George Kelly (1905-1965) - one of the founders of the cognitive direction in personality psychology believes that every person is a researcher who controls, understands and foresees his behavior, who draws conclusions based on past experience and predicts the future. The terms that people use to understand each other, to describe themselves and their position, are called personality constructs. Personal construct is an idea or thought that a person uses to understand, explain or predict their behavior. Examples of personal constructs that a person uses in everyday life: "balanced - unbalanced", "smart - stupid", "masculine - feminine", "religious - atheistic" and others.

Thus, personality is a system of organized personal constructs in which a person's personal experience is processed (perceived and interpreted). The structure of the personality within the framework of this approach is considered as an individually peculiar hierarchy of constructs. That is, the system of human constructs is organized into a pyramidal structure, where its constituents (constructs) are located either in superordinate or subordinate positions. For example, if, upon meeting a person, you immediately evaluate her in terms of whether she is good or bad, and only then - neat or unkempt, then your construct "good-evil" is super-ordinate, and "neat-unkempt" is subordinate.

Each construct has a "dichotomy" (two poles): "sport-unsportsmanlike", "restrained-unrestrained" and others. The person chooses the pole of the dichotomous construct, the result that has the best predictive value. Some constructs are suitable for use only in a narrow range of events (the construct "sport-unsportsmanlike"), while others have a wide range of applications (for example, the construct "good-evil").

According to this metaphor, Kelly describes people as scientists, formulate hypotheses about the world around them in the form of personal constructs, then test their assumptions in practice. If the construct helps to clearly predict the behavior, the person will keep it in the future, and vice versa. So, the effectiveness of a construct is tested in terms of its predictive effectiveness, and a person's behavior is determined by how a person predicts future events. It is very difficult to change your constructs, sometimes impossible, and therefore a person seeks to change other people to match the constructs.

Mental disorders occur in a person when personal constructs do not work - a person cannot predict events, suffers from failures. When a person experiences difficulties in making even petty decisions, depression occurs. The task of the therapist is to help people change constructs, test new hypotheses, interpret the situation and become a more effective person.

People differ in the content and the number of constructs available to them, in the complexity of organizing the system of constructs, and in how open these systems are to change. George Kelly distinguishes two types of personalities: cognitively complex (a person who has a large number of constructs) and cognitively simple (with a small number of constructs).

Cognitively simple personalities look at other people and the world based on a small number of constructs. Cognitively simple people have established views about other people, ignore information that contradicts their ideas. They are easy to communicate, have a poor repertoire. social roles... Cognitively simple subjects do not notice the differences between themselves and other people, they seek to find confirmation that others are like them, their social projections ineffective.

Cognitively challenging consider those people who use a fairly complex and differentiated system of constructs. They clearly distinguish themselves and others, consider people from many angles, their ideas about others are complex and differentiated, they notice the subtle nuances of other people's behavior, do not ignore various contradictions, their social forecasts are much more reliable.

A cognitively complex personality, in comparison with a cognitively simple one, has the following characteristics: 1) has better mental health; 2) copes with stress better; 3) has high level self-zinc; 4) more adaptive to new situations.

According to the theory of personality constructs, two people are similar to each other as much as their construct systems are similar. Most people look for friends and loved ones among those whose cognitive difficulty matches their own. With age, people become more cognitively complex, and, accordingly, with age, the self-concept of personality becomes more complex. Cognitive complexity is a desirable adaptive trait, but it is not the only criterion for an adaptive construct system. Healthy personality development relies on the integration of various constructs.

Kelly laid a solid humanistic foundation with his work, adopting the central position that people are capable of constant self-renewal. Since people construct the meaning of their lives in the early stages of individual development, later they often do not realize that there are many ways to change themselves and their attitude to the world. Flexibility is inherent in the perception of reality. It has room for search, creativity and renewal. At any age, people can reconstruct their perceptions of reality. In fact, the theory of personality constructs is a psychology of understanding the diversity of personality views - an understanding through which you can help a person solve his problems.

J. Kelly built his theory on the basis of one of the philosophical positions - constructive alternativeism... In his opinion, everything depends on how the person himself realizes and interprets this or that phenomenon. No matter what we try to understand, there are always “constructive alternatives” open to our minds.

