Necessary wisdom
Another way of determining personality and identity differences
is to look at the different criteria people use when they make comparisons. Neuroscientists
have discovered that the primary way human beings and animals learn about the
world is by making comparisons. When we encounter something new, our brain
compares the new experience with past experiences and attempts to establish
some similarities as a basis for laying down some language or understanding on
our new encounter. We usually define new things in terms of things we already
know e.g. we might conclude that they are similar to certain past experiences,
but quite different from others. As we go through this comparing process almost
every day of our lives, we gradually build up an internal set of criteria that
we primarily use as the basis for our judgments. Since these criteria are based
on our life experiences, and since everybody’s life experiences are different,
the total set of criteria will be unique for every person. By understanding
each person’s unique set of criteria, we are better able to understand what is special
about each individual identity.
In the mid 1950’s, an American psychologist named George
Kelly explored these internal sets of criteria in humans and called them, “personal
constructs”. Kelly went on to develop a theory of personality differences based
around these constructs.
Kelly explained that over time, each of our personal
constructs develops into a range, scale or continuum of qualities with
opposites at each end. For example, one way we might compare, think about or
judge people is in terms of whether they are happy or unhappy. This range or
continuum of possibilities is an example of one personal construct. Another
personal construct we might use with people is “intelligent or stupid”. Yet
another might be “interesting or boring”. Every person will use their own pairs
of opposite words for comparisons and we can describe their total collection of
paired words as their set of personal constructs.
Kelly and his followers developed a tool called the
“repertory grid” for discovering personal constructs, and some psychotherapists
in assisting therapy clients to discover more about themselves use this tool,
along with a careful selection of questions. I have taken Kelly’s general
approach and developed a less intensive procedure that can simply be used to
discover some of our own personal constructs or comparison criteria. In turn,
knowledge of these constructs might provide some insights into our own identity
and ultimately provide some more identity elements for our own identity chart.
Creative responses
CREATIVE RESPONSE (SU): Use the Personal Construct
Discovery process to reveal some of the common criteria you use in making
comparisons in life.
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This process can be applied to
almost any group of things or elements that can be compared or judged: people, animals, objects, places,
performances, movies, situations, pastimes etc. As an example, we will use
“people we know well” as the elements of the process.
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In your journal or notebook,
draw up a chart similar to the one below.
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In the “Elements being
compared” section, list a broad range of seven people you encounter regularly
and know reasonably well e.g. two or three friends, a couple of people encountered
at work, and two or three people encountered at a sporting club. List them in a
completely random order beside the numbers 1 to 7.
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Use the ten lines underneath to
make three way comparisons about random combinations of three items or elements
from the list - in this case, the list of people you know well. Under “Element
Combos”, the chart has already provided ten different combinations of
three numbers from 1 to 7 but you can use your own. These numbers relate to the
numbers attached to each of the elements in the “Elements being compared”
section. In our example below, numbers one, two and three relate to Adam, Betty
and Cate respectively.
Personal Constructs Discovery Chart
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For each group of three items,
ask yourself, “Which two are similar or alike whilst being different from the
third element?” Then, in the appropriate columns, list the quality those two
similar elements share, and the opposite quality evident in the other element.
Here is the sample chart based on “people I know well”.
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In the above example, the partly
completed chart shows someone who views the world in terms of people being
“hard working” or “lazy”, “easy going or “obstructive” and “sociable” or
“withdrawn” etc. These pairs of qualities represent the personal constructs of the
person completing the chart and they represent some of the criteria this person
uses to compare things and learn about the world.
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