Kelly and issues of power

Abstract

Whether Kelly's personal passion for egalitarianism and democracy is translated into tenets of personal construct theory is addressed. First, Kelly's convictions as they appear in the writings are examined. Then sociological criteria are outlined for assessing the degree to which the theory supports the implementation of those convictions and, in its therapeutic application, facilitates autonomy and empowerment. It is concluded that personal construct theory has potential for encouraging people to realize their full liberated potential. Furthermore, it can be extended to enlarge its scope.     

Emotion in Personal Construct Theory: A Controversial Question

George Kelly's personal construct theory (PCT) has been accused of disregarding the role of emotion in human life. This charge originates from a misunderstanding of PCT's basic assumptions. Kelly deals with experiences commonly called “emotional” in terms of dimensions of transition according to a genuinely constructivist epistemology. A review of the literature shows few elaborations of Kelly's original formulation of constructs relating to transitions, and even some contributions critical of Kelly's approach to emotions. This article rebuts the criticisms while making clear the epistemological and theoretical bases of Kelly's treatment of transitional experiences, its peculiarities, and its role in the diagnostic/therapeutic process.     

Departing from Classical Logic: A Logical Analysis of Personal Construct Theory

This article draws a parallel between personal construct theory and intuitionistic logic i, in order to account for Kelly's claim to have departed from classical logic. Assuming that different theoretical paradigms correspond to different logical languages, it is argued that the constructivist paradigm is linked to intuitionism. Similarities between some key syntactic and semantic features of i logic and the underlying logic of Kelly's theory are made explicit. The strengths and limitations of such an approach are discussed in light of issues emerging from clinical observation and from the philosophy of science.     

Personal Construct Theory and Cognitive Science

Abstract

Warren (1990) claims to have formulated an argument “that personal construct psychology is not a cognitive psychology” (p. 379). Nonetheless, he presents very little in the way of logical demonstration or empirical evidence to support this conclusion. Moreover, the theoretical significance of the question posed in the title of his essay (“Is Personal Construct Psychology a Cognitive Psychology?”) is far from obvious. He asserts that “what is at dispute here is the proper characterization of a position” however, his listing several textbooks that refer to Kelly's theory as a “cognitive” approach to the study of personality does nothing at all to either clarify the specific implications of this question or explain its importance. Interestingly, in a recent introductory personality text by one of Kelly's former students (Phares, 1988), this theory is designated as a “phenomenological approach,” which is consistent with Warren's own notion that “he [Kelly] was more phenomenological than he himself believed” Kelly vigorously resisted all such attempts to classify his model in terms of the usual textbook categories (cf. Adams-Webber & Mancuso, 1983).     

Personal construct systems and love styles

The present study explored the relationships between individuals' personal construct systems regarding romantic relationships and their love styles. One hundred subjects (50 male and 50 female) completed a questionnaire containing the Love Attitudes Scale and were also administered George Kelly's repertory technique, which was used to evaluate subjects' threat, perceptual shift, actualization, and cognitive complexity. Results revealed theoretically predictable relationships among the measures. For instance, subjects who were more erotic were also more actualized, and manic lovers showed greater perceptual shift. The personal construct approach offers rich insight into aspects of intimate relationships.     

Personal construct theory and the argument against mental illness

An attempt is made to integrate Thomas Szasz's 0974) theory of personal conduct and George Kelly's (1955) theory of personal constructs (PCT). It is argued that PCT provides an alternative to the void left behind by Szasz's negation of mental illness. Because PCT is concerned with psychological, rather than physiological, constructions of problems in living, it is not compatible with the biological model associated with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) diagnostic categories. Rather, it is in keeping with the views of Szasz. Kelly's and Szasz's writings are used to support this view. Kelly's transitive diagnosis approach to “mental illness”, wherein diagnosis and therapy are construed as process oriented as opposed to category driven, is described as an alternative to the biological model. A contextualist approach (Sarbin & Mancuso, 1980) is also discussed. These approaches not only empower clients and allow them to assert responsibility and control over their lives, but also provide an alternative system to the one rejected by Szasz.     

A 21st-Century Personal Construct Psychology Upgrade

Cromwell's (2010) Being Human: Human Being. Manifesto for a New Psychology described many familiar elements of Kelly's (1955) Psychology of Personal Constructs. Cromwell regarded Kelly's theory as having a range of untapped implications, and he extended and elaborated many of these elements and links them to contemporary research in a variety of fields and subdomains. These extensions and elaborations might serve as a basis for maintaining the fundamental identity of personal construct psychology (PCP) while also modifying it in a manner that could enhance its contemporary relevance and effectiveness.     