According to Kelly's views, people are researchers who, regarding events, situations and people, build hypotheses, and if they are refuted, alternatives to these hypotheses.

Consequences from the theory:

1. People are focused mainly on future events, and not on past or present. In an attempt to foresee and control future events, a person constantly checks his attitude to reality: “A forecast is made not just for his own sake; it is conducted in such a way that future reality can be better imagined. It is the future that worries a person, not the past. He always strives for the future through the window of the present. "
2. People have the ability to actively form ideas about their environment. Calling her approach the theory of personality constructs, Kelly focuses on the psychological processes that enable people to organize and understand the events in their lives.

In Kelly's theory, the key structural concept describing a person as a scientist is the concept of a construct.

Construct is a way of constructing, or interpreting, the world.

Personal construct(Kjell L., Ziegler D.) is an idea or thought that a person uses to perceive or interpret, explain or predict their experience.
A person experiences events, interprets them, structures and endows them with meanings. Experiencing events, the individual notices that some events have General characteristics that set them apart from other events. The individual distinguishes between similarities and contrasts. He observes that some people are tall and others are short, that some people are men and others are women, that there are hard things and there are soft things.
It is this construction of similarity and contrast that forms the construct. Without constructs, life would be chaotic.

Personality is an organized system of more or less important constructs. And in order to understand a person, it is enough to know the constructs that it creates and uses, the events included in these constructs, and how they relate to each other. If the construct facilitates the adequacy of predicting events, it is retained by the individual; if the forecast is not confirmed, then the construct is revised or excluded.
To create a construct, at least three elements (phenomenon or object) are required, two of which must be similar to each other, and the third must differ from the first two.

In accordance with the nature of the control exercised over the elements, specific types of personality constructs are distinguished:

• Proactive- standardizes the elements included in it. An example of a pre-emptive construct would be an ethnic label. For example, if a person is identified as “Mexican,” then they will only think of him as Mexican and nothing else.
• Constellation- elements can simultaneously belong to other areas, but they are constant in the composition of their sphere. That is, if a phenomenon belongs to some category of one construct, its other characteristics are fixed. An example of constellation thinking: "If this person is a car salesman, he is most likely dishonest, cheating and skillful with the client."
• Contemplating- a construct that leaves its elements open to alternative constructions. This type is directly opposite to the previous 2, since it allows a person to be open to new experiences and accept an alternative point of view of the world.

However, according to Kelly, there are no desirable or undesirable types among all types. He said that if we used only supportive constructs, we would experience a lot of difficulties, since we could not make urgent decisions.

Kelly suggested several ways in which personality constructs can be classified:

• Comprehensive constructs- include a relatively wide range of phenomena;
• Private constructs- include a small range of phenomena.

• Basic constructs- regulate the basic human activity;
• Peripheral constructs- can change without significantly changing the basic structure.

• Rigid constructs- give an unchanged forecast;
• Free- allow you to make different predictions under similar conditions.

4.
Constructs can be like verbal(conscious constructs that can be expressed in words) and pre-verbal(unconscious constructs that are used in the event that a person has no words to express him). Pictures, colors - anything that is of interest to the experimenter can be used as constructs.

The system of formed personal constructs has a complex hierarchy and many subsystems. Since the construct is not assimilated from the outside, but is always built by the person himself, it is always individually determined.
To measure personality constructs, a methodological principle of "repertoire grids" and a repertoire test of personality constructs (RTLC) were developed.

J. Kelly did not give a definition of personality, but said that it is “an abstraction of a person, as well as the transfer of this abstraction to acquaintances or strangers, for significant values.
After analyzing the position of Kelly, L. Hjell and D. Ziegler formulated the following definition of personality: “the personality of an individual is an organized system of more or less important constructs; man uses personality constructs to interpret the world of experience and anticipate future events. "

From Kelly's perspective, the term "motivation" implies that people are static by nature and act only when they are inspired by some special force ... He himself rejected the concept that people are inert or reactive by nature and only begin to act under the influence of internal or external forces. According to Kelly, people have no other reason to be motivated than to be alive.
The studies carried out by Kelly and his followers have shown the relationship between the cognitive complexity of the system of personality constructs and the personality's ability to analyze and evaluate the objects and events perceived by it in their contradictory unity, which shows the possibility effective application experimental techniques and methods as promising methods for studying personality and stimulating personal growth.

