PERSONALITY - KELLY’s Personal Construct Theory

                                  Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory

Overview of personal construct theory;

  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 phenomonological theory. Yet it is none of these. Perhaps the most appropriate term is ‘metatheory’, or a theory about theories. According to Kelly, all people anticipate events by the meanings of interpretations they place on those events. These meanings or interpretations are colled constructs,. People exist in a real world, but their behavior is shaped by their gradually expanding interpretation or construction of that world. They construe the world in their own way, and every construction is open to revision or replacement.

  Constructive alternativism is implied by Kelly’s theory of personal constructs, a theory he expressed in one basic postulate and 11 supporting corollaries. The basic postulate assumes that people are constantly active and that their activity is guided by the way they anticipate events.

Person as a scientist:

  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. Like all other people, your perception of reality is colored by your personal constructs-your way of looking at, explaining, and interpreting events in your world.

Scientist as a person:

  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 and behavior. Every scientific observations can be looked at from a different perspective. Every theory can be slightly tilted and viewed from a new angle. This approach, of course, means that Kell’s theory is not exempt from restructuring.

Constructive alternativism:

  Kelly began with the assumptionthat the universereally exists and that it functions as an integralunit, with all its parts interactions precisely with each other. Moreover, the universe is constantly changing, so something is happening all the time. Added to these basic assumptions is the Notion that people’s thoughts also really exist and that people strive to make sense out of their continously changing world. Different people construe reality in different ways, and the same person is capable of changing his or her view of the world. Kelly believed that the person, not the facts, holds the key to an individual’s future. Facts and events do not dictate conclusions; rather, they carry meanings for us to discover. We are all constantly faced with altrenatives, which we can explore if we choose, but in any case, we must assume responsibility for how we construeour worlds. We are victims of neiher our history nor our present circumstances. That is not to say that we can make of our world whatever we wish. We are ‘limited by our feeble wits and our timid reliance upon what is familiar’ (Kelly, 1970). We do not always welcome new ideas. Like scientists in general and personality theorists in particular, we often find restructuring disturbing and thus hold on to ideas that are comfortable and theories that are well established.

Applications of Personal Construct Theory:

  Like most personality theoriest, Kelly evolved his theoretical formulations from his practise as a psychotherapist. He spent more than 20 conducting theraphy before he published the psychology of personal constructs in 1955.

Abnormal development:

  Psychologically healthy people 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. Unhealthy people, on the other hand, subbornly 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 imcopetent scientists who test un reasonable hypotheses, reject or distort legitimate results, and refuse to amend or abondon old theories that are no longer useful. Psychologically unhealthy people, like everyone else, possess a complex construction system. Their personal construct, however, often fail the test of permeability in one of two ways: They may be too impermeable or they may be too flexible. In the first instance, new experineces do not penetrate the construction system, so the person fails to adjust to the real world.

Threat:

  People experience threat when they perceive that the stability of their basic constructs is likely to be shaken. Kelly (1955) defined threat as ‘the awreness of imminent comprehensive change in one’s core structures’. One can be threatened by either people or events, and sometimes the two cannot be separeted. For example, during psychotheraphy, clients often feel threat from the prospect of change, even change fort he better. If they see a therapist as a possible instigator of change, they will view that therapist as a threat. Clients frequently resist change and construe their therapist’s behavior in a negative fashion.

Fear:

  Threat involves a comprehensive change in a person’s core structures. Fear, on the other hand, is more specific and incidental. Kelly illustrated the difference between threat and fear with the following example. A man may drive his car dangerously as the result of anger or exuberance. These impulses become threatening when the man realizes that he ay run over a child or be arrested for reckless driving and end up as a criminal. In this case, a comprehensive portion of his personal constructs is threatened.

Anxiety:

  Kelly defined as ‘the recognition that the events with which one is comfronted lie outside the range of convenience of one’s constructs system’. People are likely to feel axious when they are experiencing a new event. For example, when Arlene, the engineering student, was bargaining with the used-car dealer, she was not sure what to do or say. She had never before negotiated over such a large amount of Money, and therefore this experience was outside the range of her convenience. As a consequence, she felt anxiety, but was a normal level of anxiety and did not result in incapacitation.

Critique of Kelly:

  Most of Kelly’s Professional career was spent working with relatively normal, inteligent college student. Undestandably, his theory seems most applicable to these people. He made o attempt to elucidate early childhood experiences  or maturity and old age. To Kelly, people live solely in the present, with one eye always on the future. This view, though somewhat optimistic, fails to account for developmental and cultural influences on personality.

  Personal construct theory receives a modarate  to strong rating on the amount of research it has generated. The Rep test and the repertory grid have generated a sizable number of studies, especially in Great Britain, although these instruments are used less frequently by psychologists in the United States.

  Despite the relative parsimony of Kell’s basic postulate and 11 supporting corollaries, the theory does not lend itself easily to either verification or falsification. Therefore, we rate personal construct theory low on falsifiability.

  Personal construcy theory organize knowledge about human behavior. On this criterion, the theory must be rated low. Kell’s notion that our behavior  is consistent  with our current  perceptions helps organize knowledge; but his avoidence of the problems of motivation , developmental influences, and cultural forces limits his theory’s ability to give specific meanings to much of what is currently known about the complexity of personality.

  Finally, is the theory parsimonious? Despite the lenght of Kelly’s two volume book, the theoy of personal constructs is exceptionally straightforward and economical. The basic theory is stated in one fundemental postulate and then elaborated by means of 11 corollaries. All other concepts and assumptions can be easily related to this relatively simple structure.