Deck 15: Personal Constructs George Kelly

Question 1

Jeff is deciding whether to apply for a new job.According to Kelly's fundamental postulate,the most important factor in Jeff's decision is

A) Jeff's level of satisfaction with his current job.
B) his expectation about what will happen if he applies.
C) the length of time Jeff has spent at his current job.
D) Jeff's age.

Answer 1

 B

Question 2

Greg lives his everyday life under the following assumption: "Other people are not trustworthy." He has interpreted most of his interactions as supportive of this assumption,and continues to do so.According to Kelly,Greg's assumption about other people is

A) false.
B) a personal construct.
C) a theory.
D) a corollary.

Answer 2

 B

Question 3

Constructive alternativism maintains that any event

A) can be reduced to a common denominator.
B) can be causally linked to every other event.
C) is open to a variety of interpretations.
D) can overwhelmingly influence the personality.

Answer 3

 C

Question 4

Kelly suggests that we conceive of ourselves and other people as

A) mechanical robots.
B) artists.
C) scientists.
D) philosophers.

Question 5

A couple has a 3:00 o'clock appointment to see a marital therapist.One partner arrives twenty minutes early,and the other arrives twenty minutes late.During the therapy session,the therapist asks both partners to consider several possibilities to explain the arrival time of the other partner.According to Kelly,this therapist is facilitating a discussion that

A) illustrates psychoanalysis.
B) illustrates constructive alternativism.
C) focuses on the cognitive triad.
D) illustrates behavioral therapy.

Question 6

Which of Kelly's corollaries explains why people sometimes employ constructs that are incompatible with each other?

A) Experience
B) Choice
C) Organization
D) Fragmentation

Question 7

Kelly's dichotomy corollary suggests that if Arthur calls Jeff a snob,it follows that

A) Arthur will now feel guilty and alter his construct of Jeff.
B) Jeff holds the same opinion of Arthur.
C) Jeff and Arthur probably share similar constructs.
D) snobbishness and friendliness are dimensions in Arthur's constructs.

Question 8

To say that constructs are impermeable is to say that they are

A) fixed and rigid.
B) fragmented.
C) narrowly conceived.
D) open to change and alteration.

Question 9

In Kelly's theory,the hypotheses that people develop and test to make their world meaningful are called

A) contrasts.
B) corollaries.
C) fundamental postulates.
D) personal constructs.

Question 10

According to Kelly's __________,"a person's processes are psychologically channelized by the ways in which he anticipates events."

A) sociability corollary
B) fragmentation corollary
C) dichotomy corollary
D) fundamental postulate

Question 11

A psychotherapy client tells his therapist that he was turned down when he asked a coworker to go out on a date.According to Kelly,the client would benefit most by exploring

A) his motives in asking the coworker out.
B) what the coworker's turning him down means to him.
C) the coworker's motives in turning him down.
D) whether his reasoning about the coworker turning him down is logical.

Question 12

"Try some of the broiled octopus," said Chad."It tastes delicious."
"I don't think the concept of taste can even be applied to something that looks like that," said Jeremy.
Which corollary best accounts for the difference between Chad's and Jeremy's construction systems in the above example?

A) Communality
B) Dichotomy
C) Fragmentation
D) Range

Question 13

Fragmentation is likely to occur when one's constructs are

A) incorporated or copied from other people.
B) either impermeable and concrete or undergoing change.
C) easily penetrated by any new experiences.
D) broadly applied to new experiences of the person.

Question 14

Which of Kelly's corollaries implies that constructs can be altered?

A) Choice
B) Construction
C) Modulation
D) Organization

Question 15

According to Kelly,the primary impetus of behavior lies in the

A) past.
B) present.
C) future.
D) behavioral inhibition system.

Question 16

Probably the most important word in Kelly's statement of his most basic theoretical assumption is

A) psychologically.
B) processes.
C) anticipates.
D) conditioned.

