Personal Construct Psychology
Working from within the general framework of constructivism, most of my recent scholarly work has focused on Personal Construct Psychology, an approach developed by an American psychologist named George A. Kelly. Kelly anticipated many of the themes of post-modern, constructionist ideas when, in 1955, he stated, “We assume that all of our present interpretations of the universe are subject to revision or replacement.” This quote describes the philosophical assumption of PCP, called constructive alternativism. Kelly also emphasized the importance of “reflexivity” in psychology—that the statement a psychologist makes about his subjects should apply equally to the psychologist making the statements.
Click here for information on a recently published book that provides a broad overview of current work in the field of PCP (and that also includes a chapter that I wrote).
My scholarly papers have examined some of the implications of Kelly’s constructive alternativism: the importance of comprehensive construing, the use of anarchism and idolatry as metaphors for holding our ideas tentatively, methods of speech that require that we take personal responsibility for creating meaning, and the use of meditation to gain awareness of our personal role in construing, and how we might understand the sense of “self” from this perspective.
My work addresses some of the conceptual issues related to PCP and constructionism. More specifically, it focuses on applying the insights of the constructivist and constructionist perspective to daily life, by developing and maintaining openness to immediate experience and the possibility of considering alternative beliefs or perspectives, rather than solidifying a particular view of “reality.” In addition to continuing to elaborate the applied implications of PCP theory, my current work consists of several projects that all bear on this theme and that connect with my other interests in Zen meditation and Language.