A Constructive Understanding of the Person: George Kelly and Humanistic Psychology

Abstract

Presented here is a careful examination of George Kelly's contributions to and differences from humanistic psychology and some of his more radical challenges to mainstream psychology in general. We begin by looking at the word constructive and how various definitions help us to understand what Kelly meant by a constructive understanding of the person. We then examine how truly different Kelly's basic assumptions are from those of traditional psychology. Finally, we examine how personal construct psychology is both similar to and different from traditional humanistic psychology. We conclude that, although there are some significant differences, Kelly's vision of life as an audacious adventure, and his emphasis on hope and on the future, make him very much a humanistic psychologist.