George Kelly
"On Wednesday, when the sky is blue,
And I have nothing else to do,
I sometimes wonder if it's true
That who is what and what is who."
A. A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
We live life as we construct it
Our perceptions and expectations
create a large part of our experience.
We are like scientists who try to figure
out how life works.
We develop our own theories of how
things work. Kelly calls these theories
personal constructs.

http://www.repgrid.com/pcp/
We can alter our theories
When we alter our theories, our
experience will change also.
This is the basis of Kelly's clinical
approach.
Kelly's theory today
The Centre for personal Construct
Psychology in London.
The Constructivist Psychology
Network.
The PCP info site
Explore the links on these for more
about personal construct psychology.
What is the nature of Kelly's
theory
A cognitive theory based on people's
perceptions and constructs, not on
feelings and emotions.
A constructivist theory: people
construct their reality based on their
expectations.
An antecedent to narrative therapy
which emphasizes the narratives
people
Can you tell that Kelly started
as an engineer?
He developed a sort of "geometry of
the mind", with postulates and
corollaries.
– Here is a list w/ short explanations of the
postulate and corollaries
– Here is a more in depth overview of
Kelly's theory. There is a link there to
Kelly's geometry of psychological space.
Kelly's interview tools
 The Role Construct Repertory Test looks at
the constructs we apply to the various
people in our lives. This is a tool where one
ends up with a grid that can be analyzed
mathematically (as well as qualitatively)
 The Self -Characterization Sketch which is
a more informal way to get at the same
thing: people write about themselves (but
using the third person, as if they were an
observer) as if they were the main character
in a play.
Kelly's therapy tools
Fixed role therapy: on the basis of his
knowledge of the client (based on the
interview tools), Kelly wrote a script of
a different way to approach life. The
client would try to live by that script for
2 weeks.
Here is a popularized self-help version
of fixed role therapy
Try Kelly's method
 Write a self characterization sketch of
yourself in the third person (as if someone
was describing you and how you act, think,
feel, relate to others etc.) What is it like to
write something like that? Does it give you
new insights?
 Write a fixed role script for yourself (see
p.371) that incorporates some ways to live
your life that you would like to try. Try this
role for one whole day. What was that like?
The End