fei75766_ch19_610-639.indd 614  02/06/20 01:53 PM
Part VI    Learning-Cognitive Theories614
what people perceive. Kelly (1955, 1991) believed thattheuniverse isreal,butthat
different people construe itindifferent ways. Thus, people’s personal constructs, or
ways ofinterpreting andexplaining events, holdthekeytopredicting theirbehavior.
Personal construct theory doesnottrytoexplain nature. Rather, itisatheory 
ofpeople’s construction ofevents: thatis,theirpersonal inquiry intotheirworld. Itis
“apsychology ofthehuman quest. Itdoesnotsaywhat hasorwillbefound, butpro-
poses rather howwemight goabout looking forit”(Kelly, 1970, p.1).
Person as Scientist
When youdecide what foods toeatforlunch, what television shows towatch, or
what occupation toenter, youareacting inmuch thesame manner asascientist. That
is,youaskquestions, formulate hypotheses, testthem, draw conclusions, andtryto
predict future events. Likeallother people (including scientists), yourperception of
reality iscolored byyourpersonal constructs —your wayoflooking at,explaining, and
interpreting events inyourworld. 
Inasimilar manner, allpeople, intheirquest formeaning, make observations, 
construe relationships among events, formulate theories, generate hypotheses, test
those thatareplausible, andreach conclusions from theirexperiments. Aperson’s 
conclusions, likethose ofanyscientist, arenotfixed orfinal. They areopen torecon -
sideration andreformulation. Kelly washopeful thatpeople individually andcol-
lectively willfindbetter ways ofrestructuring theirlivesthrough imagination and
foresight.
Scientist as Person
Ifpeople canbeseenasscientists, thenscientists canalsobeseenaspeople. There -
fore,thepronouncements ofscientists should beregarded withthesame skepticism 
withwhich weviewanybehavior. Every scientific observation canbelooked atfrom a
different perspective. Every theory canbeslightly tilted andviewed from anewangle. 
Thisapproach, ofcourse, means thatKelly’s theory isnotexempt from restructuring. 
Kelly (1969b) presented histheory asasetofhalf-truths andrecognized theinac-
curacy ofitsconstructions. LikeCarlRogers (seeChapter 10),Kelly hoped thathis
theory would beoverthrown andreplaced byabetter one.Indeed, Kelly, more than
anyother personality theorist, formulated atheory thatencourages itsowndemise. 
Justasallofuscanuseourimagination toseeeveryday events differently, personality 
theorists canusetheiringenuity toconstrue better theories.
Constructive Alternativism
Kelly began withtheassumption thattheuniverse really exists andthatitfunctions 
asanintegral unit,withallitsparts interacting precisely witheachother. Moreover, 
theuniverse isconstantly changing, sosomething ishappening allthetime. Added 
tothese basic assumptions isthenotion thatpeople’s thoughts alsoreally existand
thatpeople strive tomake sense outoftheircontinuously changing world. Different 
people construe reality indifferent ways, andthesame person iscapable ofchanging 
hisorherviewoftheworld.
Inother words, people always havealternative ways oflooking atthings. Kelly 
(1963) assumed “that all of our present interpretations of the universe are subject to Final PDF to printer