Bibliography:

1. Gornostay, P., Titarenko, T. Psychological theories and concepts of personality: a short guide [Text] / P. Gornostay, T. Titarenko. - K .: Rtuta, 2001 .-- 320 p.
2. Kelly, J. Theory of personality (theory of personality constructs) / J. Kelly. - SPb .: "Rech", 2000. - 249 p.
3. Pervin, L., John, O. Psychology of Personality: Theory of Research / trans. from English M.S. Zham-kochian, ed. V.S. Maguna. - M .: Aspect Press, 2001 .-- 607 p.
4. Kjell L., Ziegler D. Theories of personality [Text] / 3rd international edition. - SPb: Peter, 2003 .-- 608 p.

George Alexander Kelly, J. A. Kelly, J. Kelly, J. Kelly and the theory of personality constructs, the theory of personality constructs, the principle of repertoire grids J. Kelly

George Kelly (1905-1966) - American psychologist, professor at the University of Ohio. Kelly worked on his major work, The Psychology of Personality Constructs, published in 1955, for over 20 years. His theoretical concept, as well as the theory of E. Erickson, A. Maslow, and others, is based on rich practical and psychotherapeutic experience. Among other things, they are united by the idea that a person should be considered as an integral system that cannot be decomposed into separate elements. Despite all this, Kelly's theory was on the sidelines of the classical works developed in the framework of psychoanalysis and humanistic psychology.
Each of the personality theories has its own center of application, expressed in a specific explanatory principle. So, in psychoanalysis, the central concept is "unconscious influence", the personality model is built on the polarization of two principles - unconscious quantities and norms, rules, laws of society. Z. Freud points out the levels of functioning of instinctive forces (unconscious, preconscious and conscious) and identifies three subsystems of personality (Id, Ego, Super-Ego). All personality dynamics are reduced to different types transformations of unconscious drives. In the theory of K. Rogers, the fundamental concept is the idea of ​​oneself, or self-esteem. K. Levin has the concept of a field. For most domestic psychologists the main object of analysis is the motivational sphere of the personality, its orientation, and the principle is the determination of the mental.
In some works, among such individual traits that are considered as the main personality traits, stable cognitive structures are distinguished. These are the constituent elements of the cognitive style of the individual.
Usually, in traditional concepts of personality, cognitive (subconscious) characteristics were explained using other concepts. Several decades ago, American, and with it a significant part of world psychology, was considered to be behavioristic. Since the 50s of the twentieth century. in the development of foreign psychology, there has been a tendency to consider cognition as a basic explanatory principle of the organization of the psyche. Along with its introduction, a kind of revolution took place in experimental psychology in the West, associated with the emergence of a new direction - cognitive psychology. The number of works on cognitive processes- perception, thinking, attention, memory.
The subject and methods of psychology began to be understood in a new way. According to cognitivists, human behavior is determined by his knowledge. The emphasis on the role of knowledge has determined the general orientation of researchers. Now the variation of external conditions, stimuli is not an end in itself, but acts as a means of identifying structures of knowledge - internal representations (representations) of objects, events, other people.
So, cognitive psychology, which has become one of the leading directions of modern psychology, arose as a reaction to the behavioristic denial of the internal structure of the organization of psychological processes and the downplaying of the role of knowledge in human activity by psychoanalysis.
Cognitive psychology is based on the position of the decisive role of knowledge, cognitive structures and schemes in the course of mental processes and human behavior. The first stage in the development of cognitive psychology is associated with the research of D. Brodbent, W. Neisser, R. Atkinson, etc. Eysenck, who proposed the cognitive theory of individual differences, J. Kelly, M. Maconey, Tome, who dealt with personality problems.
We will focus only on the cognitive theory of personality by J. Kelly, where it is presented as a system of constructs.
Within the category of "cognition", either the content of our ideas (self-esteem, social content), or the formal characteristics of cognition (the structure of the cognitive field, the presence of cognitive balance or dissonance) can be considered as indicators of behavior. The formal characteristics of cognition (for example, cognitive dissonance, consonance) were dealt with by Leon Festinger. He developed a special theory that showed that an individual experiences a feeling of discomfort if logically conflicting knowledge about the same object or event collides in his mind. The subject seeks to get rid of this discomfort by reconstructing his knowledge of the object or event, or by changing social attitudes. Removing a contradiction leads to a state of consonance, i.e. mutual consistency of the elements of the cognitive system.
Kelly's concept is called cognitive because it emphasizes the character of a person's perception of the stimuli acting on him, the ways of interpreting and transforming these stimuli in relation to the already existing structures and characteristics of the individual's behavior associated with such interpretations and transformations. Unlike L. Festinger, J. Kelly tried to investigate both formal and substantive characteristics of cognition.
As already mentioned, he devoted more than 20 years to the development of his theory and research method. When the book "The Psychology of Personal Constructs" was published in 1955, it did not have a resounding success, simply because very few theories of that time used the "category" as a unit for analyzing the psyche (among these few were I. Tolman and J. Bruner ). Now the theory of personality constructs is one of the fundamentally and systematically developed areas of psychology.
Human cognitive activity, according to Kelly, begins with the classification and interpretation of the facts of reality. The latter is studied not by itself, but as reality in its relation to the subject of activity. Instead of the concept of interpretation, interpretation, he uses the word "construction". A person constructs reality (interprets it), putting forward a system of constructs, within which facts acquire meaning. Based on the constructed constructs, a person tries to predict events. The main function of the human psyche is the study of reality in order to predict the future and control behavior. This position contains the main postulate of J. Kelly's theory.