THE EFFECT OF ELICITATION METHODS ON PERSONAL CONSTRUCT DIFFERENTIATION AND VALENCE

The effect of personal construct elicitation methods on construct content and structure was addressed in two studies. In Study 1, a between-subjects design was used to compare Kelly's (1955) original Triadic Difference method of elicitation with a Dyadic Opposite method. Study 2 used a fully-crossed, mixed factorial design to compare Kelly's (1955) Triadic Difference method with Epting, Suchman, and Nickeson's (1971) Triadic Opposite method. Results showed that "difference" methods of construct elicitation produced significantly higher levels of construct differentiation, lower numbers of positive emergent construct poles, and less socially undesirable implicit construct poles than "opposite" methods (see also Caputi & Reddy, in press). Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to a critical reappraisal of repertory grid methods.     

Identification,Reflection, And Correlation: Problems In The Bases Of Repertory Grid Measures

Repertory grids, deriving from George Kelly's personal construct theory, have been used to provide measures of a number of personality and cognitive variables. Several of these grid measures, such as the identification index, some measures of cognitive complexity, and other indices extracted from factor analyses of grids, are based on correlations between the columns (elements) of the grid data matrix. These measures are problematic and unstable because the intercolumn correlations depend on the direction of scoring across each of the matrix rows (constructs). This direction is not guided by explicit or theoretically justified rules and appears to be arbitrary and inconsistent between researchers. Also, correlation is a poor measure of element similarity, the basis of the identification measure. The importance of the valuating aspect of construing may provide a basis for the standardization of scoring. And scoring from the valued pole of a construct may help bring stability and meaning to the correlation-based measures.     

PERSONAL CONSTRUCT PSYCHOLOGY AND AUTISM

There has been no significant writing within personal construct psychology about autistic spectrum disorders, despite the fact that this approach provides promising models in a number of other specific areas of human difficulty. This article outlines a PCP model of autism, based on a wide variety of recent research findings and writings, including those of autism sufferers themselves. Autism is considered in the light of Kelly's fundamental postulate and 11 corollaries as well as Procter's (1978) group and family corollaries. It is argued that Kelly's theory provides an integrative framework for considering this complex set of disorders with implications for further research in autism and the early development of social cognition as well as for therapeutic and educational intervention in helping people struggling with autistic spectrum disorders.     

Dewey Between the Lines: George Kelly and the Pragmatist Tradition

In his own somewhat sly and sardonic way, George Kelly always insisted that personal construct theory could not be assimilated into any other kind of psychology. We believe this was not an example of Kelly being difficult or protecting his turf, but that he resisted such efforts at categorization because he formulated personal construct psychology from an entirely different set of assumptions than those which have traditionally guided the construction of psychological theories. We begin by looking at the unusual life path Kelly took in order to enter the field of psychology and what it reveals about the independent turn of mind he brought to creating his own theory of personality. We then examine what we believe is the single most important influence on Kelly's thinking—the tradition of American pragmatism, in general, and the philosophy and psychology of John Dewey, in particular. We argue that Kelly embraced the pragmatic epistemological assumptions that guided Dewey's work, and that he used these assumptions to develop the only pragmatic theory of personality and psychotherapy. It is, in fact, the influence of Dewey and the pragmatists that makes personal construct psychology so different from and, at times, more difficult to understand than other, more traditional, “realist” theories, but it is also this pragmatic orientation that makes Kelly's theory such an important contribution.     

Motivation in Personal Construct Theory: A Conceptual Critique

Kelly's attempt to derive apparently motiwtional phenomena (hostility, guilt, etc.) solely from the confirmation or disconfirmation of personal constructs cannot adequately explain such phenomena. His account of hostility assumes that some beliefs are so resistant to change that the person seeks to compel confirmation of them; however, this resistance is incompatible with Kelly's own Choice Corollary. Anxiety is said to derive from the fact that disconfirmation would leave one's world in chaos, but “chaos” is shown to be an illogical concept. Humor, in turn, cannot be explained just by cognitive incongruity, since incongruity may as well lead to anxiety or hostility. Finally, guilt cannot be explained without reference to underlying fears of punishment and their rationalization in terms of supposedly objective moral concepts. Nevertheless, Kelly's Repertory Grid technique, supplemented by laddering, may be useful in indicating primary needs, moral convictions, and sources of anxiety.     

Goal Theories of Motivation as Rigorous Humanism

Over the past few decades, there has been increasing interest among social, clinical, and personality psychologists in the topic of human agency in general and personal goals in particular. Goal theories of motivation are described and analyzed from the perspective of Rychlak's rigorous humanism. Studying goals may actually be more of a methodology than a theory. A number of different theories could lead to the study of goals as a primary research methodology. However, not all such theories will meet Rychlak's criteria for rigorous humanism. The role of goals in Logical Learning Theory is discussed.     

