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THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONAL CONSTRUCT THEORY: A SOCIOHISTORICAL ANALYSIS
Abstract
This study examines the sociohistorical development of personal construct theory, a field of psychology originating in the work of George Kelly (1955). The study begins by noting the social influences on the original theory which derived from Kelly's personal and cultural background, and progresses to an analysis of the field's evolution as an identifiable subdiscipline. A conceptual framework for this undertaking is provided by Mullins' (1973) model for the development of scientific "theory groups." Indicators of construct theory's social structural status (e.g., configuration of colleague and coauthor relationships among group members, volume and emphasis of published work) are integrated to yield a depiction of the theory group's movement through the "stages" of Mullins' model: normal (to 1955), network (1955-1966), cluster (1966-1972), and specialty (1972-present). Divergent patterns of group development in different countries are interpreted from the standpoint of the sociology of science. The study concludes by outlining certain problems that confront the theory group at the present historical moment (e.g., its "intellectual isolationism," and its "crisis of methodology") and discussing the prospects for their resolution.
Subject Area
Social research
Recommended Citation
NEIMEYER, ROBERT ALLEN, "THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONAL CONSTRUCT THEORY: A SOCIOHISTORICAL ANALYSIS" (1982). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8227031.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8227031