578 Part VI Learning-Cognitive Theories
The range corollary allowed Kelly to distinguish between a concept and a
construct. A concept includes all elements having a common property, and it
excludes those that do not have that property. The concept tall includes all those
people and objects having extended height and excludes all other concepts, even
those that are outside its range of convenience. Therefore, fast or independent or
dark are all excluded from the concept tall because they do not have extended
height. But such exclusions are both endless and needless. The idea of construct
contrasts tall with short, thus limiting its range of convenience. “That which is
outside the range of convenience of the construct is not considered part of the
contrasting field but simply an area of irrelevancy” (Kelly, 1955, p. 69). Thus,
dichotomies limit a construct’s range of convenience.Experience and Learning
Basic to personal construct theory is the anticipation of events. We look to the
future and make guesses about what will happen. Then, as events become revealed
to us, we either validate our existing constructs or restructure these events to match
our experience. The restructuring of events allows us to learn from our experiences.
The experience corollary states: “A person’s construction system varies as he
[or she] successively construes the replications of events” (Kelly, 1955, p. 72). Kelly
used the word “successively” to point out that we pay attention to only one thing at a
time. “The events of one’s construing march single file along the path of time” (p. 73).
Experience consists of the successive construing of events. The events them-
selves do not constitute experience—it is the meaning we attach to them that
changes our lives. To illustrate this point, return to Arlene and her personal construct
of independence. When her old car (a high school graduation gift from her parents)
broke down, Arlene decided to remain in school rather than to return to the security
and dependent status of living at home. As Arlene subsequently encountered suc-
cessive events, she had to make decisions without benefit of parental consultation,
a task that forced her to restructure her notion of independence. Earlier, she had
construed independence as freedom from outside interference. After deciding to go
into debt for a used car, she began to alter her meaning of independence to include
responsibility and anxiety. The events themselves did not force a restructuring.
Arlene could have become a spectator to the events surrounding her. Instead, her
existing constructs were flexible enough to allow her to adapt to experience.Adaptation to Experience
Arlene’s flexibility illustrates Kelly’s modulation corollary. “The variation in a
person’s construction system is limited by the permeability of the constructs within
whose range of convenience the variants lie” (Kelly, 1955, p. 77). This corollary
follows from and expands the experience corollary. It assumes that the extent to
which people revise their constructs is related to the degree of permeability of
their existing constructs. A construct is permeable if new elements can be added
to it. Impermeable or concrete constructs do not admit new elements. If a man
believes that women are inferior to men, then contradictory evidence will not find
its way into his range of convenience. Instead, he will attribute the achievements
of women to luck or unfair social advantage. A change in events means a change
in constructs only if those constructs are permeable.