Personal Construct Theory

George Kelly’s personal construct theory (PCT) is an early example of constructivist psychology, an approach that takes the standpoint that people construct their own “versions” of the world through their subjective psychological processes. This implies that an individual can construe the same event in different ways at different times and that different people may construe the same event in different ways. Kelly’s theory takes this viewpoint (“constructive alternativism”) but elaborates it far beyond a simple philosophical proposition. While the major focus of application of PCT is psychotherapy, it has been applied in a wide range of other contexts including education, management/organizational development, architecture, and market research, to name but a few.