CORE CONCEPTS OF GEORGE KELLY’S COGNITIVE THEORY OF PERSONALITY

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Personality Psychology PSY 405

Lesson 25

CORE CONCEPTS OF GEORGE KELLY'S COGNITIVE THEORY OF PERSONALITY

Recap (Lecture No. 24)

1-Kelly's theory is phenomenological it focuses on the internal frame of reference of the individual.

2-It is cognitive because it studies mental events.

3-It is existential because it emphasized the future and individual's freedom to choose,

4-Humanistic since it focuses on creative powers and optimistic about people's ability to solve their

problems.

For Kelly an individual's behavior and thoughts are guided by a set of personal constructs that are used in

predicting future events.

A person's processes (behavior and thinking) are channelized by ways that he anticipates reality.

Examples of constructs include "good versus bad," "friendly versus hostile." These constructs are the ones

which many people use to construe events in their daily lives.

Core concepts of George Kelly's Cognitive Theory of Personality

1- The Psychology of Personal Construct

2- Biographical Sketch

3- Cornorstones of Cognitive Theory

i-Constructive Alternativism

ii- People as Scientists

4- Personal Construct Theory

i-Constructs: Templets for Reality

ii-Formal Properties of Constructs

iii-Types of Constructs

5- Personality: The Personologist's Construct?

6- Motivation: Who Needs It?

7- A postulate and some corollaries

8- Channelizing Processes

9- Individuality and Organization

10- To Construe or Not to Construe: That Is the Question

11- C-P-C Cycle

12- Change in a Construct System

13- Social Relationships and Personal Constructs

14- Role Construct Repertory Test: Assessing Personal Constructs

15- Application:

1-Emotional States Anxiety, Guilt, Hostility.

2-Psychological Disorders

16- Psychological Health and Disorder

17- Fixed-Role Therapy

Personality Psychology PSY 405

18- Summary

19- Evaluation

(Start of Lecture 25)

7- A Postulate and Some Corollaries

The formal structure of personal construct theory is both economical and parsimonious in that Kelly

advanced his central tenets by using one fundamental postulate and eleven elaborative corollaries.

The construction corollary states that constructs are formed on the basis of common themes in

our experiences.

ii)

The individual corollary states that constructs are contained within other constructs.

iii)

The organization corollary individuals differ in the in how they construe events but how they

organize constructs.

iv)

The dichotomy corollary states how certain events are similar and also how those events are

contrasted with other events.

The choice corollary states that those constructs are chosen that best define and extend one's

construct (generalizing) system.

vi)

The range corollary states that each construct has a range of convenience consisting of the

events to which the construct is relevant.

vii)

The experience corollary states it is not physical experience that is important rather the process

of construct forming, revising and testing of one's construct system.

viii)

The modulation corollary says some constructs are permeable , open to experience than other

constructs.

ix)

The fragmentation says while trying new constructs the people can be inconsistent.

The commonality says for two people to be similar they must construct their concepts in

similar manner.

xi)

The sociality says that in order to play a role one must determine what other person expects

and then act in accordance with the expectations.

8-Channelizing Processes

Each personality theorist seems to have a language of his or her own when describing human behavior.

Kelly is no exception, as can be seen in his fundamental postulate: "A person's processes are

psychologically channelized by the ways in which he anticipates events".

9-Individuality and Organization

The individuality corollary appears particularly helpful in understanding the uniqueness of personality:

"Persons differ from each other in their construction of events" (Kelly, 1955, p. 55). For Kelly, no two

people, whether they be identical twins or supposedly similar in outlook, will approach and interpret the

same event in exactly the same way. Each person construes reality through his or her unique personal

construct "goggles." Hence, differences between people are rooted in their construing events from different

perspectives.

Examples

Consider the traditional differences of opinion between political parties on such issues as welfare, military

spending, taxation, forced racial integration, and capital punishment. Or reflect on why students may

disagree with professors, professors with department chairpersons, department chairpersons with deans,

and everybody with college presidents. Or what is popularly called the "generation gap"- the fundamental

differences of viewpoint between parents and their offspring- a situation which, in Kelly's theory, might

more properly be labeled a "personal construct gap."

10-To Construe or Not to Construe: That Is the Question

Personality Psychology PSY 405

Kelly's choice corollary describes how people make these selections: "A person chooses for himself that

alternative in a dichotomized construct through which he anticipates the greater possibility for extension

and definition of his system" In other words, one will choose the construct pole that renders the event most

understandable-the one that will contribute most to the predictive efficiency of one's construct system.

