Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionV. Learning Theories 18. Kelly: Psychology of
Personal Constructs(^566) © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2009
in a similar fashion. Because people actively construe events by asking questions,
forming hypotheses, drawing conclusions, and then asking more questions, different
people with widely different experiences may construe events in very similar ways.
For example, two people might arrive at similar political views although they come
from disparate backgrounds. One may have come from a wealthy family, having lived
a life of leisure and contemplation, while the other may have survived a destitute
childhood, struggling constantly for survival. Yet both adopt a liberal political view.
Although people of different backgrounds can have similar constructs, people
with similar experiences are more likely to construe events along similar lines.
Within a given social group, people may employ similar constructions, but it is al-
ways the individual, never society, who construes events. This is similar to Albert
Bandura’s notion of collective efficacy: It is the individual, not society, who has vary-
ing levels of high or low collective efficacy (see Chapter 16). Kelly also assumes that
no two people ever interpret experiences exactly the same. Americans may have a
similar construction of democracy,but no two Americans see it in identical terms.
Social Processes
“People belong to the same cultural group, not merely because they behave alike, nor
because they expect the same things of others, but especially because they construe
their experience in the same way” (Kelly, 1955, p. 94).
The final supporting corollary, the sociality corollarycan be paraphrased to
read as follows: To the extent that people accurately construe the belief system of
others, they may play a role in a social process involving those other people.
People do not communicate with one another simply on the basis of common
experiences or even similar constructions; they communicate because they construe
the constructions of one another. In interpersonal relations, they not only observe the
behavior of the other person; they also interpret what that behavior means to that
person. When Arlene
was negotiating with the
used-car dealer, she was
aware of not only his
words and actions but
also their meanings. She
realized that to him she
was a potential buyer,
someone who might pro-
vide him with a substan-
tial commission. She
construed his words as
exaggerations and, at the
same time, realized that
he construed her indiffer-
ence as an indication that
she construed his motiva-
tions differently from her
own.
In interpersonal relationships, not only do people observe the
behavior of the other person, but they also interpret what that
behavior means to that person.
560 Part V Learning Theories