's understanding of the
constructs of others. Each of us has a core role and numerous
peripheral roles. A core role gives us a sense of identity whereas
peripheral roles are less central to our self-concept.
V.
Applications of Personal Construct Theory
Kelly's many years of clinical experience enabled him to evolve
concepts of abnormal development and psychotherapy, and to
develop a Role Construct Repertory (Rep) Test.
A. Abnormal Development
Kelly saw normal people as analogous to competent scientists
who test reasonable hypotheses, objectively view the results, and
willingly change their theories when the data warrant it.
Similarly, unhealthy people are like incompetent scientists who
test unreasonable hypotheses, reject or distort legitimate results,
and refuse to amend outdated theories. Kelly identified four
common elements in most human disturbances: (1) threat, or the
perception that one's basic constructs may be drastically changed;
(2) fear, which requires an incidental rather than a
comprehensive, restructuring of one's construct system; (3)
anxiety, or the recognition that one cannot adequately deal with a
new situation; and (4) guilt, defined as "the sense of having lost
one's core role structure."
B. Psychotherapy
Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e
Student Study Guide-19 | 5
Chapter 19 Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs
Kelly insisted that clients should set their own goals for therapy
and that they should be active participants in the therapeutic
process. He sometimes used a procedure called fixed-role
therapy, in which clients act out a predetermined role for several
weeks. By playing the part of a psychologically healthy person,
clients may discover previously hidden aspects of themselves.
C. The Rep Test
The purpose of the Rep Test is to discover ways in which clients
construe significant people in their lives. Clients place names of
people they know on a repertory grid in order to identify both
similarities and differences among these people.
VI.
Related Research
Kelly's personal construct theory and his Rep Test have generated
a substantial amount of empirical research in both the United
States and the United Kingdom. Although many researchers in
the field of social cognition use conventional questionnaires,
some have followed Kelly’s lead and use phenomenological or
idiographic measures, such as the Rep test or some modified
version of it (Neimeyer & Neimeyer, 1995). More recent
applications of the Rep test methodology have analyzed the
different construct systems of sexually abused versus non-abused
individuals (Lewis-Harter, Erbes, & Hart, 2004).
A. Gender As a Personal Construct
In 2003, Marcel Harper and Wilhelm Schoeman reported on a
study of college students in South Africa that had used the REP
Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e
Student Study Guide-19 | 6
Chapter 19 Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs
test to detect individual differences in the degree to which people
internalize cultural views of gender. The authors found that the
less information someone has about a person, the more likely they
will use stereotypic gender schemas to evaluate that person; that is,
participants who used gender stereotypes in perceiving strangers
tended to have limited perceptions of other people.
B. Smoking and Self-Concept
Previous research on self-concept and adolescent smoking has
tended to find relatively negative self-concepts of smokers
compared with non-smokers. Specifically, smokers have more
disparity between real and ideal self-concepts, as well as lower
self-esteem (Burton, Sussman, Hansen, Johnson, & Flay, 1989;
Webster, Hunger, & Keats, 1994). But since people smoke for
different reasons, an idiographic approach such as the Rep test was
thought to be better than conventional measures for these
differences. Peter Weiss, Neill Watson, and Howard Mcguire
(2003) used the REP test to investigate the hypothesis that
smokers would identify with and rate their own personalities more
similar to the personality descriptions they have of other smokers
than of non-smokers. They also predicted a lower self-concept for
smokers than non-smokers. As predicted, both smokers and nonsmokers identified with and valued more highly the traits of nonsmokers (such as quiet, studious, etc.) than of smokers. However,
the prediction that smokers would have lower self-esteem (greater
real versus ideal self disparity) did not hold. Weiss et al concluded
that not only is the Rep test useful for assessing self-concept, but it
Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e
Student Study Guide-19 | 7
Chapter 19 Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs
also may be a more valid and individualized tool than standard
questionnaires.
C. Personal Constructs and the Big Five
While recently researchers have been exploring connections
between Kelly’s personal constructs and the Big Five personality
traits, some personality psychologists disagree with the fact that
Kelly’s constructs have not received as much attention as the Big
Five. James Grice and colleagues directly compared the two
approaches (Grice, 2004; Grice, Jackson, & McDaniel, 2006).
They found only about 50% overlap; i.e., the repertory grid
captured aspects the Big Five did not, and the Big Five captured
aspects the repertory grid did not. So while both approaches are
important, and the Big Five framework has provided common
descriptors that have facilitated a great deal of research, Kelly’s
personal construct theory emphasizes the uniqueness of
individuals, which is invaluable to the study of individual
differences central to personality psychology.
VIII. Critique of Kelly
Kelly's theory probably is most applicable to relatively normal,
intelligent people. Unfortunately, it pays scant attention to
problems of motivation, development, and cultural influences. On
the six criteria of a useful theory, it rates very high on parsimony
and internal consistency and about average on its ability to
generate research. However it rates low on its ability to be
falsified, to guide the practitioner, and to organize knowledge.
