Ch. 15 The Cognitive Approach
•George Kelly – Personal Construct Theory
•Prototype Approach
•Schema Approach
•Rational Emotive Therapy
•Strengths & Weaknesses
•Cognitive Approach
•Explains differences in personality as differences in the way people process information
•Kelly – Personal Construct Theory
•The basic unit of a person’s cognitive (mental) activity is the personal construct
•Personal construct = cognitive structure we use to interpret & predict events
•Everyone = a scientist try to predict & control events
•Personal constructs help us do this
•Person Construct Theory
•Constructs = bipolar adjectives
–Examples:
•Healthy vs sick
•Tall vs short
•Friendly vs unfriendly
•Religious vs not religious
•Liberal vs conservative
•Personal Construct Theory
•Each construct has a Range of Convenience
–Set of events it can be applied to
–Usefulness limit
•Examples: religious vs not religious
good vs bad
•Constructs are unique to individuals
•No 2 people use identical constructs & no 2 people organize them in an identical manner
•Personal Construct Theory
•Everyone’s construct system defines their personality
•We may have the same experiences as others but interpret them differently
–Example: you & your friend meet someone new
•Your constructs Friend’s
–Friendly vs unfriendly Friendly vs unfriendly
–Tall vs short Good vs bad dresser
–Quiet vs loud Intelligent vs not
•Our expectations (personal constructs) direct our actions
•Personal Construct Theory
•Differences in our behavior (personalities) are largely due to our differences in how we
“construe” the world
•Interpret situations differently
•Therefore, respond differently
•Personal Construct Theory
•Fundamental Postulate
–“A person’s processes are psychologically channelized by the ways in which he
anticipates events”
•Human behavior is directed toward our expectations about events
•Our expectations channel (direct) our actions
•11 Corollaries
•Prototype Approach
•Rosch – 1970s
•Prototype = best example of a category (typical example)
–Example – Car (category)
