Personal construct theory

A topic in research methodology

Personal construct theory (PCT) offers a theoretical perspective ('constructive alternativism') on the way people make sense of their experiences/worlds, based on the ideas that people construe the world through a system of personal constructs.

"Kelly's theory is constructivist in the way that it suggests that an individual person understands the world through developing a system of constructs that are personal to that individual, and which are the basis for interpreting experience."

Taber, 2020

George Kelly (1963) originally developed Personal Construct Theory (PCT) for use in counselling, but his (constructivist) ideas and elicitation techniques have been found to of much wider value. PCT provides a conceptualisation of an individual's way of making sense of the world that leads to techniques for researching the person's perceptions / beliefs / personal knowledge. These techniques (like Q methodology) rely on asking the individual to make discriminations, and so can access implicit knowledge.

Kelly acquired degrees in several disciplines: physics and mathematics; sociology; education; psychology. Solomon (1994:7) described him as "a psychologist who studied patients locked away in the solitary world of the schizophrenic".

Kelly considered that individuals construe the world through a system of bipolar constructs, although many of these may be implicit constructs (the person uses them, but may not realise they are doing so). The constructs are the basis of discrimination made during the perceptual-conceptual process.

Our construct system allows us to anticipate the future, and then experience (filtered through our system of constructs!) matches our expectations to a varying degree. Kelly (1961/1969: 95) commented that

"We do not discover our theory; we do not discover our prediction. What is discovered is a correspondence – a practical correspondence – between what our theoretical invention leads us to anticipate and what, subsequently, our instrumental invention leads us to observe."

Kelly, 1961/1969: 95

Research tools

Kelly's theory developed from his work as a psychologist/counsellor. He devised research techniques to explore his client's 'construct systems' of their worlds:

The construct repertory test (a.k.a. 'Kelly's triads') – to elicit constructs
Repertory grid – to see how constructs were related

If we adopt Kelly's tools of data collection and analysis within research drawing upon constructive alternativism as a theoretical perspective (with its inherent paradigmatic commitments), then we might consider this collectively comprises a particular methodology.

The range of the theory

Kelly suggested his ideas were especially useful, but not restricted to, the context in which he derived them (i.e., counselling, psychotherapy):

"Kelly had particular terrains which concerned him, such as the understanding of psychotherapy, but he sought to make his psychology comprehensive enough to serve the purposes of those with very different issues in mind."

(Bannister & Fransella, 1986, p.4.)

So Kelly referred to the notion of a 'range of convenience':

"Not only do systems, psychological and otherwise, tend to have limited ranges of convenience, but they also have foci of convenience. There are points within its realm of events where a system or a theory tends to work best. Usually there are the points which the author had in minds when he devised the system. For examples our own theory, we believe, tends to have its focus of convenience in the area of human readjustment to stress."

Kelly, 1963: 12.

According to Bannister and Fransella (1986, p.4.), "The range of convenience of Kelly's theory is still being tested. It would seem to be of potential use wherever the subject (person) imposes meaning on an event" (Bannister & Fransella, 1986, p.44.).

Walker and Winter have discussed how PCT has been used to explore a wide range of foci; with wide adoption of Kelly's methods; and broad use of the theory in a variety of fields:

Particular areas in which the theory has been developed include implicative relationships between constructs, self-construing, social relationships, emotions…

There has been considerable adaptation of Kelly's … methods
Personal construct psychology has been applied extensively in the clinical, educational, and organizational fields, as well as in a wide range of other areas."

"The work of post-Kellian personal construct theorists shows the theory to have a range of convenience, or of useful application, extending far beyond the clinical, educational, and organizational settings. Other spheres in which it is applied include the forensic setting, politics, sport, the arts, anthropology, religion, accounting, and artificial intelligence…"

Walker & Winter, 2007: 468-9, 467

Sources cited:

• Bannister, D., & Fransella, F. (1986). Inquiring Man: The Psychology of Personal Constructs (3rd ed.). London: Routledge.
• Kelly, G. (1961/1969). (Kelly, 1963, p.12.). In B. Maher (Ed.), Clinical Psychology and Personality: The selected papers of George Kelly (pp. 94-113). New York: John Wiley & Sons
• Kelly, G. (1963). A Theory of Personality: The Psychology of Personal Constructs. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
• Solomon, J. (1994). The rise and fall of constructivism. Studies in Science Education, 23, 1-19.
• Taber, K. S. (2020). Constructive Alternativism: George Kelly's Personal Construct Theory. In B. Akpan & T. Kennedy (Eds.), Science Education in Theory and Practice: An introductory guide to learning theory (pp. 373-388). Cham, Switzerland: Springer. [Download the manuscript version of the chapter]
• Walker, B. M., & Winter, D. A. (2007). The Elaboration of Personal Construct Psychology. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 453-477. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.58.110405.085535

Read: Can Kelly's triads be used to elicit aspects of chemistry students' conceptual frameworks?

Read: Constructive Alternativism: George Kelly's Personal Construct Theory