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George Kelly: Personal Constructs Theory

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George Kelly: Personal Constructs Theory
GEORGE KELLY
Personal Constructs Theory 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,

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