Question 17

Kelly's theory of personality is based on the philosophical position of

A) empirical behaviorism.
B) rational subjectivism.
C) existentialism.
D) constructive alternativism.

Question 18

Which of the following statements best summarizes constructive alternativism?

A) There is no objective reality, only our interpretation of it.
B) The process of the construction of reality alternates between parties in a relationship.
C) Choosing to live constructively, rather than destructively, is the fundamental task of human life.
D) The objective reality of a situation is defined by the alternative constructed by the largest proportion of people involved in it.

Question 19

Kelly's theory is considered a cognitive theory because it explains behavior in terms of

A) ways in which people construe the world.
B) environmental stimuli.
C) hereditary influences.
D) unconscious processes.

Question 20

Which of the following psychological terms plays the most significant role in George Kelly's theory of personality?

A) Ego
B) Learning
C) The unconscious
D) Construct

Question 21

According to Kelly,____________ is the ability to perceive differences in the way in which one construes other people.

A) psychological health
B) intelligence
C) self-construct
D) cognitive complexity

Question 22

The Rep Test

A) has extremely limited use in cross-cultural research due to reliance on constructs common to Western definitions of personality.
B) involves exclusively true-false questions through which an individual describes her- or himself.
C) can help us understand the disturbance of thought in schizophrenia.
D) is a paper-and-pencil test and cannot be adapted for use on the Web or in conjunction with other software programs.

Question 23

Kelly uses the term aggression in the way most of us use the term

A) resistance.
B) anger.
C) assertiveness.
D) hostility.

Question 24

Dr.Ting is a clinical psychologist.If a client describes difficulty interacting with a particular person,Dr.Ting is likely to suggest that he and the client role-play the situation,both in its characteristically problematic way and later in an improved way.Dr.Ting's role-play methods are most likely influenced by

A) Rogers.
B) Skinner.
C) Kelly.
D) Adler.

Question 25

In assessing public school and college students in his clinical experiences,Kelly primarily used

A) the interview.
B) questionnaires.
C) the analysis of early memories.
D) dream interpretation.

Question 26

According to Kelly,the term role refers to

A) the therapist's conception of his or her client.
B) our drives and needs.
C) a set of behavioral expectations set forth by society.
D) one's behavior based on his or her construct of others' behavior.

Question 27

In Kelly's system,anxiety occurs when

A) events lie beyond one's construct system.
B) past experiences come back to haunt us.
C) our constructs anticipate the future.
D) we are confronted by changes.

Question 28

A therapist whose approach is consistent with that of George Kelly would emphasize

A) analysis of clients' unconscious motivations.
B) reconstruction by the client of the world around him or her.
C) punishment of undesired behaviors.
D) reinforcement of desired behaviors.

Question 29

In therapy,Kelly had clients write character sketches in which they described

A) literary or film characters with whom they identified.
B) pivotal persons who influenced their lives.
C) their ideal selves.
D) themselves from the point of view of a close friend.

Question 30

According to Kelly,the self-construct is based primarily on

A) other people's expectations of us.
B) our drives and needs.
C) a perception of consistency in our own behavior.
D) an idealized concept of self.

Question 31

Which corollary implies that an individual would get along better with those who employ similar constructs than with those who employ different constructs?

A) Choice
B) Communality
C) Individuality
D) Sociability

Question 32

What does the Rep Test do?

A) It reveals the behaviors that an individual repeats most often, which is indicative of core personality traits.
B) It reveals one's personal constructs and their complexity.
C) It reveals irrational cognitive patterns in the hopes of correcting them.
D) It reveals the constructs of the individual's significant others.

Question 33

After the politician gave a speech,dozens of citizens called a talk radio station to express their opinions about the speech.The fact that each of them had a unique interpretation best illustrates Kelly's ______ corollary.

A) dichotomy
B) range
C) individuality
D) communality

Question 34

In Kelly's theory,guilt occurs when we

A) force other people to fit into our current constructs.
B) actively elaborate our perceptual field.
C) behave in a way that violates our core role structure.
D) can no longer understand ourselves in terms of past experiences.

