Personal Construct Psychology - New Ideas

This book presents the latest thinking and research in Personal Construct Psychology (PCP) covering a broad range of areas of interest to both researcher and practitioner. It provides reports of empirical research, reflections by practicing personal construct psychologists and conceptual analyses of issues pertaining to current and emerging theoretical issues in PCP. The book consists of five sections covering:

• Theory and History
• Assessment and Understanding
• Problems of Living
• Evidence-Based Interventions
• Other Interventions, Clinical and Educational

Contributors are international scholars and practitioners based in a variety of clinical settings. In addition, the contributions reflect the internationalisation of PCP, with contributors coming from the USA, the UK, Europe and Australasia.

Personal Construct Psychology is a valuable resource for a wide range of health professionals, educationalists and practitioners in counselling and clinical psychology.

Peter Caputi is a senior lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Wollongong. He has published over 30 journal articles in the areas of Personal Construct Psychology, information systems and measurement issues in psychology, as well as co-authoring a textbook in research methods. He has reviewed for the International Journal of Personal Construct Psychology, now the Journal of Constructivist Psychology and Personal Construct Theory and Practice. He has also edited conference abstracts for the Australian Journal of Psychology.

Linda L. Viney is Professor in Clinical Psychology at the University of Wollongong. She was instrumental in introducing personal Construct Psychology in Australia and published extensively in the area as well as generally in clinical, counseling and health psychology. She has been Consulting Editor and Editor of the Australian Psychologist, and official journal of the APS. Linda has also been Foundation Member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Personal Construct Psychology, now the Journal of Constructivist Psychology (1988-), and Guest Editor of the issue based on the Fourth Australasian Conference on Personal Construct Psychology, which she co-ordinated in Volume 3 (1990). Special Editor 1999, Community Mental Health Journal, for the American Association of Community Psychiatrists.

Heather Foster PhD, Dip Ed (Tech.), is a registered psychologist who ahs applied personal construct psychology in clinical, academic and research areas of psychology. Her research interest is in changes in mid-life, particularly menopause. She draws on a wide background in psychology and vocational education and training and worked for many years in the NSW vocational and education training system. Her work include counseling, teaching, curriculum, policy and management roles, and involved writing, editing and managing the production of educational publications.

About the Editors.

List of Contributors.

Preface.

Acknowledgements.

SECTION I: THEORY AND HISTORY.

1. Applying personal construct models to work with people (Linda L. Viney).

2. Personal construct therapy and its history in pragmatism (Trevor Butt).

3. Reflections on the “artistic mentality” and personal construct psychology (Bill Warren).

4. Personal construct psychology through a poststructural lens (Paula Eustace and Nina Bruni).

5. The joint spatial representation of constructs and elements (Prasuna Reddy and Richard C. Bell).

6. The “inquiring man” in the laboratory (Harald Seelig and Janina Radó).

7. Small steps against the tyranny of distance in isolated communities (Linda L. Viney).

SECTION II: ASSESSMENT AND UNDERSTANDING.

8. Therapeutic artistry: evoking experiential and relational truths (Larry M. Leitner).

9.  Diversity and multiculturalism in psychotherapy: A personal construct perspective (Derek C. Oliver and Mark W. Schlutsmeyer).

10. Making sense of dementia (Sally Robbins and Mike Bender).

11. Psychotherapists’ theoretical orientations as elaborative choices (David A. Winter, Finn Tschudi and Nicholas Gilbert).

12. A personal construct theory view of professional identity (Julie Ellis).

SECTION III: PROBLEMS OF LIVING.

13. Trust and dependency in younger and older people (Nicole G. Rossotti, David A. Winter and Mary H. Watts).

14. THC and PCP: factors maintaining cannabis use in people with and without psychosis (Bob Green).

15. Counselling after sexual assault: a personal construct model of the impact of counsellors’ responses to client disclosure (Carole Carter and Linda L. Viney).

16. Role relationships and the restoration of coherence in the stories of women diagnosed with breast cancer (Lisbeth G. Lane and Linda L. Viney).

17. A hygienic process? Researcher and participants construing each other’s worlds (Alessandra Iantaffi).

SECTION IV: EVIDENCE-BASED INTERVENTIONS.

18. Menopause: the start of change (Heather Foster and Linda L. Viney).

19. When the unreal becomes real: an evaluation of personal construct group psychotherapy with survivors of breast cancer (Lisbeth G. Lane and Linda L. Viney).

 20. Personal construct group work with troubled adolescents (Deborah Truneckova and Linda L. Viney).

SECTION V: OTHER INTERVENTIONS, CLINICAL AND EDUCATIONAL.

21. Tapping into pre-service teachers’ perceptions of successful language teachers: A repertory grid approach (Pamela Leung).

22. Movement in personal change: the practice of dance therapy (Sabrina Cipolletta).

23. The posture of anticipation: Kelly and Alexander (David M. Mills).

24. The art of writing: embodiment and pre-verbal construing (Vivien Burr).

Index.