Keynote | Plenary Session | Panel Discussions | Papers | Workshops | Posters

PAPER PRESENTATIONS

Jack Adams-Webber, Brock University
Individual Construct Preferences and Confidence in Evaluating Self

Participants (n = 41) individually evaluated themselves dichotomously on 12 bipolar constructs (e.g., generous-stingy) and indicated on a scale of 1 to 10 their degree of confidence in each of their self-evaluations. They also rank-ordered all 12 constructs in terms of their relative "usefulness for understanding people". A significant correlation was observed between these rankings and participants' relative degree of confidence in their own self-evaluations across the same constructs (rho = 0.81, p < 0.0001). This finding is interpreted within the framework of Kelly's (1955) personal construct theory.

Jack Adams-Webber, Brock University
Differentiation Among Constructs and Self-Confidence

A repertory grid task was administered individually to 79 Canadian undergraduates (43 men, 36 women) in which they rated 11 personal acquaintances from 1 to 5 on each of 12 bipolar constructs (e.g., generous-stingy). The extent to which these participants used different constructs independently in rating others ('cognitive complexity') related positively to their degree of confidence in their own self-evaluations across the same constructs (F [1, 77] = 5.350, p < 0.025). There was no significant gender difference or interaction involving gender. This finding is discussed within the framework of Kelly's (1955) personal construct theory.

Michael Adler, University of British Columbia
The Genres of Story: What Do They Tell Us?

The concept of genre is delineated and compared with other means through which a narrator lends thematic and stylistic unity to a story. The concept of genre appears to be the most encompassing. It is present in every coherent story, and is both delineated by and delineating the narrator's experience. It is particularly revealing in autobiographical stories of counselling clients. Three examples of genres of clients' stories are given. The implications for understanding the story and the counselling change are discussed.

Lynne Angus and Beverley Bouffard, York University
"I Don't Understand": The Search for Emotional Meaning and Self Coherence in the Face of Traumatic Loss in Childhood.

This intensive case analysis presents the story of Alex who underwent brief experiential therapy in order to address issues of unresolved anger surrounding the suicidal death of his mother during his childhood. Using the Narrative Process model as a theoretical framework, a three-stage process of self-change is identified in the context of the therapy sessions. Drawing on Bruner's (1990) notion of the dual landscapes of action and consciousness in the construction of narrative knowing, the contribution of narrative story telling, emotional differentiation and reflexive meaning making to self change are identified in the context of empty chair interventions. The contributions of both the therapist and the client to the co-constructive processes emotional meaning differentiation and self-understanding are identified and the implications for practice discussed.

Suzanne Batten, University of Victoria
Social Constructivist Perspective on Counselling First Nations Families

Constructivist therapies are useful approaches for effective and appropriate family counselling with First Nations. The rationale for this is that constructive therapies often give power back to the client through the co-constructed nature of the therapeutic relationship. A return of power to the client is also made in terms of self-determination within the context of the counselling relationship, and this is particularly useful when dealing with marginalized populations such as First Nations. An extensive review of existing data on family therapy in a First Nations context will be made, with a discussion on some of the most salient issues, from a constructivist perspective, facing counsellors and educators who will work with Native families.

Richard Bell, University of Melbourne (Australia)
A Study of Relationships Between Constructs and Construct Structure

When Kelly introduced the repertory grid in 1955, he also introduced the notion of comparing constructs by using an index of matching. Since that time, there have been a number of other indices developed, including correlations, distances and more heuristic measures, such as Landfield's FIC index. These indices have been aggregated to provide indices, which summarize construct systems, such as 'intensity' or 'cognitive complexity-simplicity'. This study uses both actual data and data simulated to give known distributions or structures to examine the performance of a range of these indices and the relationships between them.

