fei75766_ch19_610-639.indd 634  02/06/20 01:53 PM
Part VI    Learning-Cognitive Theories634
Theresearch byJames Grice (Grice, 2004; Grice etal.,2006) essentially sought 
todetermine justhowgood therepertory gridapproach wasatcapturing uniqueness 
compared totheBigFive. Todothis,Grice (2004) hadparticipants complete amodi -
fiedversion ofKelly’s repertory gridandastandard self-report measure oftheBig
Five. Participants rated boththemselves andpeople theyknew using therepertory 
gridandtheBigFivemeasure. Using complex statistical procedures, theresearchers 
wereabletomeasure theamount ofoverlap inparticipants’ repertory gridratings and
BigFivescores.
What theyfound wasrather stunning: There wasonlyabout 50%overlap (Grice, 
2004; Grice etal.,2006). Thismeans thattherepertory gridwascapturing aspects 
ofpeople theBigFivewasnotandthattheBigFivewascapturing aspects thereper -
torygridwasnot.Some oftheunique aspects captured bytherepertory gridwere
body type, ethnicity, wealth, smoker status, andpolitical affiliation (Grice etal.,2006). 
These areimportant aspects ofpeople toconsider, andtheycancertainly affect how
youwould interact withaperson, yettheydonotappear onatypical measure oftheBig
Five. Despite this,theBigFiveisstillenormously valuable asaframework forstudying 
personality. Inscience itisoften important, ifnotimperative, thatresearchers have
common tools andcommon descriptors forwhich tocompare theirtargets ofstudy, 
people inthecaseofpersonality psychology. TheBigFiveframework hasprovided 
those common descriptors thathavefacilitated agreat dealofresearch. Butpersonality 
psychology isabout individual differences andtheimportance oftheindividual, and,
compared totheBigFive, Kelly’s personal construct theory doesaverygood jobat
emphasizing theuniqueness ofindividuals andhowindividuals define themselves and
those around them intheirownterms.
Critique of Kelly
Most ofKelly’s professional career wasspent working withrelatively normal, intel-
ligent college students. Understandably, histheory seems most applicable tothese 
people. Hemade noattempt toelucidate early childhood experiences (asdidFreud) 
ormaturity andoldage(asdidErikson). ToKelly, people livesolely inthepresent, 
withoneeyealways onthefuture. Thisview, though somewhat optimistic, failsto
account fordevelopmental andcultural influences onpersonality.
How doesKelly’s theory rateonthesixcriteria ofauseful theory? First, per-
sonal construct theory receives amoderate tostrong rating ontheamount ofresearch 
ithasgenerated. TheReptestandtherepertory gridhavegenerated asizable number 
ofstudies, especially inGreat Britain, although these instruments areusedlessfre-
quently bypsychologists intheUnited States. 
Despite therelative parsimony ofKelly’s basic postulate and11supporting 
corollaries, thetheory doesnotlenditself easily toeither verification orfalsification. 
Therefore, weratepersonal construct theory lowonfalsifiability.
Third, doespersonal construct theory organize knowledge about human behav -
ior?Onthiscriterion, thetheory must berated low.Kelly’s notion thatourbehavior is
consistent withourcurrent perceptions helps organize knowledge; buthisavoidance 
oftheproblems ofmotivation, developmental influences, andcultural forces limits 
histheory’s ability togivespecific meanings tomuch ofwhat iscurrently known 
about thecomplexity ofpersonality.Final PDF to printer