Experimenting with Personal Construct Psychology

Fay Fransella was Emeritus Reader in Clinical Psychology, University of London and Visiting Professor at the University of Hertfordshire, UK. She founded the Centre for Personal Construct Psychology in London in 1981. Among her many publications are Inquiring Man which she co-authored with Don Bannister (Routledge, 1971, reissued 2019), the International Handbook of Personal Construct Psychology of which she was Editor (2000), and A Manual for Repertory Grid Technique (co-authored with Richard Bell and Don Bannister, 2nd edition, 2004). Fay Fransella died in 2011.Laurie Thomas was the founder Director of the Centre for the Study of Human Learning (CSHL) and Head of the post-graduate division of Human Learning at Brunel University, London. Together with Sheila Harri-Augstein he was the originator of Self-Organised Learning (SOL) and the Learning Conversation Methodology. He was the author of several hundred academic papers and several books.

• Contributors. Preface. Opening Address: The Range of Convenience of Personal Construct Psychology – An Outsider’s View Marie Jahoda A: Theory 1. On Becoming a Personal Anarchist Spencer A. McWilliams 2. PCT: Still Radical Thirty Years On? Fay Fransella 3. Autopoiesis and Alternativism in Psychotherapy: Fluctuations and Reconstructions Vincent Kenny 4. Personal Meaning and Memory: Kelly and Bartlett Peggy Dalton 5. Kelly and Bateson: Antithesis or Synthesis? Robert Foley 6. Kelly and Popper: A Constructivist View of Knowledge Francesco Mancini and Antonio Semerari 7. Kelly’s Eye: An Alternative View of PCT Mantz Yorke 8. Constructing Environments that Enable Self-Organised Learning: The Principles of Intelligent Support Laurie F. Thomas and E. Sheila Harri-Augstein B: Education 1. Software for Use in Self-Organised Learning Environments: The Practice of Intelligent Support E. Sheila Harri-Augstein and Laurie F. Thomas 2. Initiating the Management of Learning in a Junior School Graham Crosby and Laurie F. Thomas 3. A Qualitative Approach to the Study of Students’ Learning Marie Luisa Figueroa and E. Sheila Harri-Augstein 4. Report on Learning-to-Learn Techniques Based on PCP Rosamund Nutting 5. Turning-on Teachers’ Own Constructs C. T. Patrick Diamond 6. Personal and Impersonal Constructs of Student Teachers Sylvia Chard C: Children 1. PCP and Children Rosemarie Hayhow, Richard Lansdown, Jenny Maddick and Tom Ravenette 2. Representing the Parent-Role Construing Systems of Expert Parents Michael F. Mascolo and James C. Mancuso 3. Self-Characterisation: Dimensions of Meaning Sharon R. Jackson 4. A Child of Four Could Tell You: A Study of Identity in the Nursery School Using Situations Grids Anne Edwards 5. Choice and Meaning in Childhood Illness Auriol Drew D: Clinical 1. Construction of Psychological Disorders as Invalidation of Self-Knowledge G. G. Gardner, F. Mancini and A. Semerari 2. PCT Interpretation of Sexual Involvement with Children Li Chin-Keung 3. Understanding the Disoriented Senior as a Personal Scientist Elizabeth Ann Hill 4. Personal Identity in Disturbed Marital Relationships Greg Neimeyer and Alison Gold Hall 5. Contextual Shifts in Interpersonal Constructions L. M. Leitner 6. Phobias: A Journey Beyond Neurosis Gavin Dunnett 7. Building Change in Patients with Agoraphobic Symptoms Roberto Lorenzini and Sandra Sassaroli 8. Constructions in Social Skills Training David Winter E: Methodology 1. Construal of Events: Personal Constructs versus Personal Projects James Horley 2. A PCP Analysis of Data Collection in the Social Sciences Linda L. Viney 3. Three-Dimensional Representations of Grid-Type Data John Kirkland, Robert Lambourne and Stephen Black 4. Information Loss in Grid Analysis J. W. Cary F: Industrial Settings 1. A Range of Applications of PCP Within Business and Industry Fay Fransella, Helen Jones and Joyce Watson 2. Regnancy: A Shadow Over Personal Construing Philip J. Boxer 3. A Comparison of the Personal Constructs of Management in New and Experienced Managers Cathleen A. Brown and Charles J. Detoy 4. Developing a Learning Culture in a Bank Maurice Randall and Laurie Thomas 5. A PCP Model of Decision-Making and Planning Annabel Jackson G: Attitudes and Beliefs 1. Feminism and PCT Bernadette O’Sullivan 2. What Might Psychologists Tell Politicians about Intergroup Conflict? Peter du Preez 3. Religious Belief and PCT Norman Todd 4. Psychological Investigation of Offending Behaviour Adrian Needs H: The Arts 1. A PCP View of Novel Writing and Reading Don Bannister 2. Applying PCP to Constructs Related to Music Miriam Ben-Peretz and Devorah Kalekin-Fishman 3. Music and Personal Constructs Eric Button 4. A Repertory Grid Study of Response to Poetry David Miall 5. Fragmentation Peter Stringer. Index.

Review for the original edition:“… The applications of PCT in education and to child development, and in industry and the arts, which are represented here, are of considerable interest and of potential relevance for any clinical psychiatry and psychology…. The whole area of interactive grid elicitation and analysis … shows as-yet unexplored promise.” – J. P. Watson, Professor of Psychiatry, UMDS, Guy’s Hospital, London