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The personality construct, or simply the construct, is the intellectual axis (good-bad, agitated-calm, smart-stupid, male-female, religious-non-religious, good-bad, and friendly-hostile) ), with the help of which a person understands and evaluates what he encounters.
The term «personality construct» was introduced into practice by the American scientist George Kelly.
Constructs, adequacy and quality of perception
The constructs used by a person strongly influence the adequacy and quality of perception, in connection with which we can talk about limiting and promoting personal constructs. This is determined by such features as:
- primitiveness and scarcity, limited choice of constructs — or richness and diversity, which makes it possible to make subtle distinctions,
- static, non-discussable, immutable — or dynamism, the ability to change depending on the situation and develop, giving way to more subtle, adequate and perfect.
- structural limitation to past experience — or openness to the present. See more ⇒
Personal constructs and subjectivity of perception
While conducting his experiments, J. Kelly noticed that teachers’ complaints about students expressed something characteristic of the teachers themselves. As a result, he came to the conclusion that there is no absolute, objective truth and that phenomena can only be comprehended in connection with how people interpret them (this point of view is called «constructive alternativeism») (see for example: Correspondence with a maid, as an example distortion of facts in communication).
Is it possible to change personality constructs?
Some that are not important or have not yet become quite familiar can be changed. Personally significant and long-standing habits are very difficult to change.
“A person can use many constructs, but at the same time, the “central” (in the terminology of J. Kelly), that is, the most significant, will be a certain construct or several constructs. Others will be peripheral, which, unlike the central ones, are easier to change.
In translation: what a person has a “fad” on is difficult to change. Look Bounding constructs