IX.
Concept of Humanity
Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e
Student Study Guide-19 | 8
Chapter 19 Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs
Kelly saw people as anticipating the future and living their lives
in accordance with those anticipations. His concept of
elaborative choice suggests that people increase their range of
future choices by the present choices they freely make. Thus,
Kelly's theory rates very high in teleology and high in choice and
optimism. In addition, it receives high ratings for conscious
influences and for its emphasis on the uniqueness of the
individual. Finally, personal construct theory is about average on
social influences.
Test Items
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1.
Kelly's theory can be called a _____________________ because it
is mostly a theory about theories.
2.
Kelly regarded people as ____________________, because they
asks questions, formulates hypotheses, and looks for evidence.
3.
The Psychology of ______________________ Constructs is
Kelly's best known book.
4.
Personal ____________________ are our way of interpreting
events.
Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e
Student Study Guide-19 | 9
Chapter 19 Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs
5.
To Kelly, present constructs are subject to ________________ or
replacement.
6.
Kelly believed that personal ____________________, not the
facts, holds the key to an individual's future.
7
If a construct is to exist, there must be both a __________ and a
contrast.
8.
Kelly's basic postulate assumes that people's processes are directed
by the ways in which they _______________________ events.
9.
Constructive _______________________ refers to Kelly's
assumption that all of our present interpretations are subject to
revision or replacement.
10. The ______________________ corollary states that people
anticipate events by construing their replications.
11. The organization corollary emphasizes the relationships among
_____________________.
12. The ____________________ corollary assumes that personal
constructs are finite and not relevant to everything.
Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e
Student Study Guide-19 | 10
Chapter 19 Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs
13. Kelly's ___________________ corollary assumes that the extent to
which we revise our constructs is related to the degree of
permeability of our existing constructs.
14. In spite of repeated ________________________, unhealthy
people hold on to their personal constructs.
15. People experience ________________________ when they see
that the stability of their basic constructs is likely to be shaken.
16. Kelly defined ___________________ as "the sense of having lost
one's role structure."
17. Kelly believed that ________________________ is more specific
and incidental than threat.
18. Pathological __________________________ exists when people
realize that their incompatible constructs can no longer be
tolerated.
19. Kelly used ____________________ therapy to help clients change
their outlook on life by acting out a predetermined role.
20. Kelly's concept of ____________________ choice explains how
present choices expand the range of our future choices.
Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e
Student Study Guide-19 | 11
Chapter 19 Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs
True-False
______1. George Kelly's theory is a theory about theories.
______2. Kelly's theory allows for change even in its own basic
assumptions.
______3. Kelly insisted that behavior is shaped by a person's
environment.
______4. Kelly realized that his theory was a set of half-truths.
______5. Kelly accepted the phenomenological position that our
perceptions are our only reality.
______6. Like Adler, Kelly thought that our interpretation of events is
more important than the events themselves.
______7. Kelly assumed that the universe really existed.
______8. It is virtually impossible for incompatible constructs to exist
within a person.
______9. Personal construct theory attempts to explain nature.
Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e
Student Study Guide-19 | 12
Chapter 19 Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs
_____10. A person's construction system exists only in the present.
_____11. Kelly believed that psychological disorders were a result of
childhood experiences.
_____12. People who have never developed a core role do not feel
guilty.
_____13. The personal construction systems of people who have
psychological disorders is much narrower than the
construction systems of psychologically healthy individuals.
_____14. Kelly believed that people belong to the same cultural group
mostly because they construe their experience in the same
manner.
_____15. The purpose of fixed-role therapy is to help clients change
their outlook on life by having them act out a predetermined
role.
_____16. Kelly had a basically pessimistic view of human nature.
_____17. Personal construct theory is more teleological than causal.
Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e
Student Study Guide-19 | 13
Chapter 19 Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs
_____18. Harper and Schoeman (2003) found that people who rely
heavily on gender stereotypes tend to have few basic
prejudices.
_____19. Although Kelly's personality theory was quite unique, his
practice of psychotherapy remained strongly psychoanalytic.
_____20.
Kelly's theory addressed such basic psychological concepts
as motivation, learning, and development.
Multiple Choice
______1. Kelly's college education may have influenced his later
writings, which are sprinkled with
a. agricultural references.
b. show business references.
c. biblical references.
d. musical references.
e. classical mythology.
______2. Kelly's personal construct theory should be viewed as
a. a metatheory.
b. a psychoanalytic theory.
c. an existential theory.
d. a behavioral theory.
Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e
Student Study Guide-19 | 14
Chapter 19 Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs
e. a factor analytic theory.
______3. Kelly compared a person's attempts to interpret and explain
events to those of
a. a scientist.
b. a psychotherapist.
c. an animal.
d. an engineer.
______4. Kelly believed that his theory, like all others,
a. is a metatheory.
b. should explain unconscious motivation.
c. is subject to change and revision.
d. should be limited to "normal" behavior.
e. should be based on nomothetic research methods.
