The cognitive direction emphasizes the influence of intellectual, or thought, processes on human behavior. George Kelly (1905-1966), one of the founders of this movement, believed that every person is a kind of researcher, seeking to understand, interpret, anticipate and control the world of his personal experiences, drawing conclusions based on his past experiences and making assumptions about the future. And although objective reality exists, people perceive it differently, since any event can be viewed from different angles. Accordingly, a large range of possibilities is provided in interpreting the inner world of experiences or the outer world of practical events.
Any person puts forward hypotheses about reality, with the help of which he tries to anticipate and control life events, predict the future and make plans based on expected results. A person’s point of view on life is transient; it is rarely the same today as it was yesterday or will be tomorrow. People are able to actively form an understanding of their environment, rather than simply react passively to it. Kelly believed that they perceive their world through clear systems or models called constructs.
Personal construct is an idea or thought used by a person to make sense of or interpret, explain or predict his or her experience. It represents a stable way in which a person comprehends some aspects of reality from a position of similarity or contrast.
It is the cognitive process of observing similarities and differences between objects and events that leads to the formation of personal constructs. To do this, three elements (phenomena or objects) are needed: two of them must be similar to each other, and the third must be different from these two. Therefore, all personal constructs are bipolar and dichotomous, a person’s thinking is aware of life experience as black or white, without shades of gray. All constructs have two opposite poles: similarity reflects the ways in which two objects are close, and contrast shows the ways in which they are opposite to the third element. Examples of such constructs can be “smart - stupid”, “good - bad”, “male - female”, “friendly - hostile”, etc.
The construct affects a certain range of phenomena and has its own scale of applicability, which includes all events in which this construct is relevant. Kelly distinguishes between permeable and impenetrable constructs. The range of applicability of the first involves elements not yet interpreted within its boundaries, it is open to the explanation of new phenomena. The second, embracing the phenomena that constitute its original basis, remains closed to the interpretation of new experience.
According to the scientist, the constructs can be classified as follows:
- Proactive classification: what is included in one classification is excluded from another; that is, anticipatory thinking denies the right to revise or otherwise interpret both others and oneself, preventing the phenomenon being assessed from being seen in a new light.
- Constellatory: when a phenomenon belongs to the category of one construct, its other characteristics are fixed (for example, the judgment “If this person is a salesman, then he is most likely dishonest, fraudulent and good at dealing with customers”), i.e. if we classify a person as of this category, then we endow it with all the characteristics corresponding to it.
- Assumptions: open to new experiences, accepting alternative points of view, flexible, can change.
Both anticipatory, constellatory, and presumptive forms of thinking - constructs - are necessary to explain phenomena, things and people.
Personal constructs are:
- comprehensive constructs, which include a wide range of phenomena;
- private constructs, which include a narrow range of phenomena and possibilities;
- basic constructs, which regulate basic human activities;
- peripheral constructs, which can change without significantly changing the underlying structure.
Each of us perceives reality thanks to our own models, or constructs, necessary to create a consistent picture of the world. If this model helps accurately predict events, the person is likely to retain it. Conversely, if a prediction is not confirmed, the construct on which it was made is likely to be revised or even eliminated altogether. Its validity is tested as predictive effectiveness, the degree of which may vary.
Each person has a unique system of such constructs (personality) that he uses to interpret life experiences. People differ from each other in how they explain events. Two people, even if they are identical twins or have similar views, will interpret what is happening differently. Each person understands reality from the “bell tower” of his unique personal construct. Each of us tries to explain it in order to learn to anticipate events that affect his life, that is, people look at the present in such a way as to predict the future using a unique system of their personal constructs. And a person’s behavior is determined by how he predicts these future events.
Kelly believed that a given system is unique to a particular person and people disagree precisely because everyone operates within their own system of constructs. Everyone organizes them hierarchically to minimize incompatibilities and inconsistencies. People differ from each other not only in the number and type of constructs they use in their judgments about the world, but also in the way they organize them. Constructs are arranged in a pyramid in such a way that relationships of subordination are created between them.
The hierarchy of personal constructs is different for each person: subordinating and subordinate constructs in the system of one do not necessarily occupy the same position in the system of another. Kelly suggested that if we know how they are organized by a person, we can correctly judge his behavior, that is, to know a person means to know how a person interprets his personal experience.
Personality is understood as an organized system of more or less important constructs that are used to interpret the world of experiences and anticipate future events.
Every person has several models of thinking, choosing every day which construct and which pole to use to predict events. If it is necessary to make a choice, then preference is given to what is more likely to either expand a person’s understanding of the world or clarify the structure of constants. It is developed in the direction of either definition or expansion.
Definition includes the choice of the most likely alternative, involves relying on previous experience, and using the construct in a known way. Extension- choosing an alternative that will expand the understanding of events, increase the range of applicability of the construct, and use it to predict an event that was previously unknown to a person. In a new or uncertain situation, a person performs a number of actions: orientation - selection - execution, that is, he consistently thinks about several possible constructs and chooses the one that turns out to be the best for interpreting the situation. This occurs through an assessment of which alternative construct is most likely to lead to the expansion or definition of the system, and the resulting model chosen will determine the individual's behavior.
It follows that if a person changes his constructs, then his behavior and life will become different. The system changes if it cannot be used to correctly predict the order of events. A system of personal constructs is a set of hypotheses about our ever-changing world that are constantly tested by experience. Those that prove useful are retained and the rest are revised or discarded. The more permeable (open) a person’s subordinating constructs are, the greater the possibility of change within the structures to which they relate. Innovations in relationships with significant others force our constructs to change.
If two people share common worldviews and similar interpretations of personal experiences, then they are likely to behave in similar ways. People are similar to each other not because they experienced the same events, and not because their behavior is similar. This happens because the events have approximately the same psychological meaning for them. Representatives of the same culture are similar in behavior and constructs. Cultural differences are rooted in the differences in these thought patterns that people engage in.