Construct concept

To interpret the essence of personality, a specific unit of analysis is used - a construct. The term "construct" is identical to the word concept, which generalizes material and creates the ability to predict events.

A scientific concept is a logical statement of a connection, from which, by deduction, an explanation of a given factual connection of phenomena can be derived. The main properties of a scientific concept are:

Generalization of phenomena;

Statement of the connection between them;

The ability to predict new events.

The concept of a personality construct is introduced by Kelly himself.
A personal construct is characterized by the fact that it represents both the similarity of individual realities and their difference from other elements. Constructs have the form of bipolar concepts (white - black, egoist - altruist, etc.) This is how they differ from scientific concepts. Moreover, scientific concept refers to a phenomenon that exists in nature, and personal constructs are the invention of the subject, this is an interpretation that is superimposed by a person on reality.
A construct is a means of logically organizing experience. The elements from which it is organized and for the interpretation of which it is used can be different subjects, their properties, connections, as well as people and their relationships. In this case, a new - socio-psychological - aspect is included in the concept of a construct.
So, constructs are means, ways of interpreting the world. The facts are considered by the observer in accordance with his point of view, his constructs. For example, the statement of similarities and differences between tall and low people, good and evil, leads to the formation of a construct.

Formation of constructs and their types

The general way of forming constructs is that, first of all, three elements are needed to organize them. Two of them should be perceived as similar, and the third as different from the first two. The sign by which two elements are regarded as similar forms a pole of similarity, and the sign by which they are opposed to the third is a pole of contrast, where elements are realities, or objects. Objects possess different properties, and how the subject will understand the relationship between these properties depends on the construct he chooses.

There are three types of constructs:

Restrictive;

Constellation;

Propositional.

Restrictive - allows you to interpret elements only within the construct itself. For example, if it is a book, then it is only a book.
Constellation - fixes a certain number of alternatives associated with its elements. Such constructs provide stereotypical thinking: "if this is a book, then it should consist of separate pages and have a cover, contain text."
Propositional does not relate individual properties to other elements. Due to this construct, a philosophical approach to the object is expressed: "A book is a storehouse of knowledge." In this sense, many different characteristics can be attributed to an object - from perceptual to value properties, right up to the "French accent".

Main characteristics of constructs

The construct is characterized by bipolarity, range of applicability and individuality.
Bipolarity means that each construct has two poles, obtained in experience by finding the similarities and differences between the three elements. The poles of a construct are individual and not necessarily directly opposite to each other as antonyms. So, in one person the pole of "indifference" can be opposed to the pole of "care", "mercy", and in another - to the same pole of "indifference" - "emotionality", "enthusiasm". In the process of identifying personal constructs, the subject may have difficulties in verbalizing one of the poles. V.V. Stolin notes that unipolar constructs indicate that a person in his mind excludes the very possibility of a different understanding of a phenomenon, an event. According to J. Kelly, these are constructs with latent opposition, with a "submerged pole" that is not represented in consciousness.