11- C-P-C Cycle

When individuals are confronted with a novel situation, they apply the CPC cycle. In the Circumspection

phase of the cycle people think over a number of constructs that they feel may be appropriate to the

situation. In the preemption phase they choose those concepts that seem relevant. In the control phase they

act on the basis of the constructs chosen in the preemption phase.

circumspection-preemption-control (C-P-C) cycle, which involves a sequential progression from

construction to overt behavior. In the first phase of the C-P-C cycle, the circumspection phase, an

individual considers a number of different constructs as they relate to a particular situation-that is, she

contemplates the various possibilities facing her in a propositional fashion. This is analogous to looking at

all sides of the question. (Recall that a propositional construct is open to new experiences.) The preemption

phase follows when the individual reduces the number of alternative constructs (hypotheses) to ones most

appropriate to the problem. Here she decides which of the preemptive alternatives to use. Finally, during

the control phase of the cycle, she decides on a course of action and its accompanying behavior. The choice

is made, in other words, based on an estimate of which alternative construct is most likely to lead to

extension and definition of the system.

12-Change in a Construct System

A construct system enables an individual to anticipate events as accurately as possible.

Kelly postulated that a change in One's construct system occurs most often when one is exposed to novel

or unfamiliar events which do not confirm to one's existing system Of constructs. Accordingly, the

experience corollary states: "A person's construct system varies as he successively construes the replication

of events" (1955, p. 72).

13-Social Relationships and Personal Constructs

Kelly asserted in his individuality corollary, people differ as a result of the way they interpret situations,

then it follows that they may be similar to others to the extent that they construe experiences in similar

ways.

Thus, if two people view the world in the same way (i.e., are similar in their constructions of personal

experiences), they are likely to behave in similar ways. The essential point is that people are similar neither

because they have experienced similar events nor because they manifest similar behavior: they are similar

because events have approximately the same psychological meaning for them.

14-Role Construct Repertory Test: Assessing Personal Constructs

Kelly (1955) developed the Role Construct Repertory Test to identify the important constructs a person

uses to construe significant people in his or her life. More importantly, the Rep Test was originally devised

as a diagnostic instrument to assist the therapist in understanding a client's construct system and the way

the client uses it to structure his or her personal and material environment.

Table 9-1 Role Title List Definitions for the Gridform of the Rep Test

Role titles

Definitions

Self

Yourself

Mother

Your mother or the person who has played the part of a mother in your life

Father

Your father or the person who has played the part of a father in your life

Brother

Your brother who is nearest your own age, or if you have no brother, a boy near your

own age who was most like a brother to you during your early teens

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Personality Psychology PSY 405

Sister

Your sister who is nearest your own age or, if you have no sister, a girl near your own

age who was most like a sister to you during your early teens

Spouse

Your wife (or husband) or, if you are not married, your closest present friend of the

opposite sex

Accepted

The teacher who influenced you most when you were in your teens

teacher

Rejected

The teacher whose point of view you found most objectionable when you were in

teacher

your teens

Boss

An employer, supervisor, or officer under whom you worked during a period of great

stress

10 Doctor

Your physician

11 Pitied person

The person whom you would most like to help or for whom you feel most sorry

12 Rejecting

A person with whom you have been associated, who, for some unexplained reason,

person

appeared to dislike you

13 Happy person

The happiest person whom you know personally

14 Ethical

The person who appears to meet the highest ethical standards whom you know

person

personally

15 Intelligent

The most intelligent person whom you know personally

person

15- Application:

1-Emotional States

2-Psychological Disorders

Emotional States:

Kelly retained but redefined several traditional psychological concepts of emotion in terms relevant to

cognitive theory.

Anxiety:

It is thus, the vague feeling of apprehension and helplessness commonly labeled as anxiety is, for Kelly, a

result of being aware that one's available constructs are not applicable to anticipating the events one

encounters. Anxiety is created (experienced) only when one realizes that one has no constructs with which

to interpret an event. Kelly often facetiously referred to a person in this state as being "caught with his

constructs down." Under such circumstances an individual cannot predict, hence cannot fully comprehend

what is happening or solve the problem.

Guilt:

The guilty person is aware of having deviated from the important roles (self-images) by which she or he

maintains relationships to others. For example, a college student who construes himself as a scholar will

feel guilty if he spends too much time at the local club house with his roommates, thus violating the most

basic aspect of his role as a scholar, namely studying.

Hostility:

Hostility, a final illustration of emotional states, is defined as the "continued effort to extort validational

evidence In favor of a type of social prediction which has already proved itself a failure" (Kelly, 1955, p.