Social interaction consists primarily of one person's attempts to understand how another perceives reality. In order to interact fruitfully with someone, it is necessary to interpret at least part of the other person's construct system. You must also put yourself in the place of another in order to better understand and predict his present and subsequent behavior. Optimal relationships presuppose a mutual understanding of life concepts. People interpret the world in the same way to the extent that they use similar construct systems, and meaningful social interaction with someone requires an understanding of how that person perceives the world. Those who perceive the world in similar ways are more likely to pay attention to each other and end up becoming friends than those who see the world differently.
Kelly explained emotional states using the concept of constructs. For example, a state of anxiety, uncertainty, and helplessness arises in a person if he realizes that his inherent constructs are not suitable for predicting the events he encounters. The system of constructs includes core roles (this is a professional role, the role of a parent, a close friend), and their inadequate performance can have unpleasant consequences; a feeling of guilt and shame will arise in a person when he realizes that his behavior contradicts his perception of himself. The emotional state of threat occurs when a person realizes that his thinking patterns can be significantly changed due to their inevitable “shake-up”. Hostility, the tendency to behave vindictively towards others, occurs when a person, without recognizing that his expectations about other people are unrealistic and need to be revised, tries to force others to behave in ways that satisfy his preconceived notions. Changing one's constructs is difficult, scary and sometimes even impossible, and therefore a person tries to change the world and other people so that they correspond to his prejudices and constructs.
Mental disorders is a personal construct that is usually repeated, despite its obvious inferiority. In this case, the system of constructs is unsuitable for achieving the goals of a person who cannot predict events and fails in understanding the world and mastering it. Kelly suggested that depression usually appears in someone whose perceptual field is reduced to a minimum (as interests are narrowed), who experiences difficulty in making even the most insignificant decisions when the system of constructs is reduced.
Kelly saw the task of psychotherapy as helping people change this system, improving its predictive effectiveness, assisting the client in developing and testing new hypotheses and constructs, making available facts to test the hypotheses, forming or reorganizing the system into a more predictively effective one. Then a person will be able to realize and interpret both situations and himself differently and will gain greater efficiency.
The psychologist used the fixed role therapeutic method, which consists of a number of stages:
- The client writes a self-characteristic from the third person, describing his character as if from the outside, thanks to which the constructs that he uses in interpreting himself and his relationships with other people are revealed.
- The psychotherapist develops a model, a system of constructs that is useful for the client, and describes it in the form of a “fixed role of a certain person.”
- The client is asked to play this role in his life for a certain time, trying to think and behave as this “fixed role” requires, so that he can discover new facets of his personality, make adjustments to his constructs, and change his real behavior.
J. Kelly built his theory on the basis of one of the philosophical positions - constructive alternativeism. In his opinion, everything depends on how the person himself realizes and interprets this or that phenomenon. No matter what we are trying to understand, there are always “constructive alternatives” open to our minds.
According to Kelly's views, people are researchers who, regarding current events, situations and people, build hypotheses, and if they are refuted, alternatives to these hypotheses.
Consequences from the theory:
1. People are focused primarily on future events, rather than on past or present ones. In an attempt to foresee and control future events, a person constantly checks his attitude to reality: “The forecast is not made simply for its own sake; it is carried out so that future reality can be better imagined. It is the future that worries a person, not the past. He always strives for the future through the window of the present.”
2. People have the ability to actively form ideas about their environment. Calling his approach personality construct theory, Kelly focuses on the psychological processes that allow people to organize and understand the events that occur in their lives.
In Kelly's theory, the key structural concept that describes a person as a scientist is the concept of construct.
Construct is a way of constructing or interpreting the world.
Personal construct(Kjell L., Ziegler D.) is an idea or thought that a person uses to realize or interpret, explain or predict his experience.
A person experiences events, interprets them, structures them and gives them meaning. While experiencing events, the individual notices that some events have common characteristics that distinguish them from other events. The individual distinguishes between similarities and contrasts. He observes that some people are tall and others are short, that some people are men and others are women, that some things are hard and some are soft.
It is this construction of similarity and contrast that forms the construct. Without constructs, life would be chaotic.
Personality is an organized system of more or less important constructs. And to understand personality, it is enough to know the constructs that it creates and uses, the events included in these constructs, and how they relate to each other. If a construct facilitates the adequacy of forecasting events, it is retained by the individual, but if the forecast is not confirmed, then the construct is revised or excluded.
To create a construct, at least three elements (phenomena or objects) are required, two of which must be similar to each other, and the third must be different from the first two.
In accordance with the nature of the control exercised over the elements, specific types of personal constructs are distinguished:
- Proactive— standardizes the elements included in it. An example of an anticipatory construct would be an ethnic label. Say, if a person is identified as “Mexican”, then he will be thought of only as a Mexican and nothing else.
- Constellatory- elements can simultaneously belong to other areas, but they are constant in the composition of their sphere. That is, if a phenomenon belongs to some category of one construct, its other characteristics are fixed. An example of constellatory thinking: “If this person is a car salesman, he is most likely dishonest, fraudulent, and skillful with his customers.”
- Assuming- a construct that leaves its elements open to alternative constructions. This type is directly opposite to the previous 2, as it allows a person to be open to new experiences and accept an alternative point of view on the world.
However, according to Kelly, among all types there are no desirable or undesirable ones. He said that if we only used presumptive constructs, we would experience a lot of difficulties because we would not be able to make immediate decisions.
Kelly proposed several ways in which personality constructs can be classified:
- Comprehensive constructs- include a relatively wide range of phenomena;
- Private constructs- include a small range of phenomena.
- Basic constructs- regulate basic human activities;
- Peripheral constructs- can change without significantly changing the basic structure.
- Rigid structures- give an unchanged forecast;
- Available- allow you to make different forecasts under similar conditions.
4.
Constructs can be like verbal(conscious constructs that can be expressed in words) and preverbal(unconscious constructs that are used when a person does not have words to express it). Drawings, colors—anything that is of interest to the experimenter—can be used as constructs.
The system of formed personal constructs has a complex hierarchy and many subsystems. Since the construct is not acquired from the outside, but is always built by the person himself, it is always individually determined.
To measure personal constructs, the methodological principle of “repertoire grids” and the repertoire test of personal constructs (RTLC) were developed.
