George Kelly – the author of Personal Construct Psychology
George Kelly was born on April 28, 1905, on a farm near Perth, Kansas and became a psychologist, educator and theorist.
In his clinical work, Kelly found the explanations of human concerns available to him at that time were not quite appropriate to the lives of farm families in Kansas, thus he worked to create a psychology that would give people an understanding of their problems that came out of their own lives and cultures.
A Brief Summary of Personal Construct Psychology
Personal Construct Psychology (PCP) is based on the philosophy of constructive alternativism in which present interpretations are always open to revisions and replacements based on new knowledge and experience.
The theory focuses on human uniqueness, approaching change through personal meanings and is highly adaptable to different settings. PCP has been effectively applied in organisations, education, business and sport as well as clinically.
An Outline of the Theory
According to Kelly (1955), human beings are mainly concerned with anticipating events and making their world predictable (Fundamental postulate). Like scientists in a laboratory, they achieve their knowledge of the world by conducting experiments.