What is Personal Construct Psychology Pt 9
Another technique that Kelly formulated is fixed role therapy which can be used to get some movement in the therapy. From the subject’s self-portrait, that of one who is psychologically at 90 degrees to the subject is drawn up and adjusted until the subject can feel comfortable with it. The subject then acts this role for perhaps 3 weeks, seeing the therapist frequently to discuss experiences and to play the role with the therapist. The subjects will be less self-centred during this time and should see that people react differently to them. The object is not to make them adopt this new role but to see that they are not trapped inside their own autobiography and their own customary thoughts and behaviour.
Repertory Grids A grid is a way of getting individuals to tell you, in mathematical terms, the system of constructs they use in consideration of, say teachers. The first step would be to ask them to think about three teachers, and state some important way in which two are alike, and thereby different from the third. The person may differentiate between them in terms of sex. With three other teachers the construct discrimination could be in terms of ‘lively v boring’; and with three others, ‘intelligent v stupid’, and so on, until fresh combinations of teachers fail to elicit any new constructs. The teachers would be the elements used to elicit the constructs.
Kelly developed the Repertory Grid technique where the elements are written across the top of a matrix and the constructs down the side. A tick is then placed in each cell where the element can be described by the emergent pole of the construct. (The emergent pole of a construct is the one that embraces most of the immediately perceived content.)