J. Kelly did not define personality, but said that it is “an abstraction of a person, as well as the transfer of this abstraction to familiar or unfamiliar people, to significant values.
Having analyzed Kelly’s position, L. Kjell and D. Ziegler formulated the following definition of personality: “the personality of an individual represents an organized system of more or less important constructs; a person uses personality constructs to interpret the world of experiences and anticipate future events.”
From Kelly's point of view, the term "motivation" implies that people are static by nature and act only when they are inspired by some special force
. He himself rejected the concept that people are inert or reactive by nature and begin to act only under the influence of internal or external forces. According to Kelly, people have no other reason for motivation than the fact that they are alive.
Research conducted by Kelly and his followers showed the relationship between the cognitive complexity of the system of personality constructs and the individual’s ability to analyze and evaluate the objects and events perceived by him in their contradictory unity, which shows the possibility of effective use of experimental techniques and methods as promising methods for studying personality and stimulating personal growth.
Bibliography:
- Ermine, P., Titarenko, T. Psychological theories and concepts of personality: a brief reference [Text] / P. Ermine, T. Titarenko. - K.: Mercury, 2001. - 320 p.
- Kelly, J. Personality Theory (theory of personal constructs) / J. Kelly. – St. Petersburg: “Rech”, 2000. – 249 p.
- Pervin, L., John, O. Personality psychology: Theory of research / trans. from English M.S. Zham-Kochyan, ed. V.S. Maguna. – M.: Aspect Press, 2001. – 607 p.
- Kjell L., Ziegler D. Theories of personality [Text] / 3rd international edition. – St. Petersburg: Peter, 2003. – 608 p.
George Alexander Kelly, J. A. Kelly, J. Kelly, J. Kelly and personality construct theory, personality construct theory, J. Kelly's principle of repertory grids
George Kelly, a practicing clinical psychologist, was one of the first personologists to emphasize cognitive processes as a core feature of human functioning. In accordance with his theoretical system, called the psychology of personal constructs, a person is essentially a scientist, a researcher who seeks to understand, interpret, anticipate and control the world of his personal experiences in order to effectively interact with it. This view of man as a researcher underlies Kelly's theoretical constructions, as well as modern cognitive orientation in personality psychology.
Kelly strongly advised his fellow psychologists not to view subjects as passive organisms “reacting” to external stimuli. He reminded them that the subjects behaved in the same way as scientists, drawing conclusions from past experiences and making assumptions about the future.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
George Alexander Kelly was born in a farming community near Wichita, Kansas in 1905. At first he studied in a rural school, where there was only one classroom. His parents later sent him to Wichita, where he attended four high schools for four years. Kelly's parents were very religious, hardworking, and did not tolerate drinking, playing cards, or dancing. The traditions and spirit of the Midwest were deeply revered in his family, and Kelly was an adored only child.
Kelly attended Friends University for three years and then Park College for one year, where he received a bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics in 1926. He initially considered a career as a mechanical engineer, but, partly influenced by inter-university discussions, turned to social problems. Kelly recalled that his first psychology course was boring and unconvincing. The lecturer spent a lot of time discussing learning theories, but Kelly was not interested.
After college, Kelly attended the University of Kansas, studying educational sociology and labor relations. He wrote a dissertation based on a study of leisure time practices among Kansas City workers and received a master's degree in 1928. He then moved to Minneapolis, where he taught a language development class for the American Bankers Association and an Americanization class for future American citizens. He then worked at a junior college in Sheldon, Iowa, where he met his future wife, Gladys Thompson, a teacher at the same school. They married in 1931.
In 1929, Kelly began his scientific work at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. There in 1930 he received a bachelor's degree in education. Under the guidance of Sir Godfrey Thomson, an eminent statistician and teacher, he wrote a dissertation on the problems of predicting success in teaching. That same year, he returned to the United States at Iowa State University as a candidate for a doctorate in psychology. In 1931, Kelly received his doctorate. His dissertation examined common factors in speech and reading disorders.
Kelly began his academic career as a professor of physiological psychology at Fort Hay College, Kansas. Then, in the middle of the Great Depression, he decided that he should "do something other than teach physiological psychology." He became involved in clinical psychology without any formal training in emotional problems. During his 13-year stay at Fort Hays (1931-1943), Kelly developed a program of mobile psychological clinics in Kansas. He and his students traveled a lot, providing the necessary psychological assistance in the public school system. From this experience numerous ideas were born that were later incorporated into his theoretical formulations. During this period, Kelly moved away from the Freudian approach to therapy. His clinical experience suggested that people in the Midwest suffered more from prolonged drought, dust storms, and economic hardships than from libidinal strength.
During World War II, Kelly led a program to train local civilian pilots as a Naval Aviation psychologist. He also worked in the aviation branch of the Bureau of Medicine and Naval Surgery, where he remained until 1945. This year he was appointed assistant professor at the University of Maryland.
After the end of the war, there was a significant need for clinical psychologists, as many American military personnel returning home had a variety of psychological problems. Indeed, the Second World War was an important factor influencing the development of clinical psychology as an integral part of health science. Kelly became a prominent figure in this field. In 1946, he entered the national field of psychology when he became professor and director of the department of clinical psychology at The Ohio State University. During his 20 years here, Kelly completed and published his theory of personality. He also conducted a clinical psychology program for the top graduates of higher education institutions in the United States.
In 1965, Kelly began working at Brandeis University, where he was appointed to the Department of Behavioral Sciences. This post (a professor's dream come true) gave him greater freedom to continue his own scientific research. He died in 1967 at the age of 62. Until his death, Kelly was compiling a book from the countless reports he gave over the past decade. A revised version of this work was published posthumously in 1969, edited by Brendan Maher.
Kelly's most famous scientific work is the two-volume work “The Psychology of Personal Constructs” (1955). It describes his theoretical formulations of the concept of personality and their clinical applications. For students wishing to become familiar with other aspects of Kelly's work, the following books are recommended: New Directions in Personality Construct Theory; "Psychology of the personal construct" and "Development of the psychology of the personal construct."
