Personal Constructs Theory Essay

Kelly offered a fresh and enlightening means of understanding human psychology. He presented personal construct theory as a complete, innovative and elaborated abstraction of how people make sense of their world and themselves. It is unique since it can be seen as metatheory, a theory about theories. It holds that people anticipate events by the meanings or interpretations that they place on those events. Kelly called these interpretations personal constructs. His philosophical position, called constructive alternativism, assumes that alternative interpretations are always available to people. Simply, it means that our interpretation of the future are subject to revision or are bound to change. In this manner, a person construe their world from different angles and whatever that angle is, it may not be the right angle in the future. Kelly believed that people construe events according to their personal constructs rather than reality. He also postulated that a person is, in some way, a scientist or vice versa. People generally attempt to solve everyday problems in much the same fashion as scientists; that is, they observe, ask questions, formulate hypotheses, infer conclusions, and predict future events and because scientists are people, their pronouncements should be regarded with the same skepticism as any other data. His assumption was human behavior is shaped by the way people anticipate the future and the constructions made earlier are replaced later in life. Accordingly, it is somehow true to myself. In the simplest experience, when I was in elementary, I wanted to become Pharmacy no matter what it takes or how long will it take. My perception was to go to college earning a pharmacy degree which in essence is the construction I made personally. Then, I went to high school, unexpectedly, I changed my mind. Even though I hold on to my dream of being a Pharmacy, I wasn’t able to reach that because I’ve changed, my wants change. As to the 11 Supporting corollaries postulated by Kelly such as (1) Construction Corollary, a search for repeated themes – replications (2) Individuality Corollary, individuals differ from each other in terms of how they interpret events (3) Organization Corollary, constructs are interrelated and subsuming (4) Dichotomy Corollary, constructs are bipolar and finite in number (5) Choice Corollary, movement in a direction which elaborates the construct system and leads to definition or extension (6) Range Corollary, a construct is applicable for a range of events (7) Experience Corollary, systems change through validation and invalidation (8) Modulation Corollary, permeability of constructs allows the assimilation of new events (9) Fragmentation Corollary, sub-systems of constructs may not be logically related (10) Commonality Corollary, similarity of others is based on similarity of construing. (11) Sociality Corollary, relating to others is successful when the person understands others construing. Among these corollaries, arising from individual’s experience, I consider Individuality Corollary as very true to myself. Kelly’s Individuality Corollary, which states that a person differ from each other in their own constructions of events, stresses how unique the individual is or how individual differences can be visualize.