Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionV. Learning Theories 18. Kelly: Psychology of
Personal Constructs(^562) © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2009
only four: riding a public bus, walking, relying on friends, or driving her own car.
Subsumed under the construct of car were three subordinate constructs: repairing her
old car, buying a new one, or purchasing a late-model used car. This example sug-
gests that constructs have not only a complex ordinal relationship with each other but
a dichotomous relationship as well.
Dichotomy of Constructs
Now we come to a corollary that is not so obvious. The dichotomy corollarystates
that “a person’s construction system is composed of a finite number of dichotomous
constructs”(Kelly, 1955, p. 59).
Kelly insisted that a construct is an either-or proposition—black or white, with
no shades of gray. In nature, things may not be either-or, but natural events have no
meanings other than those attributed to them by an individual’s personal construct
system. In nature, the color blue may have no opposite pole (except on a color chart),
but people attribute contrasting qualities to blue, such as lightblue versus darkblue
or prettyversus ugly.
In order to form a construct, people must be able to see similarities between
events, but they must also contrast those events with their opposite pole. Kelly
(1955) stated it this way: “In its minimum context a construct is a way in which at
least two elements are similar and contrast with a third” (p. 61). As an example, re-
turn to Figure 18.1. How are intelligenceand independencealike? Their common
element has no meaning without contrasting it to an opposite. Intelligence and inde-
pendence have no overlapping element when compared to a hammer or a chocolate
bar. By contrasting intelligence with stupidity and independence with dependence,
you see how they are alike and how they can be organized under the construct
“good” as opposed to “bad.”
556 Part V Learning Theories
vs.
Intelligence Health
Bus Walk Friends
Repair old car Buy used car Buy new car
Stupidity Illness
School
Independence
Transportation
Car
Dependence
Home
Good Bad
FIGURE 18.1 Complexity of relationships among constructs.