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Chapter 19     Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs613
should “pursue something more humanitarian thanphysiological psychology” (Kelly, 
1969a, p.48).Consequently, hedecided tobecome apsychotherapist, counseling 
college andhighschool students intheHays community. Truetohispsychology of
personal constructs, Kelly pointed outthathisdecision wasnotdictated bycircum -
stances butrather byhisinterpretation ofevents; thatis,hisownconstruction ofreal-
ityaltered hislifecourse.
Everything around us“calls,” ifwechoose toheed. Moreover, Ihavenever been
completely satisfied thatbecoming apsychologist wasevenaverygood ideainthe
firstplace. ...Theonlything thatseems clearabout mycareer inpsychology isthatit
wasIwhogotmyself intoitandIwhohavepursued it.(p.49)
Now apsychotherapist, Kelly obtained legislative support foraprogram oftrav-
eling psychological clinics inKansas. Heandhisstudents traveled widely throughout 
thestate, providing psychological services during those hardeconomic times. During 
thisperiod, heevolved hisownapproach totherapy, abandoning theFreudian tech-
niques thathehadpreviously used(Fransella, 1995).
During World WarII,Kelly joined theNavy asanaviation psychologist. After 
thewar,hetaught attheUniversity ofMaryland forayearandthen, in1946, joined 
thefaculty atOhio State University asaprofessor anddirector oftheirpsychological 
clinic. There heworked withJulian Rotter (seeChapter 18),whosucceeded himas
director oftheclinic. In1965, heaccepted aposition atBrandeis University, where, 
forabrieftime, hewasacolleague ofA.H.Maslow (seeChapter 9).
From hisdaysatFortHays State, Kelly began toformulate atheory ofpersonal -
ity.Finally, in1955, hepublished hismost important work, The Psychology of Personal 
Constructs. Thistwo-volume book, reprinted in1991, contains thewhole ofKelly’s 
personality theory andisoneofonlyafewofhisworks published during hislifetime.
Kelly spent several summers asavisiting professor atsuchschools astheUni-
versity ofChicago, theUniversity ofNebraska, theUniversity ofSouthern California, 
Northwestern University, Brigham Young University, Stanford University, University 
ofNewHampshire, andCityCollege ofNewYork. During those postwar years, he
became amajor force inclinical psychology intheUnited States. Hewaspresident of
boththeClinical andtheConsulting Divisions oftheAmerican Psychological Asso -
ciation andwasalsoacharter member andlaterpresident oftheAmerican Board of
Examiners inProfessional Psychology.
Kelly diedonMarch 6,1967, before hecould complete revisions ofhistheory 
ofpersonal constructs.
Kelly’s diverse lifeexperiences, from thewheat fields ofKansas tosome ofthe
major universities oftheworld, from education tolabor relations, from drama and
debate topsychology, areconsistent withhistheory ofpersonality, which emphasizes 
thepossibility ofinterpreting events from many possible angles.
Kelly’s Philosophical Position
Ishuman behavior based onreality oronpeople’s perception ofreality? George Kelly 
would sayboth.Hedidnotaccept Skinner’s (seeChapter 16)position thatbehavior is
shaped bytheenvironment, thatis,reality. Ontheother hand, healsorejected extreme 
phenomenology (seeCombs &Snygg, 1959), which holds thattheonlyreality isFinal PDF to printer