Although George Kelly's psychology of personal constructs was not originally designed to address and account for experiences of self-betrayal, as described by Warner (1986, 2001), Olson (2004, 2007), Olson and Israelson (2007), Williams (2005), and others (Arbinger, 2000), his theory (with minor modifications) may help illuminate the psychology behind the sudden gestaltic shifts and moral transformations experienced by individuals in Warner's (1986, 2001) stories, without undoing any of Warner's existing analysis of self betrayal.The end vision of the thesis is a structured theory of personality, so to speak, that borrows Kelly's insights and extends them to the phenomenon of self-betrayal. This approach allows us to (1) help others make their self-betraying constructs explicit, (2) measure and document them when we do, (3) communicate those constructs to others, (4) and do all of these things while conceptualizing human beings as moral agents responding to their moral sense, in addition to scientists seeking to predict and control their environment.

Social support is strongly associated with resilience and positive outcomes in children who have experienced risk and adversity, including children and young people in care. However, research suggests that children in care are often disadvantaged in their ability to benefit from social support due to disrupted relationships and multiple placements. Whilst a number of measures have been developed to assess the support networks of children, few are able to adequately assess and describe the complex network of relationships that exist for young people in care.The aim of this exploratory study was to investigate the use of a Dependency Grid to assess social support in young people who are looked after. The Dependency Grid is an interview technique derived from George Kelly’s (1955) Theory of Personal Constructs and was administered to ten individuals aged 11-17 years who were either in foster care or residential care. Qualitative and quantitative methods of data analysis were used to explore its utility to assess social support with each case. The appropriateness and ease of completing the Dependency Grid was evaluated through participant feedback interviews. The views and opinions of the young people’s social workers and a reference group consisting of social care practitioners were also obtained.The Dependency Grid was found to be a useful tool for examining the support networks of young people in care, with many advantages over existing measures. The Dependency Grid revealed similarities and differences in the way participants distributed their dependencies. Most of the participants had dispersed dependency grids and carers and friends were the most significant providers of support. Levels of social support did not vary with the increasing size of the support network (r = 0.198) and the felt ‘closeness’ of relationships, as measured using the Four Field Map, was poorly related to the allocation of dependencies (r = -0.243). Some evidence was found in relation to the validity of the Dependency Grid for individual cases using qualitative methods. The strengths and limitations of the Dependency Grid are discussed and the methodological challenges with the study and opportunities for further research are considered.

This study sought to determine the therapeutic effectiveness of client-therapist dyads in a residential treatment center for emotionally disturbed adolescents. The theories of George Kelly's personal construct psychology were utilized in assessing the dyadic relationship. The four elements investigated were organizational similarity, understanding, organizational congruency and predominant selves. The sample consisted of 140 dyads comprised of 10 adolescent boys and girls and 14 therapeutic staff of a residential treatment center in the southwest United States. Responses to Kelly's Role Construct Repertory Test were compared to four relational factors—parental/respect, identity, problem-solving, and sexual/affection—and two rating scales of client-therapist preference and ratings of therapeutic effectiveness. Contrary to expectations, as content similarity among dyads composed of clients and staff increased, there was not an increase in functional aspects of the therapy relationship. Possible mitigating factors may have been level of client disturbance and/or methodological issues relating to how organizational similarity was determined. Dyadic understanding was not found to be related to perceptions of the therapy relationship. This may be a function of adolescent of adolescent clients' need for independence and resistance to adult understanding and control. Therapy dyads with a moderate level of lateral or vertical organizational congruence were not found to be curvilinearly related to functional aspects of the therapy relationship. However, a weak linear relationship regarding client perceptions of the therapy relationship was noted on four measures. Several methodological recommendations related to the instruments used to determine therapeutic effectiveness and the means of eliciting personal constructs on the REP test.