Standardized patients: A fixed-role therapy experience in normal individuals

Abstract

This article describes how standardized patients (SPs), people trained to portray a patient role in a consistent fashion, view their role-playing experiences. Focus groups with 37 SPs (63% participation rate) were used to explore what impact, if any, playing a number of fixed roles had on them and their lives. Personal insights and changes reported by SPs are examined in terms of personal construct theory. The implications of these findings for both teaching clinicians and for therapeutic work with clients are discussed. The findings illustrate continuing relevance of G. Kelly's (1955) observations about the usefulness of role-playing and enactment techniques.     

The two faces of hostility: The implications of personal construct theory for understanding alienation

Although Kelly did not deal with alienation directly, the theory of personal constructs makes an important contribution to a comprehensive understanding of this complex phenomenon. By relating to specific functions of the individual, personal construct psychology explains how alienation is perpetuated by the very people who are its victims. In this article, 1 point out the link of PCT with the phenomenon of alienation that confirms the implicit presence of the social in the personal construction of reality. This elaboration provides an interpretation of Kelly's theory that escapes the limitations of radical individualism and enhances our understanding of sociocultural processes.     

Jean piaget and george kelly: Toward a stronger constructivism

Among constructivist metatheoretical approaches, a strong version is defined as that which reveals reality to be actively and subjectively constructed rather than passively incorporated as objective environmental or innate “facts” by the subject. Given this definition, however, ambiguities arise concerning the potential and limits of construct integration over the course of development. Piaget's stronger constructivist model is offered as a means of clarifying and broadening the strong constructivist position on knowledge evolution. Piaget's genetic epistemology model places dramatic emphasis on the organizational capacity of the subject, specifying personal development as a strongly continuous and subsuming process. Discussion of commonalities between Piaget's position and Kelly's personal construct theory concludes this article.     

Origins of george kelly's constructivism in the work of korzybski and moreno

Although Mahoney (1988) has traced the heritage of general constructive metatheory and 7 Lelhart and Jackson (1983) have examined the influences of Kelly's Kansas environment on his developing theory, there has been relatively little investigation of the origins of Kelly's constructivism. Although Kelly (1955) was undoubtedly influenced by many philosophers and psychologists as he developed the psychology of personal constructs, the roles of these people have not been extensively investigated. However, Kelly (1955, 1969) cited, in a general way, the works of Korzybski and Moreno several times in describing the origins of his theory. Lecture notes taken by one of Kelly's students (Barry, 1948) reveal more specifically the sources (Korzybski, 1933, 1943; Moreno, 1937) that seemed influential as Kelly developed his theories. Kelly borrowed ideas of Korzybski and Moreno, among many others, in creating parts of his role therapy and personality theory. In adapting Korzybski's notion that semantic and linguistic labels are used to understand phenomena in the world, Kelly also accepted the idea that these semantic labels are indeed constructed by individuals. In adapting Moreno's spontaneous improvisation and self-presentation techniques as a way to change semantic labels, Kelly emphasized that construction processes occur and change in a social realm.     

Psychotherapy*: ‐there: Sensing,hearing, understanding

Presented here is a careful examination of George Kelly's contributions to and differences from humanistic psychology and some of his more radical challenges to mainstream psychology in general. We begin by looking at the word constructive and how various definitions help us to understand what Kelly meant by a constructive understanding of the person. We then examine how truly different Kelly's basic assumptions are from those of traditional psychology. Finally, we examine how personal construct psychology is both similar to and different from traditional humanistic psychology. We conclude that, although there are some significant differences, Kelly's vision of life as an audacious adventure, and his emphasis on hope and on the future, make him very much a humanistic psychologist.     

THE "RANGE OF CONVENIENCE" OF PERSONAL CONSTRUCTS AND CONFIDENCE IN EVALUATING SELF

In two independent experiments, participants evaluated themselves dichotomously on bipolar constructs, and also indicated on a scale of 1 to 10 their degree of confidence in the validity of each of their own self-evaluations. They also rank-ordered the constructs in terms of their relative "usefulness for understanding people." The same 12 constructs were supplied to all 40 participants in the first experiment (e.g., generous-stingy), whereas 10 constructs were elicited individually from each of 53 participants in the second one. A significant correlation was found between construct rankings and participants' degree of confidence in their own self-evaluations across both elicited (r = 0.76) and supplied (r = 0.80) constructs. Participants using elicited constructs expressed significantly more confidence in their self-evaluations than did participants using supplied constructs. These findings were interpreted within the framework of Kelly's (1955) personal construct theory.