PERSONAL CONSTRUCT THEORY BY GEORGE KELLY WHAT WILL

PERSONAL CONSTRUCT THEORY BY GEORGE KELLY

WHAT WILL WE LEARN HERE? • A BRIEF INFORMATION ABOUT GEORGE KELLY • THE MAIN LINES OF KELLY’S PERSONAL CONSTRUCT THEORY • THE BASIS OF THE REPORTERY GRID INTERVIEW

WHO IS GEORGE KELLY?

GEORGE KELLY…(1905 -1967 ) • AN AMERICAN SCHOLAR • INTERESTED IN SOCIAL PROBLEMS, PERSONALITY, PSYCHOLO GY • FOUNDER OF PERSONAL CONSTRUCT THEORY

HOW DID PCT COME UP?

MAN IS A SCIENTIST!

• So people -- ordinary people -- are scientists, too. The have constructions of their reality, like scientists have theories. They have anticipations or expectations, like scientists have hypotheses. They engage in behaviors that test those expectations, like scientists do experiments. They improve their understandings of reality on the bases of their experiences, like scientists adjust their theories to fit the facts. From this metaphor comes Kelly's entire theory.

FUNDAMENTAL POSTULATE • "A person's processes are psychologically channelized by the ways in which he anticipates events. "

THE CONSTRUCTION COROLLARY • "A person anticipates events by construing their replications. "

THE EXPERIENCE COROLLARY • "A person anticipates events by construing their replications. "

WHAT IS CONSTRUCT? • Our constructs represent the view you have constructed about the world as you experienced it. On the other hand, your constructs indicate how you are likely to construe the world as you continue to experience it. Your construct system is your history and your predisposition to perceive.

• I HAVE A CONSTRUCT, YOU HAVE ONE, A PERSON ON THE OTHER SIDE OF WORLD HAS ONE, A PRIMITIVE PERSON HAS ONE, A MODER PERSON HAS ONE, EVERY CHILD HAS ONE, EVEN SOMEONE WHO IS SERIOUSLY ILL HAS ONE.

THE MAIN LINES OF PCT • OUR CONSCRUCT SYSTEMS MAKE SENSE OF OUR WORLD Our construct systems reflect our constant efforts to make sense of our world, just as scientists make sense of their subjectmatter: we observe, we draw conclusions about patterns of cause and effect, and we behave according to those conclusions.

• OUR CONSTRUCT SYSTEMS CAN GROW AND CHANGE Ourconstruct systems are not static. They are confirmed or challenged every moment we are conscious.

• OUR CONSTRUCT SYSTEMS INFLUENCE OUR EXPECTATION AND PERCEPTIONS Our construct systems reflect our past experience, they also influence our expectations and behaviour.

• SOME CONSTRUCT, AND SOME ASPECTS OF OUR CONSTRUCT SYSTEMS, ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE OTHERS We feel, think, and behave according to our construct system; we adapt our constructs, immunise them, or have them confirmed. Some of our constructs - those which represent our core values and concern our key relationships - are complex, quite firmly fixed, wideranging, and difficult to change; others, about things which don't matter so much, or about which we haven't much experience, are simpler, narrower, and carry less personal commitment.

• YOUR CONSRUCT SYSTEM IS YOUR TRUTH AS YOU UNDERSTAND EXPERIENCE IT NOBODY ELSE’S When we meet someone whose construct system is different from our own - especially if we don't like it, or think it's wrong - we sometimes use words like prejudice orstereotype to convey our disagreement. We might try confronting them with opposing opinions or evidence, and get frustrated if we see them immunising their constructs instead of adapting them. But we have to accept that their system has worked, more or less, for them so far, and that if it is different from ours then that is a reflection of the fact that they've had different experiences, different reactions, and see different things as important.

• THE EXTENT TO WHICH ONE PERSON CAN UNDERSTAND ANOTHER’S CONSTRUCT SYSTEM IS A MEASURE OF THAT PERSON’S EMPATHY You do not have to have the same construct system as another person in order to understand them; but you do have to be able to infer the other person's construct system.

THE REPORTERY GRID INTERVIEW

WHAT IS IT? • IT IS THE WAY FOR GETTING PEOPLE TO REVEAL THEIR CONSTRUT SYSTEM

THANK YOU