FUNDAMENTALS OF COGNITIVE THEORY
All personality theories are based on certain philosophical principles about human nature. That is, the personologist’s view of the essence of human nature has a great influence on the personality model he has developed. Unlike many personality theorists, George Kelly clearly recognized that all conceptions of human nature, including his own, start from basic assumptions. He built his theory of personality on the basis of a holistic philosophical position - constructive alternativeism.
Constructive alternativeism
Now that people of all ages are developing alternative lifestyles and ways of viewing the world, it turns out that George Kelly's theory, which appeared in 1955, was extraordinarily ahead of its time. Kelly's underlying philosophy of constructive alternativeism gives people a surprising number of opportunities to choose alternatives to the banal. In fact, this philosophy even requires people to do so.
As a doctrine, constructive alternativeism argues "that our entire modern interpretation of the world needs to be revised or replaced." Nothing is sacred and nothing leaves an indelible mark. There are no policies, religions, economic principles, social benefits, or even foreign policies towards third world countries that are absolutely and indisputably “true.” Everything will change if people just look at the world from a different perspective. Kelly argued that there is no such thing in the world about which “there can be no two opinions.” A person's awareness of reality is always a subject for interpretation. According to Kelly, objective reality, of course, exists, but different people perceive it differently. Therefore, nothing is permanent or final. Truth, like beauty, exists only in the human mind.
Since facts and events (like all human experience) exist only in the human mind, there are different ways to interpret them. As an example, consider a case where a girl takes money from her mother’s wallet. What does this mean? The fact is simple: the money has been taken out of the wallet. However, if we ask a child therapist to interpret this event, he can provide a detailed explanation of the girl's feelings about her mother's rejection, which may have arisen as a result of the mother's frustration with staying home and raising her daughter rather than doing your personal career. If we ask a mother, she may say that her daughter is “bad” and should not be trusted. The girl's father may assume that she is "undisciplined." Grandfather may view this fact as a childish prank. And the girl herself may consider this a response to her parents’ reluctance to give her enough money for pocket expenses. While the event itself (the embezzlement of money) cannot be denied, its meaning is open to alternative interpretation. Therefore, any event can be viewed from different angles. People are given a magnificent range of possibilities in interpreting the inner world of experiences or the outer world of practical events. Kelly summed up his commitment to constructive alternativeism as follows: "...whatever nature may be or whatever the search for truth may ultimately turn out to be, we are today confronted with facts for which we can give as many explanations as our minds can come up with."
The intriguing nature of constructive alternativeism can be further appreciated when compared to one of Aristotle's philosophical principles. Aristotle puts forward the principle of identity: A is A. A thing in itself and outside itself is experienced and interpreted in the same way by every person. For example, a car parked across the street remains the same physical object, regardless of who is looking at it. It follows from this that the facts of social reality are the same for everyone. Kelly believes that A is what the individual explains as A! Reality is what we interpret as reality, facts can always be viewed from different perspectives. Then, to be consistent, there is no true or valid way of interpreting human behavior. Whether we are trying to understand another person's behavior, or our own, or the very nature of the universe, there are always "constructive alternatives" open to our minds. Moreover, the concept of constructive alternativeism suggests that our behavior is never completely determined. We are always free to some extent to revise or replace our interpretation of reality. However, at the same time, Kelly believes that some of our thoughts and behavior are determined by previous events. That is, as will soon become quite obvious, cognitive theory is built at the intersection of freedom and determinism. In Kelly's words: “Determinism and freedom are inseparable, since what determines one is, by the same token, freedom from the other.”
People as explorers
As already stated, Kelly placed great importance on how people understand and interpret their life experiences. Construct theory, therefore, focuses on the processes that enable people to understand the psychological domain of their lives. This brings us to Kelly's model of personality, which is based on the analogy of man as an explorer. Namely, he makes the assumption that like a scientist who studies a certain phenomenon, any person puts forward working hypotheses about reality, with the help of which he tries to anticipate and control the events of life. Of course, Kelly did not claim that every person is literally a scientist who observes some natural or social phenomenon and uses sophisticated methods to collect and evaluate data. Such an analogy is alien to his point of view. But he still suggested that all people are scientists in the sense that they formulate hypotheses and monitor whether they are confirmed or not, involving in this activity the same mental processes as a scientist during scientific research. Thus, the basis of personality construct theory is the premise that Science is the quintessence of the methods and procedures by which each of us comes up with new ideas about the world. The goal of science is to predict, change and understand events, that is, the main goal of a scientist is to reduce uncertainty. But not only scientists - all people have such goals. We are all interested in anticipating the future and making plans based on expected results.. To illustrate this pattern of human behavior, consider, for example, the behavior of a college student whose class is taught by a new professor at the beginning of the semester (assuming she was not previously aware of the professor's "reputation"). Based on limited observation (perhaps one or two class hours), a student may perceive and interpret the professor as “unbiased.” Kelly characterizes this process with the term interpretation; the student "interprets" (or sees) the professor's impartiality. Essentially, what's going on? A student develops a hypothesis about a professor that will help her anticipate and control events related to a course taught by that professor. If the student's hypothesis turns out to be “correct,” one can expect the professor to suggest a reasonable amount of reading material, assign appropriate tests, and grade them fairly adequately. However, if the professor's subsequent behavior deviates significantly from these assumptions, the student will need an alternative hypothesis (for example: the professor is unfair, the professor is a pedantic bore, or something like that). The point is that a student (like all of us) needs reliable and sustainable ways of anticipating events that affect her life if she is to be effective.
Personal constructs: models for reality
Scientists create theoretical constructs to describe and explain the events they study. In Kelly's system, the key theoretical construct is the term construct itself:
Personal construct is an idea or thought that a person uses to make sense of or interpret, explain or predict his or her experience. Personal construct is a classification and evaluation standard created by a person on the basis of his experience. It represents a stable way in which a person comprehends some aspects of reality in terms of similarity and contrast. Examples of personality constructs include "anxious-calm", "smart-stupid", "masculine-feminine", "religious-non-religious", "good-bad" and "friendly-hostile". These are just a few examples of the countless constructs that a person uses to evaluate the meaning of phenomena in his daily life.
