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Propositional
construing |
A propositional construct is one which
carries no implications regarding the other
realm memberships of its elements. This is uncontaminated construing.
Kelly gives the following examples: philosophical attitudes; any roundish mass can be considered, among
other
things, a ball; although this
is a ball, there is no reason therefore
to
believe that it could not be lopsided, valuable, or have a French
accent
(Kelly, 1955, p. 156-7; 1991, Vol 1, p. 109). The opposite pole of the
construct is constellatory construing.
This construct of propositional
versus constellatory construing, along with
the idea of preemptive construing are
Kelly's descriptions of the
control that
constructs may exercise over other constructs (or elements as Kelly
calls
them).
In everyday living, it would not be very
practical to construe propositionally all the time since you would have
great
difficulty in coming to any conclusions. For instance, in watching a
rugger
match, you would be so busy trying to decide whether the oval object
that was
being thrown around was a ball or not that you would miss the point of
the
game. So, it is certainly useful to construe preemptively at such times
and say
'that is an oval ball and nothing but an oval ball' for the duration of
this
game.
However, in the context of
clinical work, Kelly suggests that all his
diagnostic
constructs are intended to be used propositionally.
"If a person is
anxious, he
may also be construing loosely or tightly, or comprehensively, or he
may be guilty,
or he may be hostile" (Kelly,
1955, p. 531; 1991, Vol 1, 390). It also
means
that along with one's analysis of, say, a self
characterisation, one
will
accept the possibility that some other way of analysing the script may
be just
as "true".
Propositional construing should not be
seen
as the same as loose construing.
Propositional construing is about how
personal
constructs related to one another. But loose construing is about the
predicted
outcome changing whenever a personal construct is used - today I think
apples
are good for me whereas yesterday I thought they were best given to
cattle. The
only connection between propositional construing and loose construing
is that
propositional constructs may be used loosely but they may equally be
used
tightly.
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References
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- Kelly, G.A.
(1955). The Psychology of
Personal Constructs. New York: Norton.
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Fay Fransella
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