Personal Construct Theory
Construct theory (PCT) is a psychological theory of human cognition. Eddington said, "Science is the attempt to set in order the facts of experience." George Kelly, the psychologist and creator of personal construct theory, utilized this idea. He inferred that psychology as a science was an attempt to set in order the facts of human experience so that the psychologist could make good predictions about what people will do when confronted by new situations.
He explicitly stated that each individual's task in understanding their personal psychology is to put in order the facts of his or her own experience. Then each of us, like the scientist, is to test the accuracy of that constructed knowledge by performing those actions the constructs suggest. If the results of our actions are in line with what the knowledge predicted then we have done a good job of finding the order in our personal experience. If not, then we can modify the construct: our interpretations or our predictions or both. This method of discovering and correcting our constructs is simply the scientific method used by all modern sciences to discover the truths about the universe we live in.
People develop constructs as internal ideas of reality in order to understand the world around them. They are based on our interpretations of our observations and experiences. Every construct is bipolar, specifying how two things are similar to each other (lying on the same pole) and different from a third thing. They can be expanded with new ideas.
Personal Construct Psychology (PCP) is a theory of personality developed by the American psychologist George Kelly in the 1950s. From the theory, Kelly derived a psychotherapy approach and also a technique called The Repertory Grid Interview that helped his patients to uncover their own "constructs" (defined later) with minimal intervention or interpretation by the therapist. The Repertory Grid was later adapted for various uses within organizations, including decision-making and interpretation of other people's world-views.
The UK Council for Psychotherapy, a regulatory body, classifies PCP therapy under Experiential Constructivism.
Read more about Personal Construct Theory: Principles, Therapy Approach, The Repertory Grid, Organizational Applications of The Repertory Grid Technique
Famous quotes containing the words personal, construct and/or theory:
“I am what is mine. Personality is the original personal property.”
—Norman O. Brown (b. 1913)
“We construct a narrative for ourselves, and that’s the thread that we follow from one day to the next. People who disintegrate as personalities are the ones who lose that thread.”
—Paul Auster (b. 1947)
“Everything to which we concede existence is a posit from the standpoint of a description of the theory-building process, and simultaneously real from the standpoint of the theory that is being built. Nor let us look down on the standpoint of the theory as make-believe; for we can never do better than occupy the standpoint of some theory or other, the best we can muster at the time.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)