George Kelly- chapter 13
Terms
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- believe that intact conscious experience should be psychology\'s focus of attention. The important thing to study is a person\'s individual conscious experiences, w/o breaking them into component parts or attempting to determine their origin
- Phenomenologist *Unlike some phenomenologists, Kelly was interested in how thought processes were used while interacting with the environment
- theory that emphasizes mental events and stresses how people view and think about reality
- Cognitive theory (Kelly\'s theory)
- emphasizes the present and future rather than the past; and assumes that humans are free to choose their own identities
- Existential theory (Kelly\'s theory)
- Theory that stressees the human capacity for improvement; explore new possibilities (Kelly\'s theory)
- Humanistic theory
- All humans are like scientists in that they are interested in the future and use the present only to test a theory\'s ability to anticipate events. The scientist\'s main goal is to reduce uncertainty
- Kelly\'s Basic Postulate-People as Scientists
- the major tool a person uses in anticipating events. Can also be an idea that a person uses when attempting to interpret his/her own personal experiences
- personal construct * used by individuals to CONSTRUE or interpret,explain, give meaning to, or predict experiences
- collection of constructs used by a person at any given time to construe the events in his/her life
- construct system *Kelly believed individuals are free to create their own construct systems, but he also believed they are controlled by them after they are created
- For Kelly, this term refers to a person\'s construct system
- Personality
- Term that reflects Kelly\'s belief that there are numerous ways of construing one\'s experience and therefore one is free to choose from a # of construct systems
- constructive alternativism
- George Kelly had this many corollaries
- 11
- 1) constructs are formed on the basis of the recurring themes in one\'s experience (day follows night, it tends to be cold in the winter)
- Construction corollary
- 2) each person is unique in his/ her manner of construing experience (reality is what we perceive it to be)
- Individuality corollary
- 3)states that constructs are organized in a hierarchy from most general to most specific *superordinate: general construct that subsumes other constructs Subordinate: constructs that are subsumed under a more general construct
- Organization corollary
- 4)states that each construct has 2 poles, 1 of which describes what characteristics the events to which the construct is relevant have in common, the other describes events w/o those characteristics Ex:one pole describes beautiful things, the other desc
- Dichotomy corollary
- 5)states that people will choose a construct that will either further define or extend their construct system Defintion: safe path (validation) Extension: trying new constructs, assimilate better to experiences that were once foreign (possibility of fai
- Choice corollary
- 6)states that a construct is only relevant to a finite range of events range of convenience: includes all the events to which the construct is relevant focus of convenience: events w/ in the range of convenience of a construct to which that construct is
- Range corollary
- 7)states that mere passive experience is unimportant. It is the active construing of experience that ultimately results in a more effectove construct system
- Experience corollary
- 8)states that a construct system is more likely to change if the constructs contained in it are permeable (open to experience, easily assimilate new experiences)
- Modulation corollary
- 9) states that as a construct system is being tested, revised, or extended, certain inconsistencies in behavior may result
- Fragmentation corollary
- 10) states that people can be considered similar not b/c of similar physical experiences but b/c they construe their experiences in a similar fashion
- Commonality corollary
- 11)states that to engage in constructive social interaction / another person, one must first understand how that person construes his/ her experiences. Only then can one play a role in that person\'s life Role: an ongoing pattern of behavior that follows
- Sociality corollary *role construct: our understanding of another person\'s outlook and expectations
- characterizes the actions of a person confronted w/ a novel situation
- CPC cycle *circumspection: ponder several constructs that seem to be pertinent to the situation *preemption: choose from the constructs pondered in the prev phase *control: choose that pole of the chosen construct that seems most useful under the circumstances and then act on it
- construct that is cognitively tested as one that might be useful in construing a situation
- Propositional construct (occur in circumspection phase)
- employed when a person seeks innovative solutions to problems or a fresh way of construing experiences
- Creativity cycle 1-loosened construction phase 2- tightened \" \" 3- test phase
- a synonym for life, just being alive is motivation enough push theories: Freud, Skinner, Dollard & Miller pull theories: Jung and Adler jackass theories: Rogers, Maslow, and May (social-cog theory)
- Motivation
- -Motivation -Anxiety -Hostility -Aggression -Guilt -Threat -Fear -Learning -Unconscious
- Kelly\'s Interpretation of traditional psychological concepts
- the recognition that events w/ which one is confronted lie outside the range of convenience of one\'s construct system (total lack of predictability)
- Anxiety
- the continued effort to exort validational evidence in favor of a type of social prediction which has already proven itself a failure (continue to use a construct even though it has proven false in the past)
- Hostility
- the active elaboration of one\'s perceptual field (an attempt to expand one\'s construct system to an ever increasing range of events
- Aggression (opposite of Hostility)
- the perception of one\'s apparent dislodgement from his core role structure (the roles we play while interacting w/ the relevant people and groups in our lives)
- Guilt *results from the inconsistency interacting w/ the relevant people and groups in our lives) Ex: a guy who spent most of his life avoiding alcohol accepts a drink at a party--> feels guilty
- the awareness of imminent comprehensive change in one\'s core structures (core structures used to make sense out of life)
- Threat Ex: a person looked out her window in the middle of summer and sees snow --> feels threatened
- Similar to threat, but less severe. results when a peripheral element of one\'s construct system is invalidated, rather than one\'s core constructs
- Fear
- Constructs w/ low cognitive awareness (not able to easily bring to mind) 3 types: 1)Preverbal constructs: still used even though it has no consistent word symbol 2)Submergence: one pole of a construct is used while the other is ignored 3)suspension:
- Unconscious
- changes which occur in one\'s construct system that enhance predictabilty
- Learning
- associated w/ validation, which occurs when a construct is successfully used to anticipate future events (people seek validation of their construct system)
- Reinforcement
- provides a person w/ an opportinity to examine and reformulate his/her construct system (better predict their futures)
- Psychotherapy
- identifies the constructs a client uses to construe the relevant people in his/her life
- Role Construct Repertory Test
- Belief of the info a client is telling you and they should be trusted (ask a question and take their word for it)
- Credulous Attitude
- A sketch that Kelly sometimes had his clients write about themselves (3rd person)in order to learn what constructs they used to construe themselves and other people
- Self-characterization
- clinical technique that asks clients to act out as if they were other people. Clients = actors, and therapist = supporting actor. have client try diff ways of construing their experiences in a non-threatening situation
- Fixed-role therapy
- For Kelly, it is the focus on conscious experience related to objective personality
- Phenomenology