The range of applicability is those objects that can be interpreted using a given construct.

Individuality is associated with the understanding of a person as an active researcher of reality, who not only assimilates ready-made knowledge, but also explores it, constructs, and puts forward hypotheses. Constructs that effectively predict events remain, ineffective ones are destroyed, each person creates his own, unique system of constructs.
In addition, each construct has a focus and area of ​​application, outside of which its use for forecasting is ineffective. The area of ​​application of a construct is all phenomena that a person interprets with the help of this construct. Focus - those phenomena, the interpretation of which with the help of this construct is most effective, i.e. leads to a more accurate forecast.

Development of the construct system

The functioning of any construct is aimed at predicting events, which, according to Kelly, serves as a motive and goal of cognitive activity. The assertion of the connection between design and forecasting is the central premise of the psychology of personality constructs.

The direction of improving the constructive system can be twofold: either according to the principle of determination, when an increasingly definite opinion is drawn up about a small number of phenomena, or according to the principle of expansion, when an attitude arises to have at least a vague idea of ​​a sufficiently wide range of things.
The accumulation of experience occurs through the formation of new constructs. Social interaction is considered as the main reason for changing constructs, while the construction of changes precedes the change in behavior (first, the construct changes, and then the form of behavior).
The nature of the change in constructs depends on their permeability. Constructs are called permeable constructs in the application area of ​​which new elements can be introduced. Impenetrable constructs are used to interpret past events.

Repertory grid test

The Repertoire Grids Test is used to diagnose personality constructs. At the first stage of testing, the study area is selected, a set of objects (repertoire of elements) is set. Elements may vary depending on the research objective. It can be a specific set of objects (names of real people, literary heroes, names of objects, pictures), a role-play list (father, mother, I in 10 years, a positively assessed man, etc.) or any other list of elements compiled in the course of the topic discussed with the subject. The number of elements should not be less than 8 and more than 25.

At the second stage of the study, a method of actualizing constructs is used, for example, the triad method, or the minimum context method. Three elements are selected from the repertoire set. In each triplet, two similar objects stand out; the sign by which they are similar is called. Then the third object is called and the sign by which it differs from the first two. If there are few elements, then you can take all the triplets, given that after 30 triplets, new constructs rarely appear. The parameters by which the elements are compared and distinguished are the poles of the construct.
When analyzing the test results, the content side of the constructs, their number and the ratio between them are taken into account. The constructs are organized in hierarchical systems and are subordinated according to two principles:

a) shared subordination, when the pole of the subordinate construct enters as an element into the pole of the higher construct in the hierarchy (the construct "smart-stupid" with its poles is included in the construct "good-bad");

b) transverse - both poles of the subordinate construct are included in the category of one of the poles of the higher (both poles of the "smart-stupid" construct are included in the pole of the "evaluative" construct "evaluative-descriptive).

Personal processes are directed along the channels of constructs, which serve as means of anticipating events. This system is mobile, changeable, but still structured. Each construct represents a street along which you can move in two directions. The new construct also creates a new movement. In a stressful situation, a person does not apply new ones, but moves along the old constructs in a different direction.

Constructs and other mental phenomena

The core of the personality is represented by a system of constructs. All others - personal and cognitive characteristics - are described by means of the phenomenon of the construct. So, anxiety is considered as a state that has arisen under the influence of changes in constructs. Focusing a constructive system on an event means attention, events tied into a system of constructs - memory, unstructured phenomena - forgetting.
Considering the personality as an initially active subject of cognition and forecasting, Kelly does not use the concept of motivation. This term, in his opinion, makes sense only when the person appears to the researcher as a passive being. For him, she is a priori active.

Recent studies indicate that the complexity of the emerging constructive system depends on the complexity of the stimulation presented, on the type of relationship between the child and the adult, etc., but in general, the process of development of the child's constructive system remains unclear.
To carry out personality reconstruction, psychotherapeutic work with the client is necessary. The goal of psychotherapy according to Kelly is the reorganization of the system of constructs, which is later tested in activity, in the process of researching and predicting reality.

The theory of personality constructs is a cognitive theory of personality, developed in the 50s. XX century American personologist Kelly. The goal of the theory of personality constructs is to explain how a person interprets and predicts his life experience, anticipates (constructs) future events, and controls experienced events.