510). Traditionally considered a disposition to behave vindictively toward or inflict harm upon others,

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Personality Psychology PSY 405

hostility in Kelly's system is merely an attempt to hold onto an invalid construct in the face of

contradictory (invalidating) evidence.

16-Psychological Health

Each day clinical psychologists deal with the realities of psychological health and disorder. How are these

concepts to be understood within Kelly's theory? Turning first to health, distinct characteristics define the

well-functioning person from Kelly's perspective.

First, and perhaps most important, healthy persons are willing to evaluate their constructs and to test the

validity of their perceptions of other people. In other words, such people test the predictions derived from

their personal constructions of social experiences.

Second, healthy persons are able to discard their constructs and reorient their core role systems whenever

they appear to be invalid. In Kelly's terminology, their constructs are permeable, meaning not only that

they can admit when they are wrong, but also that they can update their constructs when their life

experiences so dictate.

17- Fixed-Role Therapy

While many of the therapeutic methods described by Kelly (1955) are compatible with those used in other

clinical schemes (including psychoanalysis), there are two distinguishing features of his approach: first, his

conception of what the goal of psychotherapy should be and, second, the development and practice of

fixed-role therapy.

Kelly discussed the nature and task of therapeutic change in terms of the development of better construct

systems. Since disorders involve using constructs in the face of consistent invalidation, psychotherapy is

directed toward the psychological reconstruction of the client's construct system so that it is more

workable. But more than this, it is an-exciting process of scientific experimentation. The therapy room is a

laboratory in which the therapist encourages the client to develop and test new hypotheses, both within and

outside the clinical situation. The therapist is highly active-constantly pushing, and stimulating the client to

try new constructs on for size. If they fit, the client can use them in the future; if not, other hypotheses are

generated and tested. Science is thus the model clients use in reconstructing their lives. Along with this, it is

the therapist's task to make validating data (information feedback) available, against which the client can

check his own hypotheses. By providing these data in the form of responses to a wide variety of the client's

constructions, the clinician actually gives the client an opportunity to validate his constructs, an opportunity

which is not normally available to him (Kelly, 1955).

Kelly went beyond this unique interpretation of psychotherapy to develop his own specific brand fixed-role

therapy. Fixed-role therapy maintains that, psychologically, human beings are not only what they construe

themselves to be but also what they do. In general terms, the therapist sees her role as one of encouraging

and helping the client to perceive and construe himself in new ways and to act accordingly, thereby

becoming a new, more effective person.

How does fixed-role therapy actually work? It begins by having the client write a sketch of himself in the

third person. The sketch has no detailed outline, and the client is only the following instructions. Note how

the instructions elicit objectively, minimize threat, and allow the client freedom of expression.

18- Summary

George Kelly's cognitive theory is based on the philosophical position of constructive alternativism, which

holds that reality is what one construes it to be. Accordingly, an individual's perception of reality is always

subject to-interpretation and modification. Man is a "scientist," constantly generating and testing

hypotheses about the nature of things so that adequate predictions of future events can be made.

Persons comprehend their worlds through transparent patterns, or templets, called constructs. Each

individual has a unique construct system (personality) which he or she uses to construe or interpret

experience. Kelly theorized that all constructs possess certain formal properties: range of convenience,

focus of convenience and permeability-impermeability. Kelly also recognized various types of constructs:

preemptive, tight , and loose.

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Personality Psychology PSY 405

Kelly's theory is formally stated in terms of one fundamental postulate and eleven elaborative corollaries.

The former stipulates that a person's processes are psychologically channelized by the ways in which she

or he anticipates events, while the corollaries explain how a construct system functions, changes, and

influences social interaction.

Although Kelly's theoretical concepts have directly stimulated little research to date, he devised a

personality instrument, the Rep Test, which has been widely employed in a variety of studies. The Rep Test

assesses personal constructs; in this chapter, its use is illustrated in two investigations of schizophrenic

thought disorder.

19-Evaluation

Kelly's theory is phenomenological and as phenomenologist believes that behavior should not be broken

down into components or parts

It is a cognitive theory because it stresses how people think and view the reality. It does give emphasis to

the unconscious processes.

It is Existential and Humanistic, it focuses on the following facts that humans are free and future oriented,

their subjective feelings and personal experiences are important and they are concerned with the meaning in

life.

Each individual creates his or her own unique constructs for dealing with the world, trying to reduce future

uncertainty and he is free to view and think about reality.

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