PERSONALITY THEORIES

Kelly’s Background:

George Kelly was born in Perth, Kansas, USA on April 28, 1905. His early education was in one
room schoolhouse and was tutored by his parents. Finished college with a degree in Physics and
Mathematics. He was enrolled in University of Kansas’ MA program in educational sociology
and labor relations. 1929 exchange scholar at the University of Edinburg, Scotland, he also
worked closely with Sir Godfrey Thomson. 1930, studied Psychology in Iowa State University
Clinical Psychology and Traveling clinics. In World War 2 joined navy as psychologist.
Professor of psychology and Director of Clinical Psychology at Ohio State University. In his 19
years at Ohio State, his theory of personality was refined and tested. He died on March 6, 1997.

Principles-

A main tenet of PCP theory is that a person’s unique psychological processes are channeled by
the way he or she anticipates events. Kelly believed that anticipation and prediction are the main
drivers of our mind.

We build theories (often stereotypes) about other people and also try to control them or impose
on the others our own theories so that we are better able to predict their action.

Therapy approach-

Kelly believed in a non-invasive approach to psychotherapy. Rather than having a therapist

interpret the person’s psyche, which would amount to imposing the doctor’s constructs on the
patient, the therapist should act as a facilitator of the patient finding his or her own contructs.to
help the patient find his or her constructs; Kelly developed the repertory grid interview
technique.

View of human Nature:

1. All human beings can develop their own theory which allows them to anticipate in future
events accurately.

2. It is like making decisions and choosing alternative actions.

3. More valid information about the person could be discovered if the person unravels himself,
so he devised Role Construct Repertory Test or Rep Test.
Basic Postulate:

Personal Construct

An intellectual hypothesis that we devise and use to interpret, explain, give meaning or predict
life events.

Constructive Alternatives

We are not controlled by our constructs but are free to revise pr replace them with other
alternatives.

“A person’s processes are psychologically channelized by the ways in which he anticipates in

events.”

The CPC Cycle:

Circumspection phase-

Possible interpretations that can be labeled cognitive trial and error are tried.

Preemption phase-

Number of constructs that sees especially relevant to the situation is chosen.

Control phase-

The choice is made and a course of action is established.

The Eleven Corollaries:

1. Construction Corollary- Because repeated events are similar, we can predict or anticipate how
we will experience such an event in the future.

2. Individual Corollary- People perceive events in different ways.

3. Organization Corollary- We arrange our constructs in patterns, according to our view of their
similarities and differences.
4. Dichotomy Corollary- Constructs are bipolar and consist of pairs of opposite. i.e.: good or bad.

5. Choice Corollary- A person chooses for himself that alternative in a dichotomized construct
through which he anticipated the greater possibility for extension and definition of his system.

6. Range corollary- A construct is convenient for the anticipation of a finite range of events only.

7. Experience Corollary- We continually test our constructs against life’s experience to make
sure they remain useful

8. Modulation Corollary- We may modify our construct as a function of new experiences.

9. Fragmentation Corollary- A person may successively employ a variety of construction

subsystems which are inferentially incompatible with each other.

10. Commonality Corollary- A person may successively employ a variety of construction

subsystems which are inferentially incompatible with each other.

11. Socially Corollary- We try to understand how other people think and predict what they will
do, and we modify our behavior accordingly.

Interpretation of traditional psychological concepts-

Motivation- Humans are born motivated and every person is motivated for no other reason than
that he or she is alive.

Anxiety- Recognition that the events with which one is confronted lie outside the range of
convenience of one’s constructs system. When we can’t construe an event, we experience
anxiety.

Hostility- continued effort to extort validation evidence in favor of a type of social prediction
which has already proven itself a failure.

Aggression – The active elaboration of one’s perceptual field.

Guilt- Perception of one’s apparent dislodgement from his core role structure.

Threat- Awareness of imminent comprehensive change in one’s core structure.

Fear- Results when a peripheral element of one’s constructs system is invalidated.

The unconscious- Construct with low cognitive awareness could be considered an unconscious.

Learning- The constant alteration of one’s constructs system with the goal of increasing its
predictive efficiency.