Personality Theories-pp. 406-435-Kelly_Ellis性格心理学之17.doc

Personality Theories-8th Edition Chapter 15-Personal Constructs -Kelly avoided many of the concepts traditionally present in personality theorizing -no ego, emotion, reinforcement, drive, unconscious, need -these are given new meanings and incorporated into his philosophy of constructive alternativism GEORGE KELLY (1905-1967): -born on a farm in Perth, Kansas -father was a Presbyterian minister-got ill -both parents fundamentalists-practiced faith, hard work and shunned evils of dancing, drinking and card playing -only child-lots of love -planned a career in mechanical engineering -did M.A. degree in educational sociology at the University of Kansas -Ph.D. in 1931 with a dissertation on speech and reading disabilities -his work with clinics sparked several ideas that later found application in his own theory of personality and therapy -WWII- enrolled in the navy as an aviation psychologist and gained recognition for his clinical services -after war, clinical psychology came to be seen as an essential part of health services -Became a professor-did not publish much but lectured extensively in US and abroad -in later years suggested how personal construct theory could be applied to help resolve social and international problems THE PERSON AS SCIENTIST: -invited us to look at ourselves and other people as scientists -the posture we take as we attempt to predict and control the events in our world is similar to that of the scientist who develops and test hypotheses -we develop personal constructs that serve as hypotheses that make the world meaningful to us -if these constructs appear to fit our subsequent experience we find them useful and hold on to them E.g. we construe world as hostile, we will act in certain ways to protect ourselves, if these behaviours appear to be useful we will continue to hold on to the hostile interpretation, if it does not we will seek to alter or change the construct in order to develop a better one -people employ their constructs t