Personal Constructs

Personal Construct

George Kelly (1995), who developed the personal construct theory, classifies personal construct as “characteristic ways of constructing how some things are alike and some things are different from one another” (p. 302). Every construct is essentially bipolar, stating the alikeness and differences; such as happy/unhappy are complete opposite but are similar. The desire to find out what life has in store for someone is what encourages people to act, predict, and even try to control what occurs in his or her life.

Classifying the experience is the first step. A person processes the information based on the way he or she anticipates the situation to occur. I anticipate situations based on the previous encounters of a similar situation. Each person views the situation differently. Personal constructs are also categorized into groups of people who fit a particular description and situation.

What others thought of as a problem of human motivation, Kelly (1995) asserted that the ‘problem’ of human motivation is not a problem at all.” “They act by virtue of being alive” (p.301). Motivation, behavior, and experience guides the anticipation of what will occur at any given moment. A person is motivated by what he or she believes will occur in a particular situation with specific people based on previous information from a similar situation or people involved.

According to (p305), “People who use many different kinds of constructs are said to manifest higher levels of cognitive complexity, viewing the world in a highly differentiated manner.” Many of my personal constructs consist of hard-working, trusting, dedicated, and intelligent people who are complex extraverts, and are laid-back enjoying life. I seek this in my own life for myself, so I surround myself with people that I desire to become similar to. Behavior reflects that of those I emulate to be like or what I believe they are like.

References

Axia College (2011). Self and Other: Social-Cognitive Aspects of Personality. Retrieved April 15, 2011 from Axia College, PSY230 website.