know if the person is outgoing or quiet. We could diagram the relation be-
tween my constructs this way:
Friendly –Unfriendly
Outgoing– Quiet
Note that within this construct system, I could not see an unfriendly personas
either outgoing or quiet, just unfriendly. On the other hand, you might
use the same constructs but organize them this way:
Friendly –Unfriendly
Outgoing –Quiet Outgoing –Quiet
In this case, whether you judge someone as friendly or unfriendly, you canstill judge that person as either outgoing or quiet. Of course, it is also possible
to organize these same two constructs this way:
Outgoing –Quiet
Friendly –Unfriendly
Friendly –Unfriendly
In this case, after deciding someone is a quiet person, you might want to
know
if she is a quiet– friendly person or a quiet –unfriendly one. In short,
not only do we use a limitless number of constructs to make sense of ourworld, but the ways we organize and use these constructs also are practically
endless.
Psychological Problems
Like many personality theorists, Kelly was a practicing psychotherapist who
applied his ideas about personality to treating psychological problems.However, unlike many theorists, Kelly rejected the notion that psychological
disorders are caused by past traumatic experiences. Rather, he argued, people
suffer from psychological problems because of defects in their construct sys-
tems. Past experiences with an unloving parent or a tragic incident may ex-
plain why people construe the world as they do, but they are not the cause
of the person’ s problems.
Kelly placed anxiety at the heart of most psychological problems. We be-
come anxious when our personal constructs fail to make sense of the events
in our lives. We have all had this experience on occasion. An upcoming inter-view will cause more anxiety if you have no idea who you will meet or what
kind of questions you will be asked. Similarly, when you can ’t understand414 CHAPTER 15 The Cognitive Approach