Our lived experiences are crucial indicators of how we anticipate specific events in life. How do we learn to anticipate certain events that are yet to happen? The reason why humans are known to be the smartest species is due to the ability to reflect on our sense of self – to introspect on our experiences, feelings, and actions that help us learn how our environment operates and its underlying principles that, in turn, dictate the way we operate in them. Through this reflection, we subconsciously create a causal relationship between certain variables. However, this constructed perception may not be the same for everyone. For instance, some people perceive that money is the only source of happiness, but some could believe that happiness cannot be bought with money.
George Kelly's Personal Construct Theory emphasizes that humans create or construct their meaning and understanding of the world around them in order for them to navigate through their environments. This meaning is attained through reflection and insights from our own and sometimes others' perceptions. These constructions help us attach a purpose to our actions – they are why we go to ABC school instead of XYZ school or consider mutual funds a good investment opportunity rather than the stock market.
The personal construct theory or PCT originated in the 1950s and contrasted that period's view on behaviorism – that people were passive respondents to environmental circumstances and events. Kelly originally published this theory in his two-volume book (later into a simple, smaller, and single volume), A Theory of Personality: The Psychology of Personal Constructs, in 1955. This meta-theory on the theories people have about themselves has been argued to be on par with humanistic approaches taken up by Carl Jung and Abraham Maslow, deeming itself as a theory of how one invents themselves.
In his paper 'The autobiography of a theory, Kelly traces how exactly he thought of PCT through two occurrences:
He observed that his approach to working on scientific papers and as a psychotherapist that helped people solve their distress was similar. Both activities were connected through the search to make sense of events we are confronted with.
He recognized a paradox of how scientists view themselves versus other human beings who were not them or scientists. What was good for someone could be bad for another.
Through these observations, the theory of personal constructs was conceived.
According to Kelly, the fundamental postulate is a person's process that is psychologically channelized by how he anticipates events. Kelly theorized that each individual has their construct concerning how we perceive, predict and analyze an event or behavior. They are subjective that end up dictating how different people react differently to the same event. By using the term 'anticipate,' Kelly mentions his view of man as a scientist that seeks to predict future events. For instance, while packing for a vacation, some people may find packing clothes and other essentials less stressful than others due to their prior experiences that have led them to be organized or efficient.
This fundamental postulate is how we channel our cognitions in a way that allows that individual to predict or anticipate an event based on past experiences. However, these are subject to change or reconstruction. The process of personal construction is an ongoing cycle – it changes as we experience specific events that challenge existing constructs so that uncertainty of the future is minimized.
One flaw of the fundamental postulate is that it does not account for all aspects of a person's behavior. Humans are multidimensional, and hence, to account for this, Kelly introduced eleven corollaries alongside the fundamental postulate. These corollaries are additions that elucidate man's predictive and imaginative disposition. They are as follows:
An empirical grounding or scientific backing is required for any theory to be considered accurate and right. For his construct theory, Kelly developed the repertory grid method. While primarily based on the corollaries of construction and dichotomy, this method extracts input from a specific individual to bring to light their mental models or the ways in which they invoke meaning.
In the repertory grid method, the following steps are undertaken:
Subjects are asked to write a list of their mental models to compare and rate them.
This would be followed by deriving and analyzing their character traits. Each trait also has an opposite construct, which Kelly used to represent a specific internal theory or feature for the client.
This was built into a rating grid that would be interpreted using non-parametric factor analysis.
This is then ensued by the interviewing phase, where the client would be guided through their results, helping them and their clinician to expand upon and verify the relationships amongst the resulting concepts.
Suppose Person A perceives that people with cold eyes are mean or stingy with money. To empirically validate or provide a statistical founding, Person A could use a chi-square grid like below on the variables of cold-eyed versus warm eyes and mean versus generous.
| Cold Eyes | Warm Eyes | |
| Mean | ||
| Generous |
This ascertained data can either be interpreted as the relationship between eye type and kindness or that this is how Person A specifically views people with cold eyes or warm eyes. To understand this latter view, Kelly's construct theory comes into the way. Through this theory, questions like what experiences have led Person A to validate their construct or view that people with cold eyes are mean can be answered or at least understood.
The strength of this theory is that it provides a holistic view of a person's understanding of their environment which can be compared to knowing individual differences. Personality is seen as fluid or ever-changing as it is dependent on experiences. Although the personal construct theory helps individuals examine their traits and understand why they behave, act and feel the way they do, it lacks in classifying traits so that individuals can get the help they did. As this theory forces researchers to view the world through the participant's eyes in order for them to express their mental models, researchers will be limited if the participant has a personality disorder that has or has not been diagnosed. Its findings cannotbe generalized as well. Despite this, the theory is used as a stepping stone to understanding ourselves in a detailed manner.
Physics
Biology
Chemistry
Mathematics
Economics
Psychology
Environmental Science
Social Studies
Fashion Studies
English