Theory of personal constructs and fixed-role therapy

The personal construct theory was developed by psychologist George Kelly. He published his results in the mid 50's of the last century and continues to influence psychology to this day. This theory and its consequent therapy broke with the vision of human understanding that had been held up to that time, in which the human being was seen as a subject or victim, and not as a creative actor of his reality. It cannot be framed only as a cognitive theory; Kelly himself pointed out that his vision of the human being was integral.

For him, people create their version of reality. Each person's behavior is the result of this interpretation of reality, according to the meaning he/she finds in what happens and his/her capacity to anticipate the future.

Origin of the theory of constructs

George Kelly had observed the relationships that therapists established with their patients. In this relationship the analyst maintained a position of... let's say superiority, where he saw himself as endowed with great capacity for reasoning and deduction while the person was rather a victim of his impulses and circumstances.

But this was not what Kelly himself had experienced in his work. The metaphor he used was that people try to make sense of their surroundings as a scientist would. We have our theories (constructs), we develop hypotheses (anticipations) and we conduct experiments (behaviors) to validate or invalidate those hypotheses. And after obtaining the result we modify or not that theory. From this metaphor Kelly bases his theory.

What are personal constructs?

The need to make sense of reality and to anticipate what happens determines our thoughts, emotions, experiences and behavior. The way we anticipate events will lead to a better or worse adaptation to reality. We access reality through our personal constructs. Constructs that we develop throughout our lives and that we are testing all the time.

According to the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language (RAE), a construct is a theoretical construction to understand a given problem. In this case, it is a label that organizes our data and experiences in such a way that we can understand reality and anticipate what will happen. It does this through the simultaneous comparison of elements, whether of similarity or difference.

How does it work? Well:

• We anticipate that a construct applies to an experience.

• We test the construct.

• We validate or not the construct.

• We revise it.

This allows us to make sense of new events or reinterpret previous ones. If we get it right and verify the usefulness of the construct, we keep it. If not, we can reconsider under what conditions we use it, modify it or give it up.

Corollaries of construct theory

This theory has 11 corollaries: In these corollaries it exposes how we people rely on past experiences to anticipate the future and that each person constructs his or her reality from his or her system of constructs.

Something fundamental is that the constructs are given as opposites, for example cold-hot, slow-fast, beautiful-ugly, happy-sad, etcetera. In this way, when we choose an option it is because we have compared it with its opposite and we discriminate it (we decide what it is not), depending on the meaning we give it. This works to integrate the information we perceive and at the same time anticipate events.

Furthermore, these systems of constructs are organized hierarchically, from basic to more complex, which are those at a deeper level, including the nuclear constructs that are essential in the construction of the deep self.

Constructs can be modified, they are subject to the influence of external elements. But it is not something that happens spontaneously or without a certain degree of resistance. If our constructs work, they reaffirm our beliefs, and we use them recurrently. When they do not work, we change.

Another thing is that if we can reproduce each other's systems we increase the chances of reaching an understanding. People who share the same culture tend to have similar construct systems.

Each construct can predict a limited range of events. If we have extensive constructs to apply in a given domain, we are more likely to anticipate an event, but we also run a greater risk of being wrong. Otherwise it is safer, but the ability to anticipate events is reduced.

The ability to choose which constructs to use is done on the fly when trying to make sense of an event, but it also serves us to analyze situations from different points of view.

Personal construct therapy

For Kelly, people actively participate in the way they grasp and interpret knowledge. The way they construct their reality may or may not be helpful to them. If the constructs are not useful to them, they cannot effectively anticipate events, it is necessary to try to substitute them. The purpose of this therapy is to evaluate the constructs and if necessary, to accompany the person to find new meanings that will help them to improve their life.

In this sense, the person's point of view and behavior about the situation is respected. The constructs are recognized and in collaboration different experiments are carried out to test them and thus validate them or not. One of these exercises is the fixed role therapy.

Fixed-role therapy

The assumption here is that you are the result of your choices. If you have a personal construct that is not working you can try behaving differently than you u