CONSTRUING AND ACTING TOWARD OTHERS

Abstract

A variant of Kelly's (1965) grid methodology was used to assess the relationship between two construct subsystems, one for construing people and one for establishing policies of action toward them. Twenty-eight students rated 12 personal acquaintances on six elicited personality constructs and on six elicited constructs of action. The main finding was that central personality constructs, those with strong internal relations within the subsystem correlated strongly with central action constructs. Peripheral personality constructs, those with weaker internal relations, tended to correlate more weakly with action constructs. Central personality constructs had strong behavioral implications while peripheral personality constructs had weaker behavioral implications.