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“ significant others” (e.g., family and friends) as elements (persons, objects, events, or
problems that you wish to explore). Kelly would have then asked the patient to pair two
of these elements in contrast with the third (e.g., “My friends and I are open to new
challenges, whereas my parents are closed-minded people.”). This process of triadic
comparison and contrast leads the patient to elicit a bipolar construct (i.e., open to
experience–closed to experience) without interference from the therapist.
Although Kelly initially formulated the RGT to elicit personal constructs in clinical
settings, adaptations and applications of this technique have also been observed in
classroom environments (e.g., Tobacyk, 1987). Not only are bipolar constructs an
integral component of various texts that may be used in undergraduate psychology
courses (see Lundin, 1996; Santrock, 2002), but it is also readily possible for instructors
to formulate such meaning dimensions on their own. For example, in teaching
abnormal psychology an instructor may introduce the following bipolar constructs to
help students understand the definition of abnormal behavior: typicality–atypicality,
functionality– dysfunctionality, social acceptability–social unacceptability, and cultural
universality–cultural variability.
Drawing both from meaning dimensions embodied in the thematic content of textbooks
and from self-generated bipolar constructs, I have used the RGT to facilitate learning in
my undergraduate psychology classes. Although the RGT exists in various formats, one
that I have found particularly useful involves a rating grid in which students rate each
element via a Likert-type scale anchored by two construct poles. Based on previously
published reports in which I systematically validated the pedagogical efficacy of RGT
(Mayo, 2004a, 2004b), I will summarize the instructional methodology that I used in
teaching both introductory life span development and history of psychology.
Life Span Developmental Psychology
In teaching life span development, I selected 10 leading representatives of 7 major
developmental theories as the elements on which to focus my instruction (Mayo, 2004b).
As selection criteria, I relied on key contributors to theoretical perspectives commonly
identified across various life span development textbooks. The theories and corresponding
contributors were ethological (Konrad Lorenz), contextual (Urie Bronfenbrenner),
psychodynamic (Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson), learning (B. F. Skinner and Albert
Bandura), humanistic (Abraham Maslow), cognitive (Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg),
and sociocultural (Lev Vygotsky). Applying the RGT, I devised bipolar constructs relative
to important developmental issues: heredity–environment, continuity–discontinuity,
stability–change, internality–externality, unidimensionality–multidimensionality, and
testability–lack of testability. I lectured on these constructs at the start of the course
and revisited them intermittently throughout the remainder of the semester. I obtained
the first three constructs from developmental issues presented in Santrock’s (2002) text,
whereas I created the final three constructs on my own.
I instructed students to rate separately the positions of each developmental theorist on
each bipolar construct. Employing a series of 7-point rating scales, students printed an