fei75766_ch19_610-639.indd 637  02/06/20 01:53 PM
Chapter 19     Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs637
Key Terms and Concepts
•Basic toKelly’s theory istheideaofconstructive alternativism, orthenotion 
thatourpresent interpretations aresubject tochange.
•Kelly’s basic postulate assumes thatallpsychological processes aredirected 
bytheways inwhich weanticipate events. Eleven corollaries derive from 
andelaborate thisonefundamental postulate.
•Theconstruction corollary assumes thatpeople anticipate future events 
according totheirinterpretations ofrecurrent themes.
•Theindividuality corollary states thatpeople havedifferent experiences and
therefore construe events indifferent ways.
•Theorganization corollary holds thatpeople organize theirpersonal 
constructs inahierarchical system, withsome constructs insuperordinate 
positions andothers subordinate tothem. Thisorganization allows people 
tominimize incompatible constructs.
•Kelly’s dichotomy corollary presumes thatallpersonal constructs are
dichotomous; thatis,people construe events inaneither-or manner.
•Hischoice corollary states thatpeople choose thealternative ina
dichotomized construct thattheyseeasextending theirrange offuture 
choices.
•Therange corollary assumes thatconstructs arelimited toaparticular range 
ofconvenience; thatis,theyarenotrelevant toallsituations.
•Theexperience corollary holds thatpeople continually revise theirpersonal 
constructs astheresult ofexperience.
•Themodulation corollary maintains thatsome newexperiences donot
leadtoarevision ofpersonal constructs because theyaretooconcrete or
impermeable.of the construction systems of important other people (such as parents, spouse, 
and friends) may have some influence on our future constructions. Recall that, 
in fixed-role therapy, clients adopt the identity of a fictitious person; and by try -
ing out that role in various social settings, they may experience some change 
in their personal constructs. However, the actions of others do not mold their 
behavior; rather, it is their interpretation of events that changes their behavior. 
On the final dimension for a conception of humanity— uniqueness ver -
sus similarities —Kelly emphasized the uniqueness of personality. This 
emphasis, however, was tempered by his commonality corollary, which 
assumes that people from the same sociocultural background tend to have 
had some of the same kinds of experience and therefore construe events 
similarly. Nevertheless, Kelly held that our individual interpretations of events 
are crucial and that no two persons ever have precisely the same personal 
constructs.Final PDF to printer