Individual differences: Personality and Intelligence
Assignment 1
2000 word Essay
Essay Topic:
Describe Kelly’s personal construct theory of personality, and compare this approach with other psychological theories of personality. Discuss the relative strengths of each argument with reference to empirical research.
George Kelly was an American Psychotherapist, who initially developed the personal construct theory as an alternative to behaviour and psychodynamic theory. The personal construct theory is a widespread theory of human perceptions and behaviours, Kelly believed that we make sense of the world through our own perceptions and construct a unique view of the world, Kelly believed that all of our knowledge and understanding stems from our sensations and individual experiences.
Kelly’s construct theory included 11 corollaries which are a construction organisation which are all significant factors in how we build and create our future and individual perspective. Kelly believed that people construe events according to their personal corollaries rather than reality.
Kelly viewed individuals as naïve scientists who view the world in their own particular unique way, He also believed that the way people anticipate the future shapes their behaviour; our culture and childhood tend to anticipate our outlook on the future which I believe also introduces Freud’s attachment theory.
Freud saw that the image of the mother fulfilling their child’s needs was believed to leave a lasting impression on the child’s brain that would then become the foundation of how the child formed, view and reacted in other relationships.
How our parent’s raise us help shape the person that we become we are born with particular permanent traits in which Gordon Allport named as cardinal traits which are the foundation to our personality however the influence our parents have on us enable us to develop and further other
