Wellness Calendar: Monday 17 March

Our constructive self

Personal construct theory was developed by psychologist George Kelly to help people make sense of the world around them. He saw each individual as having their own unique experiences and different ways of seeing the world, which they use to construct their own reality.

This process goes on constantly throughout people’s lives, chopping and changing with each new experience. Talking to people about things that happen to us also helps with the construction of our own world.

Unlike values and beliefs, constructs are plentiful and less rigid – some are simple, some complex, some will be gone as soon as we’ve thought about them, while others linger. Constructs can help to create, cement, test and challenge our values and beliefs, helping us to create the narrative thread of our lives. Construction is the lens through which we view life.

George Kelly coined the phrase “People as scientists”. By this he meant that people are their own self-scientist: people experiment and explore themselves because they’re interested. Understanding what makes us tick isn’t just for psychologists; it’s for everyone. We do it whether we’re aware of it or not – it’s just that we do it so much better when we have more awareness of this fact.

Self-scientist, self-explorer, self-counsellor, self-detective, wellness guru: who cares what we call ourselves, so long as we are doing good work on ourselves?

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