The basic concept in J. Kelly's theory of personality is the concept of "construct". Here is what J. Kelly writes about the constructs: “A person looks at the world through transparent stencils or templates that he himself creates, and then tries to fit into the realities of which the world consists. The fit is not always good. However, without such templates, the world appears to him in the form of such indistinguishable homogeneity that he is unable to extract any meaning from it. For any person, even a poor fit of their patterns to reality is more useful than their complete absence. We will call these patterns, applied empirically to the true state of affairs, constructs. Constructs are the essence, ways of interpreting the world. They enable a person, and even lower-organized animals, too, to build personal behavior - whether it is precisely formulated or necessarily acted out verbally or completely silent, consistent or disagreeing with other opinions of behavior, reasonably reasoned or felt by the gut ”[Kelly J., 2000 , With. eighteen].

Thus, a "personal construct" is an abstraction or generalization from previous experience, a classification-evaluative standard created by a person and verified by her on her own experience. A person manifests himself in a construct as an integral being, but a secondary fragment of a person's mind or soul can also appear through the construct. Personality in the Theory of Personal Constructs is an organized system of more or less important constructs. The construct does not necessarily reflect a psychological property, it can be a physical sign ("weighs little - weighs a lot"), as well as a statement about objects that are not endowed with a psyche, for example, goods from a store. To understand a person, it is enough to know the constructs that she creates and uses, the events included in these constructs, and how they relate to each other. If the construct facilitates the adequacy of predicting events, it is retained by the individual; if the forecast is not confirmed, then the construct is revised or excluded. The validity of a construct is tested by an individual in terms of its predictive effectiveness, the degree of which can vary. The personal construct organizes and regulates behavior, reconstructs the system of relationships, realizing the understanding of objects in their similarities and differences, constructing an "image of I".

All personality constructs are bipolar and dichotomous (eg, good versus bad). With their help, a person organizes the surrounding reality, learns it, expresses an attitude towards it, plans actions and checks their success. Each construct has two opposite poles: emergent (the pole of similarity between the elements of the construct) and implicit (the pole of contrast). To create a construct, at least three elements (phenomenon or object) are required, two of which must be similar to each other, and the third must differ from the first two. Similarities and differences must be present within the same construct. The choice of a pole of a construct is called a difficult choice in the theory of personality constructs.

Constructs can have a verbal, verbal, or non-verbal appearance, can be realized to a greater or lesser extent. Each person has their own unique system of constructs. This individual system of constructs, notable for its stability, is at the same time in constant motion, it seems to live, breathe.

In accordance with the nature of the control exercised over the elements, specific types of personality constructs are distinguished in the Theory of personality constructs:

• · Proactive, standardizing the elements included in it;
• · Constellatory, which can simultaneously belong to different areas, but is constant in its area;
• · Supportive, leaving its elements open to alternative constructions and allowing the personality to be open to new experiences.

The leading formal properties of constructs determine the types of their classification:

• 1) the range of applicability, which includes all events for which the construct is relevant or applicable (all constructs have a limited range of applicability, although the range boundaries may change from construct to construct);
• 2) the focus of applicability of the construct, specific to the person using it;
• 3) the degree of permeability of the construct, by which constructs can differ.

The permeable construct admits into its range of applicability elements that have not yet been elucidated within its boundaries. The impenetrable construct, embracing the phenomena that constitute its original basis, remains closed to the interpretation of new experience. The degree of permeability and impermeability of constructs is relative. Permeability refers only to the area of ​​construct usability - the construct is by definition impervious to experience outside the usability range.

Depending on the features of applicability, the main and peripheral constructs are distinguished. Basic constructs regulate the main human activity, while peripheral constructs can change without significantly changing the basic structure. In terms of the degree of stability and immutability, the basic and situational personal constructs also differ. Comprehensive and specific constructs are distinguished according to the characteristics of the range. Constructs can be rigid, that is, they give a constant forecast, or free ones, which allow making different predictions under similar conditions.

