JEFFREY S.

MANZANO, BS Psych

THEORIES OF PERSONALITY Maybe you read something unpleasant about an actor in the film. Or you may feel more
content because your grades are improving.
George Kelly
2) Individuality Corollary
Individual differences in interpreting events.
“It occurred to me that what seemed true of myself was probably no People differ from one another in how they perceive or interpret
less true of others. If I initiated my actions, so did they.” an event. Because of construing events differently, people form
different constructs. Our constructs do not so much reflect the
objective reality of an event as they constitute the unique
◘ Each person creates a set of cognitive constructs about the interpretation each of us places on it.
environment. By that he meant that we interpret and organize the
events and social relationships of our lives in a system or pattern.
3) Organization Corollary
◘ On the basis of this pattern, we make predictions about ourselves
and about other people and events, and we use these predictions to Relationships among constructs.
formulate our responses and guide our actions. We arrange our constructs in patterns, according to our view
◘ Therefore, to understand personality, we must first understand our of their similarities and differences. People who hold similar
patterns, the ways we organize or construct our world. constructs may still differ from one another if they organize
◘ According to Kelly, our interpretation of events is more important than those constructs in different patterns. Typically, we organize
the events themselves. our constructs into a hierarchy, with some constructs
◘ People as a scientist. subordinate to others.
◘ He proposed that the way to understand someone’s personality is to For example, the construct good may include among its subordinates the constructs
examine his or her personal constructs. “intelligent” and “moral”. Thus, if we meet someone who fits our idea of a good person,
◘ At best, Kelly’s theory could be considered a precursor to we anticipate that he or she will also have the attributes of intelligence and high moral
contemporary cognitive psychology. standards.

4) Dichotomy Corollary
PERSONAL CONSTRUCT THEORY Two mutually exclusive alternatives.
Constructs are bipolar; This is necessary if we are to anticipate
 People perceive and organize their world of experiences the same future events correctly. Just as we note similarities among
way scientists do, by formulating hypotheses about the environment people or events, we must also account for dissimilarities.
and testing them against the reality of daily life.
For example, Honesty vs. Dishonesty. . If we did not make this distinction—if we assumed
 This personal interpreting, explaining, or construing of experience
that all people are honest—then forming a construct about honesty would not help us
represents our unique view of events, the pattern within which we
place them. anticipate or predict anything about people we might meet in the future. A person can
be expected to be honest only in contrast to someone who is expected to be dishonest.
 CONSTRUCT: a person’s unique way of looking at life, an
intellectual hypothesis devised to explain or interpret events.
 CONSTRUCTIVE ALTERNAVISM: the view that 5) Choice Corollary
we are not controlled by our constructs but are free to revise or Freedom of choice
replace them with other alternatives. We choose the alternative for each construct that works best
 Kelly’s personal construct theory is presented in a scientific format, for us, the one that allows us to predict the outcome of
organized into a fundamental postulate and 11 corollaries. The anticipated events (a choice between security and adventure).
fundamental postulate states that: “our psychological processes
are directed by the ways in which we anticipate events.” 6) Range Corollary
The range of convenience.
Our constructs may apply to many situations or people, or
they may be limited to a single person or situation.
THE ELEVEN COROLLARIES OF
Consider the construct tall versus short, which obviously has a limited range of
PERSONAL convenience or applicability. It can be useful with respect to buildings, trees, or
CONSTRUCT THEORY basketball players, but it is of no value in describing a pizza or the weather.

1) Construction Corollary 7) Experience Corollary

Similarities among repeated events. Exposure to new experiences
No life event or experience could be reproduced exactly as it We continually test our constructs against life’s experiences to
occurred the first time. An event can be repeated, but it will not make sure they remain useful. Constructs that worked for us at
be experienced in precisely the same way. age 16 may be useless,or even harmful,at age 40. In the
intervening years,our experiences will have led us to revise our
For example, if you watch a movie today that you first saw last month, your experience
construct system. Therefore, we must reconstrue our
of it will be different the second time. Your mood may not be the same, and during the
experiences and constructs accordingly.
elapsed month you were exposed to events that affected your attitudes and emotions.
 JEFFREY S. MANZANO, BS Psych

8) Modulation Corollary QUESTIONS ABOUT HUMAN NATURE

Adapting to new experiences
We may modify our constructs as a function of new
experiences.
For example, if a bigoted person applies the construct high intelligence versus low
intelligence in a fixed or impermeable way to people of a certain ethnic minority group,
believing that all members of this group have low intelligence, then new experiences will
not penetrate or alter this belief. The prejudiced person will not modify that construct,
no matter how many highly intelligent people of that ethnic group he or she meets. The
construct is a barrier to learning and to new ideas.

9) Fragmentation Corollary
Competition among constructs.
Kelly believed that within our construct system some individual
constructs might be incompatible, even though they coexist ◘ Kelly’s personality theory presents an optimistic, even
within the overall pattern.We may sometimes have flattering, image of human nature.
contradictory or inconsistent subordinate constructs within our ◘ He believed we are the authors, not the victims, of our
overall construct system. According to Kelly, this is the process
destiny.
by which we tolerate subordinate inconsistencies without
damaging our overall construct system.
◘ His view endows us with free will and we are able to
change when necessary by revising old constructs and
Consider the following situation. A man meets a woman in a psychology class and decides
forming new ones.
that he is attracted to her. She is also a psychology major, and her interests seem
similar to his. She fits the friend alternative of the construct friend versus enemy. ◘ Our direction is clearly toward the future because we
Thus, she is someone to be liked and respected. He sees her the next day at a political formulate constructs to predict or anticipate events.
rally and is disappointed to find her loudly expressing conservative views that are the ◘ Kelly did not accept historical determinism. We need
opposite of his own liberal opinions. Now she also fits the opposite alternative of the no push from internal drives or needs because we are
construct. She has become the enemy. motivated by the fact of being alive.
◘ He noted that we are not totally determined by
10) Commonality Corollary
environmental influences. We live by constructs based
Similarities among people in interpreting events.
Although our individual constructs are unique to us, people in on our interpretation of events.
compatible groups or cultures may hold similar constructs. ◘ Our goal is to establish a construct system that
Consider a group of people with the same cultural norms and ideals. Their anticipations
enables us to predict events.
and expectations of one another will have much in common and they will construe many of
their experiences in the same way. People from the same culture may show a resemblance
in their behaviors and characteristics even though they are exposed to different life
events.

11) Sociality Corollary

Interpersonal relationships.
We try to understand how other people think and predict what
they will do, and we modify our behavior accordingly.
Construing another person’s constructs is something we do routinely. Think about driving
a car. We stake our lives on being able to anticipate what the other drivers on the road
will do. It is only when we can predict with some certainty what drivers, friends, bosses,
or teachers will do that we can adjust our behaviors to theirs. And while we are adapting
to them, they are doing the same to us.