Constructivist Psychology

Of all the psychological theories I've so far encountered, Personal Construct Theory as proposed by George A. Kelly impresses me most, although or maybe because it never really became mainstream.

It should be noted that "constructivism", as outlined here, is different from, say, Radical Constructivism or Social Constructivism. Kelly himself called his theory Constructive Alternativism.

Kelly metaphorically saw human beings as "scientists", constantly forming or construing hypotheses about their world and then testing how those constructs fit reality. All such constructs are of a basically bipolar nature, e.g., just/unjust, light/dark and so on. Constructs are ordered in hierarchies, with core constructs making up an individual's very central beliefs and peripheral constructs that are of less importance.

Personal Construct Theory implies that, while there may be only one true reality, reality is always experienced from one or another perspective, or alternative construction. I have a construction, you have one, a person on the other side of the planet has one, someone living long ago had one, a "primitive" person has one, a modern scientist has one, every child has one, even someone who is seriously mentally ill has one.

Some constructions are better than others. Mine, I hope, is better than that of someone who is seriously mentally ill. A physician's construction of my ills is better, I trust, than the construction of the local faith healer. Yet no-one's construction is ever complete -- the world is just too complicated, too big, for anyone to have the perfect perspective. And no-one's perspective is ever to be completely ignored. Each perspective is, in fact, a perspective on the ultimate reality, and has some value to that person in that time and place.

To me, it's a very humane theory, and one that is immediately applicable to everyday life: you just need to realize that the constructions people around you have may be different, sometimes radically so, from your own, and while they may act very reasonably according to their own construct systems, it may appear to you quite differently, because you are observing their behavior based on your own construct system.

I'll explore Kelly's theories some more in future posts. For the time being, here's an excellent website, from which I've actually stolen some of these thoughts,
http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/kelly.html