Self-understanding

George Kelly
Construct(구성개념)= how humans perceive and understand external events.
Constructive alternativism(구성적 대안주의)= Quite simply, it is the assumption that all of us are capable of changing or replacing our present interpretation of events.

구성개념의 특징
편의 범위(range of convenience)= is spectrum consisting events over which construct is applied. Certain constructs remain relevant to stipulated number of people or situation and others remain broad. These changes might include taller versus shorter with limited range of convenience and tendency of application.
투과성(permeability)= A construct is considered permeable if it will allow new elements— that is, constructs currently excluded from its range of convenience—to be construed within its framework.
선점적 구성개념(preemptive construct)= constructs could be characterized as preemptive, constellatory, and propositional. A construct that includes only its own elements and precludes these elements from being part of other constructs is called a preemptive construct. For instance, a person may argue that “anything which is a ball can be nothing but a ball”; thus, balls cannot be “pellets,” “spheres,” or “shots.” Such black-or-white thinking(흑백사고) sometimes characterizes interpersonal relationships as well, as when someone argues that “capitalism is nothing but exploitation of the masses by big business,” or “the women’s movement is nothing but an attempt by a few frustrated and ugly hags to castrate men.”
군집적 구성개념(constellatory construct)= “permits its elements to belong to other realms concurrently, but fixes their realm memberships.” Stereotypes(고정관념) belong to this category; that is, once we identify persons or objects as members of a given category, we then attribute to them a cluster, or constellation, of other characteristics or traits. Although we are fully aware that we tend to stereotype people in terms of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, we also have reliable stereotypes of people (that may have harmful consequences) on the basis of other, seemingly insignificant characteristics, such as hair color.
For example, in an early study Lawson (1971) asked college men and women to rate fictitious people with different hair colors on a variety of personality characteristics. He found that men tended to see blonde women as more beautiful, delicate, and feminine than either brunettes or redheads. Both men and women rated brunette women most favorably, and artificial or bleached blondes most unfavorably. Brunettes were seen as intelligent, ambitious, sincere, strong, safe, valuable, and effective. Both men and women also gave their highest rating to dark-haired men, who were seen as more handsome, intelligent, ambitious, sincere, strong, rugged, valuable, effective, and masculine than were men with blond or red hair. Men with blond hair were generally rated more favorably than were redheads. Thus, people with certain genetic traits may become victims of other people’s constellatory constructs, or stereotypes.