Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionV. Learning Theories 18. Kelly: Psychology of
Personal Constructs© The McGraw−Hill^555
Companies, 2009Biography of George Kelly
Of all the personality theorists discussed in this book, George Kelly had the most un-
usual variegated experiences—mostly involving education, as either a student or a
teacher.
George Alexander Kelly was born April 28, 1905, on a farm near Perth,
Kansas, a tiny, almost nonexistent town 35 miles south of Wichita. George was the
only child of Elfleda M. Kelly, a former schoolteacher, and Theodore V. Kelly, an or-
dained Presbyterian minister. By the time Kelly was born, his father had given up the
ministry in favor of becoming a Kansas farmer. Both parents were well educated, and
both helped in the formal education of their son, a fortunate circumstance because
Kelly’s schooling was rather erratic.
When Kelly was 4 years old, the family moved to eastern Colorado, where his
father staked a claim on some of the last free land in that part of the country. While
in Colorado, Kelly attended school only irregularly, seldom for more than a few
weeks at a time (Thompson, 1968).
Lack of water drove the family back to Kansas, where Kelly attended four dif-
ferent high schools in 4 years. At first he commuted to high school, but at age 13, he
was sent away to school in Wichita. From that time on, he mostly lived away from
home. After graduation, he spent 3 years at Friends University in Wichita and 1 year
at Park College in Parkville, Missouri. Both schools had religious affiliations, which
may explain why many of Kelly’s later writings are sprinkled with biblical refer-
ences.
Kelly was a man of many and diverse interests. His undergraduate degree was
in physics and mathematics, but he was also a member of the college debate team
and, as such, became intensely concerned with social problems. This interest led him
to the University of Kansas, where he received a master’s degree with a major in ed-
ucational sociology and a minor in labor relations and sociology.
During the next few years, Kelly moved several times and held a variety of po-
sitions. First, he went to Minneapolis, where he taught soapbox oratory at a special
college for labor organizers, conducted classes in speech for the American Bankers
Association, and taught government to an Americanization class for prospective cit-
izens (Kelly, 1969a). Then in 1928, he moved to Sheldon, Iowa, where he taught at
a junior college and coached drama. While there, he met his future wife, Gladys
Thompson, an English teacher at the same school. After a year and a half, he moved
back to Minnesota, where he taught a summer session at the University of Minnesota.
Next, he returned to Wichita to work for a few months as an aeronautical engineer.
From there, he went to the University of Edinburgh in Scotland as an exchange stu-
dent, receiving an advanced professional degree in education.
At this point in his life, Kelly “had dabbled academically in education, sociol-
ogy, economics, labor relations, biometrics, speech pathology, and anthropology, and
had majored in psychology for a grand total of nine months” (Kelly, 1969a, p. 48).
After returning from Edinburgh, however, he began in earnest to pursue a career in
psychology. He enrolled at the State University of Iowa and, in 1931, completed a
PhD with a dissertation on common factors in speech and reading disabilities.
Once again, Kelly returned to Kansas, beginning his academic career in 1931
at Fort Hays State College in Hays, Kansas, by teaching physiological psychology.
Chapter 18 Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs 549