The set of personality constructs is a system, the most important characteristic of which is its relative cognitive complexity, which expresses the number of units that make up the system, their ramification and connection. The system of constructs formed by the personality has a complex hierarchy and many subsystems. Since the construct is not assimilated from the outside, but is always built by the person himself, it is always individually determined, single-instance. Examples of personality constructs that a person uses to evaluate everyday life: agitated-calm, smart-stupid, masculine-feminine, religious-non-religious, good-bad, and friendly-hostile. The system of constructs is organized into a pyramidal structure, in which its constituent constructs are either in a governing or in a subordinate position. The construct can also be completely independent. Subordinate and subordinate constructs in the system of one personality do not necessarily occupy the same position in the system of another. The more permeable (open) the subordinating constructs of the personality, the greater the possibility of change within the structure into which they enter. If the personality lacks subordinating constructs for interpretation and change, it is psychologically frigid.

Constructs can be both verbal and non-verbal (for example, gestures, facial expressions and pantomimic patterns can be used as primary constructs). Pictures, colors - anything that is of interest to the experimenter can be used as constructs.

The Theory of Personality Constructs actively uses the concept of "crawl", which implies a form of behavior that logically follows from a person's understanding of the thoughts and actions of other people who are actively related to it. Role acceptance requires at least one of the interacting individuals to be aware of how the other individual is interpreting the phenomena or events. The roles do not have to be reciprocal, that is, the personality does not need to be analyzed by the performer of the role in order to be included in social relations... In J. Kelly's theory of personality, the systems of constructs of people are considered, the general and unique properties of these systems, their structural dynamic and other features for the normative category of people and with various mental deviations are studied. To study the system of personality constructs, J. Kelly developed a new psychodiagnostic method - the "technique of repertoire grids." As the author emphasized, the technique of repertoire grids is not so much a list of techniques as it is a diagnostic method. In accordance with it, the psychologist uses existing techniques, or develops and applies new ones. Techniques performed in the technique of repertoire grids are called differently: repertoire tests, repertoire techniques, tests of role constructs, etc. Most often, the names listed are used interchangeably.

Applying the Theory of Personality Constructs is effective in understanding emotional states personality, mental health and mental disorders, as well as in psycho-counseling and psychotherapeutic practice.

The studies carried out by Kelly and his followers have shown the relationship between the cognitive complexity of the personality construct system and the personality's ability to analyze and evaluate the objects and events perceived by it in their contradictory unity, which shows the possibility of effective application of the experiment, techniques and methods developed in the theory of personality constructs. as promising methods for studying personality and stimulating personal growth. In general, the theory of personality constructs is an original direction in personality theory, illustrating a promising cognitive approach to personality and the mechanisms of its research and development, as well as methods of its study that are actively used in practice.

Dolly returns home in cute short shorts, which from a distance may well be mistaken for an element of underwear. For example, this happened with Mrs. Smith, looking out for a girl from the window. Mrs. Smith's verdict is simple - the girl leads a lifestyle far from high moral principles, and the number of her young people, to put it mildly, is excessive. But how are shorts and their length related to a person's morality? For Dolly herself, maybe there is no connection. Mrs Smith, on the other hand, has a personality construct of her own that allowed her to unambiguously - and unprintably - appreciate her neighbor.

What is a personality construct and how does it come about?

A personal construct, according to the theory of the American psychologist George Kelly, is an abstraction or generalization from previous experience, a classification-evaluative standard created by a person and verified by her on her own experience. Simply put, a construct is our own definition that helps to evaluate certain phenomena or situations and works as a kind of "label". An obligatory property of any construct is its dichotomous nature - bipolarity, the presence of two poles:

• The pole of similarity (another name is emergent) is used when two compared objects, phenomena or a person are somewhat similar and resemble each other in terms of comparable characteristics.
• Contrast pole (implicit) - compared objects are completely different in the compared parameters.

Kelly did not go deep into the study of the origins and differences of constructs in people - he only noted that for the formation of a construct, at least three observable objects are necessary, two of which are similar, and one is radically different from them. However, now we can state with confidence the fact that the basis of constructs is the life experience of a person. Our observations of various events in life result in a certain system, a picture of the world with a general set of cause-and-effect relationships. Of course, everyone's experience is subjective - that is why the constructs sometimes differ so much.

Returning to the example described in the introductory paragraph, Mrs. Smith, based on her life experience, did not appreciate Dolly and her clothes. However, the fashion designer living in the house opposite admired the girl's style and silently called her "elegant." And Dolly herself simply prefers “simple and comfortable” clothes. And, yes - all these are also personal constructs, the difference of which, as we see, sometimes reaches the limit.