______5. Kelly's assumption that present interpretations are subject to
revision and change is called
a. scientific determinism.
b. constructive alternativism.
c. theoretical empiricism.
d. alternative constructivism.
e. empirical constructivism.
______6. Kelly explicitly assumed that
a. the universe exists.
Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e
Student Study Guide-19 | 15
Chapter 19 Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs
b. all reality is subjective.
c. the universe is beyond human understanding.
d. all people are motivated to rise above their peers.
______7. Facts, according to Kelly,
a. are immutable.
b. determine our perceptions.
c. carry meaning for us to discover.
d. are discovered by scientists and disseminated to nonscientists.
e. are discovered by scientists and then disseminated to other
scientists.
______8. Personal constructs are best defined as
a. subjective opinions held without substantiating evidence.
b. events that are shaped by personal biases.
c. alternative ways of looking at the world.
d. transparent templates or patterns that help people make sense
out of the world.
______9. All personal constructs, Kelly said, have at least
a. one comparison and one contrast.
b. two comparisons and one contrast.
c. one comparison and two contrasts.
d. two comparisons and two contrasts.
_____10. Kelly's fundamental postulate assumes that
Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e
Student Study Guide-19 | 16
Chapter 19 Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs
a. present behavior is guided by past experiences.
b. people guide their actions by the ways they predict the future.
c. all behavior, without exception, is completely determined by
and pertinent to one's phenomenal field.
d. personal constructs are convenient for an infinite range of
events.
_____11. Kelly's construction corollary assumes that people
a. construe similar events in an identical fashion.
b. construe similar events in very different ways.
c. interpret past events by their recurrent themes.
d. may do any of these depending on the situation.
_____12. The notion that people differ from one another in their
construction of events best describes Kelly's _____ corollary.
a. choice
b. experience
c. organization
d. individuality
e. dichotomy
_____13. Which of Kelly's corollaries explicitly assumes an ordinal
relationship among constructs?
a. organization
b. dichotomy
c. fragmentation
Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e
Student Study Guide-19 | 17
Chapter 19 Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs
d. construction
e. individuality
_____14. The assumption that personal constructs are limited to a finite
number of events reflects this corollary.
a. choice
b. commonality
c. fragmentation
d. range
e. organization
_____15. Permeable constructs
a. hold no information.
b. permit change.
c. restrict adaptation.
d. cannot be anticipated.
_____16. Which of Kelly's corollaries assumes that people can hold
seemingly incompatible beliefs?
a. choice
b. organization
c. fragmentation
d. dichotomy
e. individuality
_____17. Kelly defined a role as
Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e
Student Study Guide-19 | 18
Chapter 19 Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs
a. a facade we erect to prevent others from seeing who we really
are.
b. a pattern of behavior resulting from our understanding of the
constructs of others.
c. the extent to which we accurately construe the constructions
of others.
d. an invalid personal construct in need of the validation of
another.
_____18. Kelly compared psychologically unhealthy people to
a. incompetent scientists.
b. bankrupt businesses.
c. a dry riverbed.
d. physically unhealthy people.
e. used Christmas trees.
_____19. Kelly defined threat as
a. any incidental modification of a personal construct.
b. the awareness of an immediate and basic change to the core
structure.
c. any action or behavior inconsistent with one's core role
experience.
d. failure to develop a core role.
_____20. In order to facilitate clients' discovery of hidden aspects of
themselves, Kelly used
Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e
Student Study Guide-19 | 19
Chapter 19 Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs
a. hypnosis.
b. dream interpretation.
c. fixed-role therapy.
d. early recollections.
Short Answer
1. Explain the difference between a concept and a construct.
2. List Kelly's four elements that result in psychological disturbance.
3. Explain the difference between threat and fear.
Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e
Student Study Guide-19 | 20
Chapter 19 Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs
4. Explain the purpose of fixed-role therapy.
5. List two criticisms of the Rep Test.
6. Discuss at least two research reports that have used the Rep Test.
Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e
Student Study Guide-19 | 21
Chapter 19 Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs
Answers
Fill-in-the-Blanks
True-False
Multiple Choice
1.
metatheory
1.
T
1.
c
2.
scientists
2.
T
2.
a
3.
Personal
3.
F
3.
a
4.
constructs
4.
T
4.
c
5.
revision (change)
5.
F
5.
b
6.
constructs
6.
T
6.
a
7.
comparison
7.
T
7.
c
8.
anticipate
8.
F
8.
d
9.
alternativism
9.
F
9.
a
10.
construction
10.
T
10.
b
11.
constructs
11.
F
11.
a
12.
range
12.
T
12.
d
13.
modulation
13.
T
13.
a
14.
invalidation
14.
T
14.
d
15.
threat
15.
T
15.
b
16.
guilt
16.
F
16.
c
17.
fear
17.
T
17.
b
18.
anxiety
18.
F
18.
a
19.
fixed-role
19.
F
19.
b
20.
elaborative
20.
F
20.
c
Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e
Student Study Guide-19 | 22