Question 35

Andrea is taking Kelly's Rep Test.As such,she is being asked to

A) act out how she would behave under certain circumstances.
B) compare and contrast important persons in her life.
C) list her most important constructs.
D) complete an extensive questionnaire about the different roles she plays.

Question 36

Kelly referred to his theory as a jackass theory because,in the theory,motivation is

A) due to biological drives.
B) explained by environmental reinforcements.
C) implied by human nature.
D) instinctual in nature.

Question 37

Kelly suggested that emotions arise when constructs are

A) in a state of change.
B) repressed.
C) undergoing validation.
D) verbalized.

Question 38

Jennifer views herself as a loving,caring mother.However,she has gambled away so much money that her family is now in a financial bind.She sees a significant contrast between her gambling behavior and her perception of herself.According to Kelly,Jennifer is most likely to experience

A) incongruence.
B) anxiety.
C) guilt.
D) cognitive complexity.

Question 39

An individual who is high in cognitive complexity

A) is better able to predict what others will do and how to relate to them.
B) is usually more creative and intelligent than the average person.
C) tends to be high in emotional complexity as well.
D) will also have unusually complicated personal constructs.

Question 40

Dr.Epps is a clinical psychologist whose opinion about the development of psychological problems mirrors that of George Kelly.When Dr.Epps sees a depressed client,Dr.Epps probably assumes that the depressed client

A) is struggling to overcome issues related to the way the client was parented as a young child.
B) has learned depressive behaviors via operant conditioning.
C) is clinging to a way of interpreting the world that is no longer valid.
D) has irrational thought patterns that need to be identified and corrected.

Question 41

Describe the philosophical position of constructive alternativism.

Question 42

Discuss Kelly's view of and contributions to psychotherapy.

Question 43

To increase his clients' awareness of alternative constructs that they might adopt,Kelly used the technique of

A) elaborating the complaint.
B) elaborating the construct system.
C) psychodrama.
D) fixed-role therapy.

Question 44

Discuss Kelly's fundamental postulate and eleven corollaries that support it.

Question 45

Explain why Kelly suggested that we conceive of ourselves as scientists.

Question 46

What are the limits,if any,of constructive alternativism?

Question 47

To what extent do you agree with the notion in Kelly's fundamental postulate that the way we anticipate future events influences our experience and behavior?

Question 48

Kelly's theory has been criticized for ______ and praised for _________.

A) being old-fashioned; its dichotomous framework
B) being too abstract; emphasizing the developmental antecedents of personality
C) ignoring the rationality of human beings; highlighting a broad range of human emotions
D) its overemphasis on the intellect; providing for both the uniqueness and universality of the personality

Question 49

Explain how Kelly reconceived traditional concepts in personality theorizing.

Question 50

Which of the following is true about the technique of fixed-role therapy?

A) It involves role-playing extended over a long period of time.
B) It encourages playing many different kinds of roles.
C) It is part of the "elaborating the complaint" part of therapy.
D) It focuses on playing a role that is chosen by the client.

Question 51

Kelly's theory is more popular abroad,where it is considered to be especially relevant in

A) academic settings.
B) private clinical practice.
C) psychiatric facilities.
D) the workplace.

Question 52

For which psychological problems would you expect the psychotherapy technique of role-playing exercises to be most helpful? For which problems would it be least helpful?

Question 53

Identify some of the criticisms of Kelly's theory.

Question 54

Compare Kelly's Rep Test to other measures of personality.How is it unique?

Question 55

Kelly's contribution to therapeutic methodology was

A) free imagination.
B) role-playing and role reversal.
C) systematic desensitization.
D) a new method of dream interpretation.

Question 56

How successful would Kelly's Rep Test be in assessing your personality?

Question 57

Evaluate Kelly's theory in terms of its function as philosophy,science,and art.

Question 58

Discuss the method behind Kelly's Rep Test and the type of information it can provide.