Meaningfulness of Self, Ideal and other as Related to Own vs Therapist's Personal Construct Dimensions

Abstract

Starting from Kelly's Psychology of Personal Constructs and a study by Cromwell and Caldwell (1962), the meaningfulness of self, ideal and other was investigated within the contexts of the client's vs the therapist's personal language dimensions. It was hypothesized that: (1) clients at the beginning of therapy will find their own personal language dimensions more meaningful than those of the therapist, as judged by two criteria of meaning—one internal and one external to Kelly's theory; (2) a positive relationship will be found between the two measures of meaningfulness. Findings give added support to Kelly's notions, and, in particular, to an approach to the assessment of meaningfulness suggested by this theory.