George A. Kelly
George A. Kelly was an influential American psychologist, born on April 28, 1905, in Perth, Kansas, and who passed away on March 7, 1967, in Waltham, Massachusetts. He is best known for developing the psychology of personal constructs, which posits that individuals interpret their experiences through subjective constructs or theories, much like scientists developing hypotheses. Kelly's educational background was diverse, including degrees in physics, mathematics, educational sociology, education, and ultimately a PhD in psychology. He held various academic positions, notably at Kansas State College, Ohio State University, and Brandeis University, where he contributed significantly to clinical psychology training.
His seminal work, "Psychology of Personal Constructs," published in 1955, emphasized the dynamic nature of personal theories and the active role individuals play in interpreting their realities, contrasting with psychodynamic and behaviorist perspectives. Kelly's techniques for assessing personal constructs have applications in psychotherapy, education, and business. Additionally, he was a pioneer in providing psychological services in rural areas and contributed to the establishment of the Boulder Model for clinical training. Despite the often-overlooked nature of his ideas, Kelly's legacy endures in contemporary psychology, influencing the field through concepts related to constructionism and the ongoing discussions in the Journal of Constructivist Psychology.
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Subject Terms
George A. Kelly
- Born: April 28, 1905
- Birthplace: Perth, Kansas
- Died: March 7, 1967
- Place of death: Waltham, Massachusetts
TYPE OF PSYCHOLOGY: Personality; psychotherapy
Kelly was the founder of the psychology of personal constructs.
Life
George A. Kelly’s early years of education primarily consisted of homeschooling by his parents, followed by his earning degrees in various fields. He studied physics and mathematics at Park College, Kansas (Bachelor of Arts, 1926), educational sociology at the University of Kansas (Master of Arts, 1928), education at Edinburgh University in Scotland (Bachelor of Education, 1930), and psychology at the University of Iowa (Doctor of Philosophy, 1931). His first professional position was at Kansas State College in 1931, where he stayed until entering the United States Navy in 1943. After the end of World War II in 1945, he spent a year at the University of Maryland. Then, he became a professor and director of the clinical psychology training program at Ohio State University. From 1965 to 1967, he held the Riklis Chair of Behavioral Science at Brandeis University.
Kelly’s views are not easily assimilated into other approaches to psychology, for he was an independent and original thinker. In his massive two-volume Psychology of Personal Constructs (1955), he treated persons as scientists trying to develop a theory (test hypotheses) about the world in which they lived. He tried to understand individuals, not from their current environment or past history, but from their subjective or interpretative viewpoint—the hypotheses they had constructed about what was happening to them.
An individual’s theory (constructs or interpretations of the real world) was ever-changing, and no one construct was useful for more than a limited range of circumstances or time. For Kelly, individuals were not merely passive victims of the past (as with psychodynamic psychology) or the current environment (as with behaviorism) but were active and responsible individuals who could change the circumstances they faced by reinterpreting them. Kelly developed a technique for assessing constructs, permitting many applications to personality theory, psychotherapy, business, and education.
Kelly was also a pioneer in developing psychological services for rural areas, a leader in establishing psychologists as independent practitioners, and a central figure in planning the most widely used clinical training model (the Boulder Model). He died of a heart attack in 1967. The threads of his contributions may be found in the contemporary perspective called constructionism. His influence continues with each issue of the Journal of Constructivist Psychology. Kelly's legacy continues to permeate the field of psychology through his Personal Construct Theory. His willingness to challenge the prevailing behaviorist views of the period by placing emphasis on the unique experience of the individual defines his work. Kelly's therapeutic approaches for treating clients and his research into how thoughts shape behavior made a lasting impact on the field of psychology, though his ideas are often overlooked.
Bibliography
Caputi, Peter, Heather Foster, and Linda L. Viney, editors. Personal Construct Psychology: New Ideas. Hoboken: Wiley, 2006.
Caputi, Peter, Linda L. Viney, Beverly M. Walker, and Nadia Crittenden, editors. Personal Construct Methodology. Malden: Wiley, 2012.
Cherry, Kendra. "George Kelly and Personal Construct Theory." Verywell Mind, 11 Nov. 2023, www.verywellmind.com/george-kelly-biography-2795498. Accessed 25 Sept. 2024.
Fransella, Fay. George Kelly. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1995.
Mischel, Walter. "Looking for Personality." A Century of Psychology as Science. Edited by Sigmund Koch and David Leary. Washington, DC: American Psychological Assn., 1992.
Neimeyer, Robert R., and Thomas T. Jackson. "George A. Kelly and the Development of Personal Construct Psychology." Pictorial History of Psychology. Edited by Wolfgang G. Bringman, Helmut E. Luck, Rudolf Miller, and Charles E. Early. Chicago: Quintessence, 1997.