Personalisation: Interpersonal Skills for Practitioners using Personal Construct Psychology

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Personalisation Interpersonal Skills for
Practitioners using Personal Construct Psychology

• Barry Cooper, The Open University
• B.Cooper_at_open.ac.uk
• Nick Reed, University of Hertfordshire
• n.b.reed_at_herts.ac.uk

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Aims of the Workshop 1

• Key contexts
• Personalisation
• Self-reflection
• Reflexivity
• Activity practising the use of
  Self-Characterisations

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Activity Self-Characterisation

• As George Kelly, the inventor of Personal
  Construct Psychology, said If you want to know
  about a person, ask them, they may tell you.
  The PCP method of "Self-Characterisation" is an
  individual reflexive exercise based on this
  simple idea
• "Write a character sketch of your name in your
  work role (e.g. social worker, health
  professional etc) just as if you are the central
  character in a play. Write it as it might be
  written by a friend who knows you very intimately
  and very sympathetically, perhaps better than
  anyone ever really could know you. Be sure to
  write it in the third person. For example, start
  out by saying "your name is ....................
  ..............

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Aims of the Workshop 2

• Personal constructs - the bipolar dimensions
  through which we see the world
• Activity eliciting some of your personal
  constructs
• Looking at how personal constructs inform
  behavioural choices so that we can see why a
  person chooses to behave in the ways that they do
• Activity personal constructs and your core
  values ("laddering")
• Seeing how someone's personal constructs can be
  elaborated to define their precise meaning
• Activity getting down to the detail
  ("pyramiding")

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Activity Eliciting Constructs

• Ask your partner to think of 3 people two
  clients with whom they have enjoyed working and
  one client with whom they have not enjoyed
  working. Write the initials of each of these
  people on separate cards - one persons initials
  per card.
• Ask your partner In terms of social work
  practice in what important way are two of these
  people alike and thereby different from the
  third.
• When your partner has given you the first 'pole'
  of the construct, ask them for their subjective
  opposite in meaning to that pole (i.e. not the
  dictionary opposite). When you have been given
  that opposite pole, you have 'elicited' one of
  the personal constructs your partner uses to
  differentiate between their clients.
• NB. The opposite pole may or may not be a
  characteristic of the third element.

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E1 A client with whom I have enjoyed working
E2 A client with whom I have not enjoyed working
E3 Another (different) client with whom I have
enjoyed working
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Activity Laddering

• Constructs to Ladders Gazing towards the Core
• Laddering theory of implications
• Staged process of focused self-enquiry
• why is this important to you?
• because
• Leading towards core constructs the constructs
  which have the most value to the person and the
  most implications for change or challenge

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The Laddering Process

• Ask your partner which pole of the personal
  construct they prefer.
• Ask your partner why they prefer that pole to the
  other pole of the construct. Write down their
  answer. Then, ask what for them personally is
  the opposite of what they have said and write
  that down.
• Carry on going up the ladder using the procedure
  set out above, always starting with the preferred
  pole side of the ladder as you go up each
  rung.
• 4. Instead of asking why they prefer one pole to
  the other, you can ask the interviewee why one
  pole is more important to them than the other.
  You also can ask them what the benefits (or
  advantages) are to them of being X rather than Y.
  Stress that it is their personal view that is
  required.
• 5. You will sense when you have reached the top
  of the ladder because your partner will probably
  be stating very abstract concepts such as Well
  thats what lifes all about or, they may not be
  able to offer any further answers.

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Some Laddering Tips

• Often, your interviewee will give you a great
  deal of information. To reduce this to
  manageable proportions, ask them to summarise.
• It is important that you remind your interviewee
  frequently that it is their personal response in
  which you are interested. For example, ask
  things like And what are the advantages to you
  personally of being X rather than Y? or Why do
  you personally prefer X to Y?
• Resist gathering further information as you go
  up the ladder. If you dont, the chances are
  that your interviewee will become distracted and
  you run the risk of never getting to the top
  rung of the ladder.
• Sometimes your interviewee will offer rather
  bland responses such as because it makes me
  happy or because I am more comfortable being X
  rather than Y. These responses are not much use
  for taking you up the ladder - everyone would
  like to be happy and comfortable. If you meet
  this situation, say something like this to the
  interviewee Yes, but in what way does it make
  you personally more comfortable (or happy or
  whatever) to be X rather than Y?

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Laddering Example

• My faith has made me who I am vs
  Lose my faith
• 
  
• Remain truthful to my beliefs vs
  Being false
• 
  
• Look for positives / manage negatives vs
  Non-ethical person
• 
  
• Ensure I do the best for clients vs
  Anything for an easy life
• 
  
• Remain me as a person vs
  Becoming an automaton

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Activity Pyramiding

• Pyramiding is a method which enables the
  interviewer to make a persons constructs more
  concrete.
• The process of pyramiding is one of asking What
  and How rather than Why (the laddering
  question).
• If one way that a person discriminates between
  cars is by using the construct economical vs
  uneconomical, and you want to know what they mean
  by economical, you can use pyramiding to find
  out. They may just mean it uses modest amounts
  of fuel - but they may also be referring to cheap
  servicing, spares, insurance and low
  depreciation.
• Pyramiding can also be used to elicit specific
  behaviours. For instance, a client may use the
  construct warm -v- cold to describe one of the
  ways she uses to differentiate between people.
  She can be asked How do you recognise someone
  who is warm . She may say because they come
  up to you and talk to you rather than ignore
  you.

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Summary

• Central to Personal Construct Psychology is the
  idea of a person having a system of bipolar
  personal constructs which are arranged
  hierarchically.
• PCP is explicitly reflexive and applies to both
  the practitioner and their client.
• PCP techniques are specifically designed to help
  you to step into your clients shoes.
• Today we have looked at the following PCP
  methods which you can add to your existing range
  of interpersonal skills
• The personal construct narrative technique, the
  "Self-Characterisation"
• Eliciting bipolar personal constructs
• Laddering
• Pyramiding

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Reading List

• Books
• Bannister, D. Fransella, F. (1986) Inquiring
  Man. (3rd edition) London Routledge.
• Butt, T. Burr, V. (2004) Invitation to Personal
  Construct Psychology. (2nd edition) London
  Whurr Publishers
• Dalton, P. Dunnett, G. (2005) A Psychology for
  Living. (2nd edition) Chichester John Wiley
  Sons.
• Fransella, F. (1995) George Kelly. London Sage
  Publications Ltd.
• Websites
• http//www.psy.herts.ac.uk/cpcp/courses.html
• This website gives details of PCP Distance
  Learning Courses and face to face workshops
  offered by the Centre for Personal Construct
  Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire.
• http//pcp-net.de/info/index1.html
• This website has information on Personal
  Construct Psychology and Repertory Grid Technique.