580 Part VI Learning-Cognitive Theories
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
childho od, 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
always 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
varying levels of high or low collective efficacy (see Chapter 17). 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 corollary can 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 provide him with a substantial
commission. She construed his words as exaggerations and, at the same time, real-
ized that he construed her indifference as an indication that she construed his
motivations differently from her own.
All this seems rather complicated, but Kelly was simply suggesting that
people are actively involved in interpersonal relations and realize that they are part
of the other person’s construction system.
Kelly introduced the notion of role with his sociality corollary. A role refers
to a pattern of behavior that results from a person’s understanding of the constructs
of others with whom that person is engaged in a task. For example, when Arlene
was negotiating with the used-car dealer, she construed her role as that of a poten-
tial buyer because she understood that that was his expectation of her. At other
times and with other people, she construes her role as student, employee, daughter,
girlfriend, and so on.
Kelly construed roles from a psychological rather than a sociological per-
spective. One’s role does not depend on one’s place or position in a social setting
but rather on how one interprets that role. Kelly also stressed the point that one’s
construction of a role need not be accurate in order for the person to play that role.