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Does Construing People as Similar Involve Similar Behaviour Towards Them? *
Author(s) -
BENDER M. P.
Publication year - 1968
Publication title -
british journal of social and clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.479
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8260
pISSN - 0007-1293
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8260.1968.tb00573.x
Subject(s) - psychology , construct (python library) , personality psychology , personality , social psychology , function (biology) , subject (documents) , axiom , epistemology , philosophy , mathematics , computer science , evolutionary biology , library science , geometry , biology , programming language
Within the axiomatic framework of Kelly's Personal Construct Theory (PCT) (Kelly, 1955), it is nearly tautological that the way a subject behaves towards person X will be determined by the way he construes X . It follows then that if the S construes X and Y as similar, he will behave similarly towards them. It would seem worth while to demonstrate empirically the principle that to the extent that two people are construed similarly by the S , his behaviour towards them, in a dyadic situation, will be similar (Hypothesis One). To test the validity of this hypothesis, we can ask the S to state towards which two of three people ( X, Y and Z ) he behaves most similarly. In considering his behaviour in relation to X, Y and Z , he is likely to see it as a function of their personalities, since we may assume that the S perceives his personality as fairly constant across interactions. If X and Y have a much higher matching score on the Role Construct Repertory Test (REP) (Kelly, 1955)—i.e. are construed as much more similar—than X and Z or Y and Z , then it is very likely that the S perceives that he behaves most similarly towards X and Y . If, however, X, Y and Z are all construed similarly, or if X and Y are construed as similar on certain dimensions while X and Z are construed as similar on an approximately equal number of other dimensions, the S might well name the pair with the slightly lower matching score as the two people towards whom he behaves most similarly (Hypothesis Two), since, in the first instance he would find difficulty making such fine discriminations and in the second instance he will find difficulty comparing his different behaviours. The two hypotheses are operationalized below.