Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionV. Learning Theories 18. Kelly: Psychology of
Personal Constructs(^564) © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2009
The range corollary allowed Kelly to distinguish between a conceptand a con-
struct.A concept includes all elements having a common property, and it excludes
those that do not have that property. The concept tallincludes all those people and
objects having extended height and excludes all other concepts, even those that are
outside its range of convenience. Therefore, fastor independentor darkare all ex-
cluded from the concepttallbecause they do not have extended height. But such ex-
clusions 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 con-
venience 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 ex-
perience. The restructuring of events allows us to learn from our experiences.
The experience corollarystates: “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 in-
dependence. 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 de-
pendent status of living at home. As Arlene subsequently encountered successive
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 in-
dependence 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 fol-
lows from and expands the experience corollary. It assumes that the extent to which
people revise their constructs is related to the degree of permeabilityof their exist-
ing constructs. A construct is permeable if new elements can be added to it. Imper-
meable 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
558 Part V Learning Theories