kelly & personal construct theory

ways of anticipating life events

we use constructs to predict the future & anticipate events

interview

"if you don't know what's going on in a person's mind, ask him; he may tell you!" Kelly accepted the client's words at face value, believing this was the best way to determine the person's constructs

dichotomy corollary

2 mutually exclusive alternatives; we construe events in an "either/or"/bipolar manner (e.g., honesty VS dishonesty)

people can predict how they will experience a repeated event in the future

According to Kelly's construction corollary, _______.

predict and control the events in their lives

According to Kelly, individuals use personal constructs to:

how people interpret events and organize their social relationships in a system

According to Kelly, the only way to understand the human personality is to understand:

They are unstable and inconsistent in construing other people.

According to Role Construct Repertory (REP) Test results, which of the following is true of schizophrenics?

NOT psychoanalysis NOT behaviorism NOT trait theory

In developing his theory, which of the following methods did Kelly rely on?

People evaluate others according to their own personal characteristics.

In the context of research on Kelly's theory, which of the following statements is true of the effects of one's emotional state?

cognitive processes

Kelly attempted to describe all aspects of personality, including its emotional components, strictly in terms of _____.

the fact of being alive

Kelly believed that individuals are motivated by:

rational and capable of choice

Kelly viewed human nature as:

personal construct theory

Kelly's description of personality in terms of cognitive processes; we are capable of interpreting behaviors & events & of using this understanding to guide our behavior & to predict the behavior of other people

students who were referred by their teachers for counseling.

Kelly's initial clients were:

the way people organize and interpret their world

Kelly's personal construct theory states that personality can be understood by:

focuses exclusively on the intellectual and rational aspects of human functioning

Kelly's theory has been criticized because it:

themes from the past will reappear in the future

Kelly's theory is based on the idea that ____.

predictive efficiency

The only valid test for a construct system is its:

Cognitive psychologists studied their subjects in an experimental setting, whereas Kelly developed his theory in a clinical setting.

Which of the following is a difference between Kelly's cognitive theory and the cognitive movement that began around 1960?

A client should discover that the new constructs work better in anticipating events than the old constructs by which the client was living.

Which of the following is a goal of the fixed role therapy promoted by George Kelly?

a person is more open to new experiences

Which of the following is likely to happen if one's construct system is permeable?

cognitive simplicity

a cognitive style characterized by a relative inability to perceive differences among people; the less desirable & less useful cognitive style

cognitive complexity

a cognitive style characterized by the ability to perceive differences among people; the more desirable & more useful cognitive style

modulation corollary

adapting to new experiences; we may modify our constructs as a function of new experiences; the variation in a person's constructs is limited by their permeability

constellatory construct

allows its elements to belong to other constructs concurrently; fixed once applied

construct system

unique pattern created by each individual to make sense of their world

peripheral constructs

beliefs that are relatively unimportant to the person and that can be changed rather easily

loose constructions

beliefs that are unstable, weak, & poorly defined; lead to erratic and invalid predictions about how the world operates

enactment sketch

client is asked to play a role designed to contrast sharply with the client's current self-perception

fragmentation corollary

competition among constructs; we may sometimes have contradictory or inconsistent subordinate constructs within our overall system

superordinate construct

construct that controls many other constructs

subordinate constructs

constructs that are controlled by other constructs

experience corollary

exposure to new experiences; we continually test our constructs against life's experiences to make sure they remain useful; a person's constructs vary as the person successively construes the replication of events

choice corollary

freedom of choice; we choose the alternative for each construct that works best for us; the one that allows us to predict the outcome of anticipated events

core constructs

important beliefs that are part of the individual's personal identity

individuality corollary

individual differences in interpreting events; each person is unique in the way reality is viewed and interpreted (i.e., their construction of reality)

construct

intellectual hypothesis that we devise & use to interpret/explain life events; constructs are bipolar/dichotomous

sociality corollary

interpersonal relationships; we try to understand how other people think & predict what they'll do & we modify our behaviors accordingly; we are able to communicate with others because we can construe their constructions

processes

not internal mental energy; personality is a flowing, moving process

fundamental postulate

our psychological processes are directed by the ways in which we anticipate events

construing of experiences

personal interpretation of experience that is our unique view of events; the pattern within which we place events & experiences

fixed role therapy

psychotherapeutic technique in which the client acts out constructs appropriate for a fictitious person, which shows the client how the new constructs can be more effective than the old ones they've been using

organization corollary

relationships among constructs; we organize our personal constructs in a hierarchy pattern according to our view of their similarities & differences

core role constructs

set of beliefs associated with important role relationships that constitute the person's social identity

commonality corollary

similarities among people in interpreting events; although our individual constructs are unique to us, people in compatible groups/cultures may hold similar constructs; if several people construe an experience similarly, we can conclude that their cognitive processes (anticipations, expectations, etc) are similar

construction corollary

similarities among repeated events; because repeated events are similar, we can predict/anticipate how we will experience such an event in the future (we anticipate confirmation of our constructs)

self-characterization sketch

technique designed to assess a person's construct system (that is, how a person perceives themselves in relation to other people

Role Construct Repertory (REP) Test

technique devised by Kelly to uncover dichotomies in a person's life, revealing the pattern of personal constructs; info presented in a diagram called a repertory grid

permeability

the idea that constructs can be revised & extended in light of new experiences

constructive alternativism

the idea that we are free to revise or replace our constructs with alternatives as needed

Kelly's primary assessment technique

the interview

range corollary

the range of convenience; our constructs may apply to many situations/people or they may be limited to a single situation/person; they aren't relevant to all situations

range of convenience

the spectrum of events for which a construct can be applied

personal constructs

theories we construct by which we try to predict & control the events in our lives

controlled elaboration

therapeutic technique in which clients are encouraged to clarify and think through their problems in consultation w the therapist

preemptive construct

type of construct that includes only its own elements and maintains that they cannot apply to other constructs

propositional construct

type of construct that leaves all of its elements open to modification