As an example of constructs in action, let's look at how different people can explain the same event. A recent college graduate, instead of going to graduate school as he had previously planned, packs up his things and goes with his girlfriend to live in a remote community. The young man's father might explain the behavior as "upsetting" or "disappointing," and his mother would say that the son was "living in sin." His college counselor, well versed in Erikson's theory, may think he did it "in search of his identity," and his sociology professor may believe he is simply "rejecting the norms of a young-professional society." The young man himself may view this act as “natural,” as “what needed to be done at that moment.” Which explanation is correct? Kelly's theory has no answer. In his opinion, the whole point is that each of us perceives reality through our own models or constructs, which are necessary to create a consistent picture of the world.
If a construct helps accurately predict events, the person is likely to retain it. Conversely, if a prediction is not confirmed, the construct on which it was made is likely to be revised or even eliminated altogether (remember our example of the professor who was initially rated as “unbiased”). Construct validity is tested in terms of its predictive effectiveness, the extent of which may vary.
Kelly proposed that all personality constructs are bipolar and dichotomous in nature, that is, the essence of human thinking is to understand life experiences in terms of black or white, rather than shades of gray. More precisely, when experiencing events, a person notices that some events are similar to each other (they have common properties) and at the same time differ from others. For example, a person may notice that some people are fat and some are skinny; some are black and some are white; some are rich and some are poor; Some things are dangerous to touch, but some are not. It is this cognitive process of observing similarities and differences that leads to the formation of personality constructs.
Like a magnet, all constructs have two opposite poles.
Unfortunately, Kelly abandoned the study of the processes by which a person interprets his life experiences in a particular direction. He simply did not take into account the issue of individual differences in relation to the origin and development of personality constructs. To a certain extent this is understandable, since Kelly's theory is "ahistorical" in the sense that it does not emphasize a person's past life experiences. However, constructs must come from something, and the most reasonable assumption seems to be that they are products of previous experience. It is likely that variation in individual construct systems can be explained by differences in past life experiences.
Formal properties of constructs
Kelly proposed that all constructs are characterized by certain formal properties. First, a construct resembles a theory in that it addresses a specific range of phenomena. This range of applicability includes all events for which the construct is relevant or applicable. The “scientific-non-scientific” construct, for example, is quite applicable to interpreting many intellectual achievements, but is hardly suitable for explaining the advantages of being a married or single person. Kelly noted that the predictive power of a construct is seriously jeopardized whenever it is generalized beyond the set of phenomena for which it is intended. Hence, all constructs have a limited range of applicability, although the boundaries of the range may vary from construct to construct. The good-bad construct has a wide range of applicability, since it involves many situations that require personal assessment. And the construct “purity-prostitution” has much narrower boundaries.
Secondly, each construct has focus of applicability. It refers to the phenomena within the range of applicability to which the construct is most applicable. For example, the construct “honest-dishonest” for one person has the focus of applicability that one should keep one’s hands away from other people’s money and property. And another person can apply the same construct to political events. Consequently, the focus of applicability of a construct is always specific to the person applying it.
Permeability-impermeability- another parameter along which constructs may differ. A permeable construct admits into its range of applicability elements that have not yet been interpreted within its boundaries. He is open to explaining new phenomena. On the other hand, an impenetrable construct, while embracing the phenomena that form its original basis, remains closed to the interpretation of new experience. There is a relative degree of permeability and impermeability. The construct of “competent doctor-incompetent doctor” in one person can be quite permeable to the interpretation of any new doctor he meets, that is, by communicating with any new doctor for some time, a person can understand whether he is competent or incompetent. But another person can make the same construct completely impenetrable by insisting that there are no more competent doctors, that the last competent doctor was his pediatrician, who has already died. Consequently, the distinction between competent and incompetent doctors is no longer relevant to him. All doctors are incompetent! Note that permeability refers only to the range of applicability of a construct—a construct is, by definition, impermeable to any experience outside its range of applicability. Thus, the concept of “competent-incompetent” does not make sense when judging the taste of crabs.
Personality: a construct of a personologist
Kelly never offered a precise definition of the term "personality." However, he discussed this concept in one article, arguing that personality is "our abstraction of a person's activity and the subsequent generalization of this abstraction to all aspects of its relationship with other people, familiar and unfamiliar, and with that which may be of some value." Therefore, Kelly believed that personality is an abstraction created by personologists from the mental processes they observe and/or imply in others. This is not a separate reality discovered by them. In addition, he argued that personality by its nature is included in a person's interpersonal relationships. By combining these two ideas, we can give a more precise definition of personality in Kelly's theory, namely: the personality of an individual represents an organized system of more or less important constructs; a person uses personality constructs to interpret the world of experiences and anticipate future events. For Kelly, personality is equivalent to constructs used by an individual for the purpose of predicting the future. To understand another person, you need to know something about the constructs he uses, the events included in those constructs, and how they relate to each other. Briefly speaking, to know personality is to know how a person interprets his personal experiences.
BASIC POSTULATE AND SOME CONCLUSIONS FROM IT
The formal structure of personality construct theory is very succinct because Kelly developed his central principles using one basic postulate and 11 conclusions that follow from it. We first describe the basic postulate and then discuss implications that complement our explanation of Kelly's cognitive position.
Basic postulate
It turns out that each personologist has his own language for describing human behavior. Kelly is no exception, and this can be seen in his main postulate: " Personality processes are channels laid out in the psyche, along which a person predicts events". This postulate forms the basis of Kelly's theory, since it treats personality and behavior in a completely different way than in most other schools of thought. It is fundamental to Kelly's formal system, so in order to better understand it, let's look at it in more detail. The main postulate states that behavior is determined by how people predict future events. In other words, all human behavior (thoughts and actions) is aimed at predicting events. The postulate also implies that Kelly is interested in a person as such, and not in some individual aspects of his behavior (for example. , intergroup relations). The expression “personality processes” assumes that a person is an organism in development, and not an inert substance that is influenced by unconscious impulses or prompted to action by environmental stimuli (remember Kelly’s “donkey” point of view on human motivation) Kelly likens a person to a researcher and believes that people are governed by their future-oriented constructs.
