Describe Kelly's personal construct theory and discuss the concept of constructive alternativism
What will be an ideal response?
ANS: Through the personal construct theory, Kelly suggested that people perceive and organize their world of experiences the same way scientists do, by formulating hypotheses about the environment and testing them against the reality of daily life. In other words, we observe the events of our life—the facts or data of our experience—and interpret them in our own way. This personal interpreting, explaining, or construing of experience is our unique view of events. It is the pattern within which we place them. Kelly said that we look at the world through "transparent patterns that fit over the realities of which the world is composed."
Constructs are intellectual hypotheses we devise and use to interpret or explain life events. Revising our constructs is a necessary and continuous process; we must always have an alternative construct to apply to a situation. If our constructs were inflexible and incapable of being revised (which is what would happen if personality was totally determined by childhood influences), then we would not be able to cope with new situations. Kelly called this adaptability constructive alternativism to express the view that we are not controlled by our constructs but we are free to revise or replace them with other alternatives.
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