fei75766_ch19_610-639.indd 630  02/06/20 01:53 PM
Part VI    Learning-Cognitive Theories630
regarding building friendship asresearchers do,posing challenges toourunderstand -
ing.Additionally, theveryareaofdifference thatthose withASD have—interpersonal 
interaction around emotions andfeelings—limits theutility ofinterview-style research 
approaches thatrequire them toengage inaconversation ofthisnature. 
Thisstruck researchers Murphy, Burns, andKilby (2017) astheperfect place 
toemploy Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory methodologies toallow teens withASD 
themselves toconstrue theirclose relationships ontheirownterms without extended 
conversation (andeyecontact) withaninterviewer. They recruited 13–18yearolds
withASD orAsperger’s Syndrome, andusedamodified RepTesttechnique thathas
beenshown towork wellwithyounger participants. First, theyengaged inadyadic 
construct elicitation taskwherein, aftertheteenparticipants named 10important indi-
viduals intheirlives, theyfirstidentified asimilarity between twoelements (inthis
casefriends), thereby defining onepoleofaconstruct, andthenidentified theoppo -
siteofthatsimilarity (thecontrast pole). Then ,theyengaged in“laddering” byhaving 
theteens answer repeated questions ofwhyaconstruct wasimportant tothem, eventu -
allyilluminating amore coreconstruct withwhich theydefine theirrelational world. 
Thematic analysis oftheinterviews resulted infourthemes ofimportance toteens 
withASD: relationships asasource ofsupport, perceptions ofsimilarity anddifference, 
valued qualities inselfandothers, andthedevelopment andmaintenance ofrelation -
ships. Participants viewed relationships withfriends andfamily interms ofacore“trust” 
construct. Trust wasimportant toallparticipants andplayed aroleinhowcomfortable 
theyfeltabout theirperceived similarity to,ordifference from others. Some partici -
pants reported littledifficulty intheirrelationships, andevenexpressed thattheyvalued 
theuniqueness thatcame withbeing different from theirfriends. Others, incontrast, 
characterized theirsocial difference asdeficit andweredistressed byhowpeers seem 
tointeract withgreater ease.Finally, andtouchingly, most oftheparticipants revealed 
acore“humor” construct inthedevelopment andmaintenance offriendships, showing 
thattheyunderstood humor’s importance inrelating withpeers, eveniftheythemselves 
varied greatly intheircapacity toengage withit.Afewparticipants shared examples of
learning toknow when tolaugh ortoshare ajokerather thanreacting inarotemanner. 
Theauthors point outthathumor often depends upon theindividual being able
toshiftperspective, or,inthelanguage ofPersonal Construct Theory, theability to
construe asanother construes, andthiscanbeparticularly challenging forthose with
ASD (Murphy etal.,2017). Thisresearch suggests that,inworking toenhance ado-
lescents withASD’s relational skillset,enabling them topractice understanding and
using humor might helplessen some ofthedifficulties these teens haveingrasping the
nuances ofrelationships, andengender thecoretrusttheydesire toexperience with
friends. Ifthathumor canbedeployed toemphasize theiruniqueness withamore posi-
tiveandcompassionate frame, thenthese individuals maycome toexperience them -
selves notasdisabled butasdifferently, andevendistinctively, abled .
Applying Personal Construct Theory to Intra-Personal Questions 
of Identity
Kelly’s original Reptestwasdesigned toassess howindividuals construe signifi -
cantpeople intheir lives. Inthisway,itserves asatestofinterpersonal compari -
sonsthatreveal meaningful personal constructs, likethose oftheASD teens intheFinal PDF to printer