Kelly's basic postulate also shows that his system lies within psychology and its range of applicability is limited to understanding human behavior. The expression "patterned channels" means that behavior is relatively stable across time and situations. Kelly believed that people acted within a network of paths or canals rather than worrying about an unpredictable void. In other words, people lay out or direct their processes to prevent the future.
The word “channels” is synonymous with the word constructs, and the mention of personality highlights the individuality of interpretation of phenomena. Regarding the latter, Kelly noted that each person creates and uses different channels (constructs) in a characteristic way, and also that the choice of a particular channel determines his mental processes. Finally, the expression “predicts events” reflects the predictive and motivational features inherent in cognitive theory. Like a scientist, a person tries to explain reality in order to learn to anticipate events that affect his life. It is this consideration that explains the focus of activity in Kelly's theory. According to it, people look at the present in such a way as to foresee the future using a unique system of their personal constructs.
Conclusions from the main postulate
Eleven conclusions that can be drawn from the basic postulate serve to develop Kelly's theory of personality constructs. Next we will discuss the most important of them.
Individuality and organization. The inference about individuality is especially useful for understanding the uniqueness of an individual: " People differ from each other in how they interpret events"According to Kelly, two people, even if they are identical twins or, suppose they have similar views, approach an event and interpret it differently. Each person understands reality from the "bell tower" of his unique personality construct. So, the difference between people is that they interpret events from different angles. There are a large number of examples showing that each person’s construct system is unique.
According to Kelly, in addition to the fact that personal constructs have distinctive features, they are organized differently in a person. This is clearly stated in his conclusion about organization: “Each person specifically develops, in accordance with his ability to predict events, a system of analysis that determines the rank relations between constructs.” This finding suggests that people organize their personality constructs hierarchically to minimize incompatibility and inconsistencies. And, more importantly, it implies that people differ from each other not only in the number and type of constructs they use in their judgments about the world, but also in the way they organize their constructs. In short, it would be a mistake to think that constructs are randomly crowded into a person’s consciousness and each is applied separately.
According to Kelly, the organization of personality constructs is very logical: the constructs are organized in a pyramidal structure so that some of them are either in a subordinate or subordinate position relative to other parts of the system. (Of course, a construct can be completely independent of all others.) A subordinate construct includes other constructs, and a subordinate construct is included in another (subordinate) construct. The good-bad construct, for example, may include both poles of the sexual-non-sexual construct. Consequently, the first construct subordinates the latter. This idea can be illustrated by the example of a sexist man who analyzes a girl - the model of the month in Playboy magazine. He may interpret her as "sexy" and therefore, in terms of the subordinating construct, as "good." But even in the constructive system of the most complete sexist, “good” usually means more than “sexy.” For example, he may interpret an interview of the month in the same magazine as "good" because it "inspired" him. In this case, the constructs “sexual-non-sexual” and “inspiring-not inspiring” will be subordinate to the subordinate construct “good-bad.”
O-V-I cycle. Kelly introduced various models to illustrate human actions in the face of a new or uncertain situation. The key point is the orientation-selection-execution (O-S-I) cycle, which consists of sequentially thinking through several possible constructs and choosing the one that turns out to be the best for interpreting the situation.
Change in the structural system. A constructive system allows a person to predict future events as accurately as possible. It follows that a construct system changes if it cannot be used to correctly predict the unfolding sequence of events. In this regard, Kelly postulates that change in our construct system occurs when we encounter new or unfamiliar phenomena that are inconsistent with our previous construct system. His conclusion about experience states: "A person's constructive system changes in accordance with the success of the interpretation of repeated phenomena."
The so-called learning inference suggests that a personality construct system is a set of hypotheses about our ever-changing world that are constantly tested by experience. Feedback about how well these hypotheses helped us predict the future leads to changes in constructs, which in turn are used as new hypotheses to consistently change the system. Those constructs that prove useful are retained, while the rest are revised or discarded. Thus, according to Kelly, the design system is consistently revised with informed selection to make the right decisions.
Social relations and personal constructs. If, as Kelly argued in his conclusion about personality, people differ from each other in the way they interpret situations, then it follows that they can be similar to each other if they interpret their experiences in similar ways. A fisherman sees a fisherman from afar. This idea is clearly expressed in the generality inference: "If a person interprets experience in some way like another person does, then his mental processes are similar to the other person's mental processes. So, if two people share views of the world (i.e. similar in their interpretation of personal experience), they will probably behave similarly (that is, they will have similar personalities. It should be noted that people are similar not because they have experienced the same events in life, and not because). their behavior is similar - they are similar because the events have approximately the same psychological meaning for them. In accordance with his cognitive orientation, Kelly relies on interpretation rather than on past experience or observed behavior.
The commonality inference implies that the similarity evident among members of the same culture is not just similarity in behavior. Kelly believed that people of the same culture interpret their experiences in much the same way. The "culture shock" often experienced when a person encounters someone from another culture is the result of differences in the way they interpret events. Support for this view is recent research showing that cultural differences are rooted in differences in the constructs that people use.
The conclusion about community formulated by Kelly is very important for the field of human relations. In particular, he proposes a possible, unifying connection between individual and social psychology. The unconditional assertion that stable and sincere human relationships cannot develop unless at least one of the people tries to step into the shoes of the other may explain the communication problems that people have in a variety of situations, ranging from everyday conversations (with parents, relatives, friends, neighbors) and ending with international affairs. A world without war may ultimately depend on the ability of people (especially heads of state) to accurately analyze the interpretive processes of others.
To study the roles of personal Kelly developed the Role Construct Repertory Test (RCT).