Fundamental Postulate of the Theory

George Kelly wrote that his whole theory is based, in fact, on only one Fundamental Postulate, which he himself characterized as an assumption. The postulate, in turn, is supplemented by eleven consequences, which are also rather speculative. That is, Kelly did not insist on the unconditional correctness of his theory and emphasized that, by and large, these are just assumptions. The fundamental postulate sounds like this: "Psychologically, personal processes are directed along the channels in which a person anticipates events."

Let us explain - a person is entirely aimed at developing the ability to predict events in order to simplify his life. Constructs serve as a means of "forecasting" for a person, a marker, a label that we use based on our experience. This is convenient - so as not to reinvent the wheel every time something new “threatens” to fit into our picture of the world. But a person does not need personal constructs, with the help of which it is impossible to predict even an approximate development of events. The construct will not be used (or you will have to thoroughly redraw it) if it is unreliable and has not been confirmed during personal experience... This is called "permeability" - the degree of predictability and the ability to explain events using a construct.

Characteristics of personality constructs:

• The "permeability" we talked about above.
• The focus of applicability is the situation in which the construct is applied. For the construct “smart-stupid”, a situation in which you need to quickly learn something and reproduce a skill may well be the focus of applicability.
• The range of applicability is how many events one construct can cover for an explanation. For example, a person, an act, a thing, a character trait can be assessed as "good or bad" ... But "dry-wet" is a construct with a much smaller range of applicability. With them, we will probably assess only the degree of humidity of some material object - and not in any way an act or a situation.

J. Kelly noted that in any personality whose mental development fits into the framework of the norm, it is noted:

• 1) The desire to evaluate their constructs and check the correctness of their interpretations of behavior and attitudes towards other people.
• 2) Setting to change constructs in case of their predictive ineffectiveness.
• 3) The desire to expand the range, scope and coverage of their constructive system.
• 4) Well-developed repertoire of social roles.

Consequently, the theory does not speak at all about the rigidity of consciousness and the abundance of patterns in the minds of people, as it might seem. A person armed with just a couple of constructs and not thinking about the correctness of their application is, according to Kelly, not quite a mature person.

"Are constructs needed at all?" - the reader may ask a question. At present, when stereotypical thinking is considered bad manners and is increasingly rejected by society, this interest is quite understandable. After all, the theory of personality constructs, openly postulating that we all use labels every day, can also cause some rejection if not properly understood.

Let's think about why we need constructs:

• 1) We will not be able - and there is no need - for each new situation to invent our own understanding, definition and assessment. Our system of internal and external norms and rules of behavior will suffer from this - after all, we will no longer be able to evaluate anything. Now imagine how the disappearance of the constructs "honest-deceitful", "legal-illegal" and others will affect the world as a whole!
• 2) Constructs are a great memory organizer. Without them, we can hardly remember and will be able to tell something. The speed and quality of thinking, our ability to identify events and people, will deteriorate.
• 3) Personal constructs are bright colors, opposites and contrasts that give us both bias and the most complete picture of the world. All life without them will turn for us into one solid gray spot without poles and contrasts.

The theory of personality constructs just focuses thought on the bipolarity of everything in this world - and of themselves in particular. Personal constructs can make our lives much easier - but they can also simplify it to the point of trivial labeling. They can be used to determine your opinion, and with exactly the same success - for one-sided judgment. However, is there one pole without the other, the opposite - and, if so, could we determine this without the necessary contrast of thinking? For example, "good-evil" is the oldest of known to mankind construct with perhaps the widest focus and range of applications.

List of sources used:

• 1. Ermine P., Titarenko T. Psychology of personality: a dictionary-reference book. - Zhitomir: Ruta, 2001 .-- 329 p.
• 2. Kelly J. Psychotherapy of constructive alternativeism: the psychology of a personality model, in Sat .: Techniques of counseling and psychotherapy / Comp .: US. Sahakian. - M .: "April-press"; Eksmo-press, 200
• 3. Malanov SV, Methodological and theoretical foundations of psychology. - Voronezh: NPO MODEK, 2005 - 336 p.

Editor: Elizaveta Yurievna Chekardina