© McGraw-Hill Theories of Personality Kelly Chapter 18 © 2009 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

© McGraw-Hill Outline Overview of Personal Construct Theory Biography of George Kelly Kelly’s Philosophical Position Personal Constructs Applications of Personal Construct Theory Related Research Critique of Kelly Concept of Humanity

© McGraw-Hill Overview of Personal Construct Theory Called a Metatheory People Anticipate Events by the Meanings or Interpretations They Place on Those Events Behavior Is Shaped by Interpretation or Construction of the World Every Construction Is Open to Revision or Replacement

© McGraw-Hill Biography of Kelly Born in Perth, Kansas in 1905 Was the only child to an ordained Presbyterian minister Earned a bachelor’s degree in Physics and Mathematics Earned his PhD in Psychology in 1931 (in 1 year!) from the State University of Iowa

© McGraw-Hill Biography (cont’d) Soon after his PhD, he became a psychotherapist During WWII, he became an aviation psychologist for the Navy After the war, he joined the faculty at Ohio State University (with Rotter) as Professor and Director of the Psychological Clinic Published The Psychology of Personal Constructs in 1955 Died in 1967

© McGraw-Hill Kelly’s Philosophical Position Person as Scientist –Like scientists, people ask questions, formulate hypotheses, test them, draw conclusions, and try to predict future events Scientist as Person –Scientists can also be seen as people and their pronouncements should be regarded with same skepticism Constructive Alternativism –All of our present interpretations of the universe are subject to revision or replacement –The piece-by-piece accumulation of facts does not add up to truth; rather, facts can be looked at from different perspectives

© McGraw-Hill Personal Constructs Basic Postulate –“A person’s processes are psychologically channelized by the ways in which [that person] anticipates events” (Kelly, 1955) Supporting Corollaries –Kelly proposed 11 supporting corollaries, all of which can be inferred from his basic postulate

© McGraw-Hill Personal Constructs Supporting Corollaries –Similarities among events –Differences among people –Relationships among constructs –Dichotomy of constructs –Choice between dichotomies –Range of convenience –Experience and learning –Adaptation to experience –Incompatible constructs –Similarities among people –Social processes

© McGraw-Hill Applications of Personal Construct Theory Abnormal Development –Unhealthy people cling to outdated personal constructs Threat Fear Anxiety Guilt Psychotherapy –Fixed-role Therapy The Role Construct Repertory (Rep) Test –To discover ways people construe significant people

© McGraw-Hill Related Research Gender as a Personal Construct –Harper & Schoeman (2003) Gender was a basic category for many participants People who used gender most were more likely to apply gender stereotypes to strangers Smoking and Self Concept –Weiss, Watson, & McGuire (2003) Smokers identified more with their descriptions of smoker personality than nonsmokers did for non-smoker personalities Personal Constructs and the Big Five –James Grice (2004), Grice et al. (2009) The Big Five and Kelly’s Repertory Grid only overlap in what they measure by about 50% Big Five framework provides common descriptors facilitating much research, while Kelly’s theory is better with individual differences

© McGraw-Hill Critique of Kelly Kelly’s Theory Is: –High on Parsimony –Moderate on Internal Consistency and Generating Research –Low on Organizing Knowledge, Falsifiability, and Guiding Action

© McGraw-Hill Concept of Humanity Optimism over Pessimism Free Choice over Determinism Teleology over Causality Conscious over Unconscious Social Factors over Biology Uniqueness over Similarity