The cognitive branch of personology emphasizes the influence of intellectual or thought processes on human behavior. George Kelly was one of the pioneers of this movement with his theory of personality constructs. He based his approach on the philosophy of constructive alternativeism, which states that any event for any person is open to multiple interpretations. Kelly compared people to scientists who constantly make and test hypotheses about the nature of things so that they can make an adequate forecast of future events. Kelly believed that people perceive their world through clear systems or models called constructs. Each person has a unique construct system (personality) that they use to interpret life experiences. Kelly created a theory in which all constructs have certain formal properties: range of applicability and permeability-impermeability.
Kelly's theory is formulated in one basic postulate and 11 conclusions arising from it. The first argues that personality processes have psychologically laid out channels in which people predict events, and the conclusions explain how the construct system functions, how it changes and influences social interactions.
Personality as a system of personal constructs. Types of constructs: verbal and preverbal, central and peripheral, dominant and subordinate. Repertoire test of personal constructs (Rep-test). Cognitive complexity - simplicity. Psychological growth as a change in the system of personal constructs.
Kelly's personal construct theory is a broad, inclusive theory of personality based on the idea that each person attempts to anticipate and control the events that happen around him.
KELLY GEORGE ALEXANDER
George Alexander Kelly was born on April 18, 1905 in the USA. In his youth, he studied rather mediocrely and only while studying at the university did he become interested in psychology. His first articles were published in the 30s. XX century and were devoted to practical psychology and communication problems. At the end of the 1930s. J. Kelly became interested in the problems of personality psychology. The theories that existed at that time did not correspond to the views of the young scientist, so he decided to create his own concept. To do this, he even had to develop a special method of personality research, called the “repertory grid method.” After defending his doctoral dissertation, J. Kelly taught at the university and at the same time conducted laboratory research. He was a talented experimenter and actively applied his method. As a result, he developed a new concept of personality, called the theory of personal constructs. This theory appeared, among other things, due to the growing disappointment in behaviorist and neo-behaviorist theories in scientific circles. It became a new word in psychology and in many ways anticipated the emergence of the cognitive direction. On April 15, 1955, J. Kelly’s book “The Psychology of Personal Constructs” was published. In this work, the author examined how a person builds a holistic image of the world in his mind and how, with the help of this image, he can predict and control the events and behavior of the people around him. The key concept of the theory of personal constructs created by J. Kelly, which forms the core of personality, is the concept of “personal construct” - a generalization from previous experience, a classification and evaluation standard created by a person and verified by him in his own experience. Personality in the theory of personal constructs is an organized system more or less important constructs And to understand personality, it is enough to know the constructs that it creates and uses, the events included in these constructs, and how they relate to each other. If a construct facilitates the adequacy of forecasting events, it is retained by the individual, but if the forecast is not confirmed, then the construct is revised or excluded. The effectiveness of this structure is tested by the individual in terms of its predictive effectiveness, the degree of which may vary. The personal construct organizes and regulates behavior, reconstructs the system of relationships, understanding objects in their similarities and differences, constructing the image of “I”. J. Kelly wrote that all personal constructs have two opposite poles: emergent (pole of similarity of construct elements) and implicit (pole of contrast). To create a construct, at least three elements are required, two of which must be similar to each other, and the third must be different from the first two. In anticipation of events, the person identifies constructs that seem relevant and then chooses which pole of the relevant constructs will be applied. The choice of a pole of a construct is called a complex choice in the theory of personal constructs. In accordance with the nature of the control exercised over the elements, J. Kelly identified specific types of personal constructs: proactive, constellatory and presumptive. The proactive construct is responsible for the standardization of its elements. A constellatory construct can simultaneously belong to different areas, but is constant only in its area. An inferential construct leaves its elements open to alternative constructions and allows the individual to be open to new experiences. Constructs as complex formations have a number of properties. First, they are characterized by a range of applicability, which includes all events in which the construct can be applied. This property arises because all constructs have a limited range of applicability, although the boundaries of the range may vary from construct to construct. Secondly, there is a focus of applicability of the construct that is specific to each individual. The third important property of a construct is the degree of its permeability, in which they can differ. A permeable construct admits into its range of applicability elements that have not yet been interpreted within its boundaries. An impenetrable construct embraces the phenomena that form its original basis and remains closed to the interpretation of new experience. The degree of permeability and impermeability of constructs is relative. Permeability relates only to the range of applicability of a construct - a construct is by definition impermeable to experiences outside its range of applicability. Depending on the features of applicability, J. Kelly identified core and peripheral constructs. According to the degree of stability and immutability, he also distinguished between basic and situational personal constructs, and according to the characteristics of the range - comprehensive and particular constructs. They can also be hard, i.e. giving a constant forecast, or free, allowing different forecasts to be made under similar conditions. The set of personal constructs is a system with a complex hierarchy and many subsystems. Since the construct is not acquired from the outside, but is built exclusively by the person himself, it is always determined individually. In his work, J. Kelly gave examples of personality constructs that a person uses to evaluate everyday life, “excited - calm”, “smart - stupid”, “male - female”, “religious - non-religious”, “good - bad” and "friendly - hostile". This book can be seen as an attempt to combine scientific and humanistic approaches to the study of human personality. Here Kelly made an attempt to overcome the discrepancy between the theoretical concepts of personality created at different times and the practical problems of each individual person. Thus, he came up with the idea of creating a kind of meta-theory that could be applied both to scientific research and to specific problems of an individual. The main principle of Kelly's approach was the same perception of the psychologist and the subject. He understood man as a scientist, a researcher who builds his own image of the world. According to Kelly, each person constantly draws conclusions from the information that comes to him, puts forward hypotheses and tests their correctness. He tries to predict events, his own behavior and the behavior of others, taking into account all the information received from the outside. Thus, this scientist's approach was very different from generally accepted principles. Instead of the object approach used by most psychologists of that time, J. Kelly proposed a subjective one. A special feature of this book is also that in it the author contrasted his theory of personality with other concepts that understand a person as passively subject to the influence of external forces, depending entirely on chance and subject to internal, subconscious irrational drives. George Alexander Kelly died in 1962. In psychology, he acted as an innovator, since his ideas anticipated the development of science by several years. He created an original theory of personality, which was deeply scientific and at the same time had practical significance. Kelly contrasted it with the views of behaviorists; he understood each person as a researcher constantly engaged in building his own “image of the world” with the help of constructs.
