PERSONALITY THEORY

Perspective Learning Theories

Theory Psychology of Personal Constructs
Proponent(s) George Kelly
Year of first Publication 1955

Theory Overview
According to psychologist George Kelly, personality is composed of the various mental
constructs or interpretation through which each person views reality. It suggests that people
develop personal constructs about how the world works. The world we live in is the same for
all of us, but the way we experience it is different for each individual (Cherry,2019).

Personality Description
Personal construct theory is expressed in one fundamental postulate, or assumption, and
elaborated by means of 11 supporting corollaries (Feist,2008). These are: (1) Construction
corollary- A person anticipates events by construing their replications. (2) Individuality
corollary- Persons differ from each other in their construction of events. (3) Organization
collary- Each person characteristically evolves, for his convenience in anticipating events, a
construction system embracing ordinal relationships between constructs. (4) Dichotomy
corollary- A person’s construction system is composed of a finite number of dichotomous
constructs. (5) Choice corollary- 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 (6) Range corollary- A construct is convenient for the
anticipation of a finite range of events only. (7) Experience Corollary- A person’s
construction system varies as he successively construes the replications of events. (8)
Modulation corollary- The variation in a person’s construction system is limited by the
permeability of the constructs within whose range of convenience the variants lie. (9)
Fragmentation corollary- A person may successively employ a variety of construction
subsystems which are inferentially incompatible with each other (10) Commonality
corollary- (To the extent that one person employs a construction of experience which is
similar to that employed by another, his psychological processes are similar to those of the
other person. (11) Sociality corollary - To the extent that one person construes the
construction processes of another, he may play a role in a social process involving the other
person.

Personality Dynamics
According to Kelly, He proposed that our behaviour is motivated by personal constructs.
These constructs are what shapes behaviour because of a person’s continuous interpretation
and construction of the world (Feist, 2008). And with that Kelly proposed 6 personal
constructs which are Core constructs, Loose constructs, Peripheral Constructs, Pre-emptive
constructs, Propositional constructs, and Constellatory constructs. These constructs are what
motivates a human being, these constructs are beliefs that are either part of personal
identity like the core constructs and some beliefs that are weak like loose constructs and
can easily be changed like peripheral constructs.

Personality Development
The basic postulate assumes that “a person’s processes are psychologically channelized by
the ways in which [that person] anticipates events” (Feist,2008). In other words, people’s
behaviors, thoughts and actions are directed by the way they see the future. This postulate
is not intended as an absolute statement of truth but is a tentative assumption open to
question and scientific testing (Feist,2008).
Concept of Humanity

determinism vs free
choice
pessimism vs optimism
causality vs teleology
conscious vs unconscious
biological vs social
influences
uniqueness vs similarities
According to Kelly, People have free choice to make within
our personal construct system.
According to Kelly, He saw people as anticipating the future
and living their lives in accordance with those anticipations.
According to Kelly, Personality is much more likely to be
guided by our present anticipation of future events because
the influence of the past is quite limited.
According to Kelly, He emphasized conscious process are
more than unconscious process. Since people are high in
cognitive awareness.
According to Kelly, He emphasized more to social influence
because we are influenced by others and in turn have some
impact on them. When we accurately construe the
constructions of another person, we may play a role in a
social process involving that other person
According to Kelly, He emphasized uniqueness despite of
people may have some of the same kinds of experience that
constitutes events similarly. However, there no two persons
that will have the same interpretations and same personal
constructs.

Personal Insights
The theory of personal constructs is very much seen and understood by me because in
everything that I do feel like there is a ready-made interpretation to the new experiences
that I experience; for instance, I am threatened by spiders and everything that I see that is
spider like is very scary to me and I avoid and scream if I see those things, but some people
are fascinated by spiders and even keep them as pets, and I can even relate this to dogs, as
dogs for me are the best things in the world and I am not afraid of them yet people
sometimes get scared by big and active dogs or even small and slow dogs. These
experiences that I have before with the animals are what created my personal construct and
thus my interpretations for spiders in an instant is a threat and my interpretation for dogs
are cute and lovable animals. And thus my behaviour is shaped by my evolving perception
of these experiences and reality. This new knowledge can help me as a psychology major
because now I can understand people with different constructs in mind and now I won’t
battle with them to justify my construct with theirs and now I have to understand that they
have their own unique construct.

Reference:

Cherry, K (2019) Personal Construct Theory Overview. Retrieved from: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-

personal-construct-theory-2795957
Feist, J. & Feist, G. (2008) Theories of Personality, Seventh Edition [PDF file]. Retrieved from:
https://www.academia.edu/31456078/Feist_-_Theories_of_Personality