Dolly returns home wearing cute short shorts, which from afar could easily be mistaken for underwear. For example, this happened with Mrs. Smith looking out the window for a girl. Mrs. Smith's verdict is simple - the girl leads a lifestyle that is far from high moral principles, and the number of her young people is, to put it mildly, excessive. But how do shorts and their length relate to a person's morality? For Dolly herself, there may be no connection. But Mrs. Smith has her own personality construct, which allowed her to unequivocally - and unprintably - evaluate her neighbor.
What is a personal construct and how does it appear?
A personal construct, according to the theory of the American psychologist George Kelly, is an abstraction or generalization from previous experience created by a classification and evaluation standard personality and verified by it in its own experience. Simply put, a construct is our own definition, which helps to evaluate certain phenomena or situations and works as a kind of “label”. A mandatory property of any construct is its dichotomy - bipolarity, the presence of two poles:
- The pole of similarity (another name is emergent) is activated when two objects, phenomena or people being compared are somewhat similar and resemble each other in terms of the characteristics being compared.
- Pole of contrast (implicit) – the objects being compared are completely different in the parameters being compared.
Kelly did not delve into the study of the origins of the emergence and differences of constructs in people - he only noted that for the formation of a construct, at least three observable objects are necessary, two of which are similar, and one is radically different from them. However, now we can confidently state the fact that the basis of constructs is a person’s life experience. Our observations of various life events result in a certain system, a picture of the world with a general set of cause-and-effect relationships. Of course, everyone’s experience is subjective – that’s why the constructs are sometimes so different.
Returning to the example described in the introductory paragraph, Mrs. Smith, based on her life experience, did not rate Dolly and her clothes highly. However, a fashion designer who lived in the house opposite admired the girl’s style and privately called her “elegant.” And Dolly herself simply prefers “simple and comfortable” clothes. And, yes, all of these are also personal constructs, the diversity of which, as we see, sometimes reaches the limit.
Fundamental Postulate of the Theory
George Kelly wrote that his entire theory was based, in fact, on only one Fundamental Postulate, which he himself characterized as an assumption. The postulate, in turn, is supplemented by eleven consequences, which are also rather speculative in nature. That is, Kelly did not insist on the unconditional correctness of his theory and emphasized that, by and large, these are just assumptions. The fundamental Postulate sounds like this: “Personal processes in psychological terms are directed along those channels through which a person anticipates events.”
Let us explain - a person is entirely focused on developing the ability to predict events in order to simplify his life. Constructs serve a person as a means of “forecasting,” a marker, a label that we use based on our experience. This is convenient - so as not to reinvent the wheel every time something new “threatens” to fit into our picture of the world. But a person does not need personal constructs with the help of which it is impossible to predict at least an approximate development of events. A construct will not be used (or it will have to be completely redrawn) if it is unreliable and has not been confirmed by personal experience. This is called “penetrability” - the degree to which events are predictable and explainable when using a construct.
Characteristics of personal constructs:
- “Permeability”, which we talked about above.
- The focus of applicability is the situation in which the construct is applied. For the “smart-stupid” construct, a situation in which you need to quickly learn something and reproduce a skill may well be the focus of applicability.
- Range of applicability - how many events one construct can cover to explain. For example, a person, action, thing, character trait can be assessed as “good-bad”... But “dry-wet” is a construct with a much smaller range of applicability. With them, we will probably evaluate only the degree of moisture of some material object - and not an action or situation.
J. Kelly noted that any individual whose mental development fits within the norm has the following:
- 1) The desire to evaluate one’s constructs and verify the correctness of one’s interpretations of behavior and attitudes towards other people.
- 2) Settlement for changing constructs in case of their predictive ineffectiveness.
- 3) The desire to expand the range, volume and scope of your design system.
- 4) Well-developed repertoire of social roles.
Consequently, the theory is not at all about the rigidity of consciousness and the abundance of patterns in people’s minds, as it might seem. A person armed with only a couple of constructs and not thinking about the correctness of their application is, according to Kelly, no longer a completely mature person.
“Are constructs necessary at all?” - the reader may wonder. At present, when stereotypical thinking is considered bad manners and is increasingly rejected by society, this interest is quite understandable. After all, personality construct theory, which openly postulates that we all use labels every day, can also cause some rejection if not properly understood.
Let's think about why we need constructs:
- 1) We cannot - and there is no need - to invent our own understanding, definition and assessment for each new situation. Our system of internal and external norms and rules of behavior will suffer from this - after all, we will no longer be able to evaluate anything. Now imagine how the disappearance of the constructs “honest-deceitful”, “legal-illegal” and others will affect the world as a whole!
- 2) Constructs are an excellent memory organizer. Without them, we will hardly remember or be able to tell anything. The speed and quality of thinking will deteriorate, as will our ability to identify events and people.
- 3) Personal constructs are bright colors, opposites and contrasts that give us both bias and the most complete picture of the world. Our whole life without them will turn into one continuous gray spot without poles and contrasts.
The theory of personal constructs focuses on the bipolarity of everything in this world - and themselves in particular. Personal constructs can make our life much easier - but they can also simplify it to the point of simply attaching a label. They can be used to determine one’s opinion, and with exactly the same success – for one-sided judgment. However, does one pole exist without the other, the opposite - and, if so, could we determine this without the necessary contrast of thinking? For example, “good-evil” is the oldest construct known to mankind with perhaps the widest focus and range of application.
List of sources used:
- 1. Ermine P., Titarenko T. Personality psychology: dictionary-reference book. - Zhitomir: Ruta, 2001. - 329 p.
- 2. Kelly J. Psychotherapy of constructive alternativeism: the psychology of a personal model, in Sat.: Techniques of counseling and psychotherapy / Compiled by: U.S. Sakhakian. - M.: “April-press”; "Eksmo-press", 200
- 3. Malanov S.V., Methodological and theoretical foundations of psychology. - Voronezh: NPO "MODEK", 2005 - 336 p.
Editor: Chekardina Elizaveta Yurievna