Anne Bruce, University of British Columbia
Sensuous Inquiry: Open-Ended Awareness Grounded in Buddhist Meditative Practice

This session describes an approach of mindful, open-ended reflexivity building on the work of Varela, Thompson, and Rosch (1991), grounded in Buddhist meditation that promotes research as sensuously lived experience. Based on the presenter's recent study of mindfulness meditation in the provision of end-of-life care at a Buddhist hospice, the role of meditation as a tool in qualitative inquiry is explored. In current notions of reflexivity, the ability to be aware of how we are actually perceiving data is not yet accounted for (Marcus, 1998). Consequently, the embodied processes of inquiry including the researcher's perceptions, field writing(s), analyses, and interpretations remain underdeveloped. Awareness meditation techniques provide methods to assist in stabilizing and refining one's capacity to attend to all aspects of sensual experience without privileging conceptualization alone and creates open possibilities for insight. In this session the presenter will describe both theoretical and applied perspectives of shamatha and vipassana meditation that was both the phenomena of interest and the method of inquiry in a recent study into mindfulness meditation and living-and-dying. Open-ended reflexivity was used in all aspects of this inquiry and the specific strategies to support this method will be presented.

Susan Cadell and Sheila Marshall, University of British Columbia
Meaning-Making in Bereaved HIV/AIDS Caregivers

This research was designed to explore the experience of bereaved HIV/AIDS informal caregivers, including both the negative and the positive by-products of their grief. The study consisted of 15 qualitative interviews in Ontario, British Columbia, and Québec in English and French. The interviewees were selected from a larger dataset according to their scores of post-traumatic growth. Spirituality played a central role in the caregivers' reconstruction of meaning in their lives.

Sarah Corrin and Anne Marshall, University of Victoria
Interdisciplinary Research: Reflections on Emerging Issues and Ethical Discourse

Large-scale interdisciplinary research bridging natural and social sciences, if not unprecedented, is still a relatively new phenomena in contemporary academia. As such, Caputo (2000) suggests that as soon as something new or different happens, ethical theory is struck dumb. This paper explores the limits of ethical discourse in addressing dilemmas related to doing such interdisciplinary research. Traditionally, codes of ethics, human subjects forms, and Institutional Review Boards, which have emerged from modernist traditions, have attempted to set standards of ethical practice in the clinical and research domains of academic professions. In this paper, I draw upon constructivist ideas to reflect on some of the issues that emerge in interdisciplinary research.

Donald Domenici, Matthew Allen, and Lori Koelsch, Miami University
Maintaining Genuineness in Psychotherapy: The "Value" of Situated Truth

The importance of genuineness as it relates to a therapist's personal values in psychotherapy is examined. Objective and subjective notions of truth are discussed, along with implications of these two viewpoints for maintaining genuineness in a therapeutic relationship. It is suggested that holding a purely objective or purely subjective view of truth implies keeping one's personal values out of therapy. Attempting to do so can be harmful to the therapeutic relationship, as a "value-free" stance does not lend itself to genuineness. This paper proposes that a relativistic view of truth be recognized, with an emphasis on the practical value of various "truths."

Durwin Foster, University of British Columbia
Wilber's Quadrant Model: Implications for Constructive Postmodern Counselling Praxis

The 'postmodern turn' has prompted a critical re-examination of epistemologies used by counselling psychologists. Logical positivism has been deconstructed, opening the way for the inclusion of more interpretive approaches to both theory and practice. However, this important creative development has also resulted in a slide towards extreme relativism and radical subjectivism. This paper argues for the usefulness of Wilber's Quadrant Model as an orienting framework that defuse these problems, and helps moves the field towards a more constructive postmodern understanding. A key ontological unit of Wilber's Quadrant Model is the holon. Originally named by Arthur Koestler, a holon is that which is a whole in one context, while simultaneously being a part in another. All holons have subjectively-disclosed interiors and objectively observable exteriors, and all individual holons exist within collectives. The quadrant model maps these four aspects of holons and their holarchies onto a simple but powerful two-by-two grid. Among its many implications, the model usefully situates various epistemologies, including those of phenomenology, hermeneutics, and objectivist science. On the practical level, the model allows us to build a more integrated approach to helping. The usefulness of the model for these purposes is briefly explicated with a case study.

Michael Gray, Miami (OH) University
Experiential Personal Construct Psychotherapy, Role Relationships, and the More-Than-Human World

This paper considers the relationship between Experiential Personal Construct Psychology (EPCP) and a more-than-human life world. It is argued that the role relationship--the deep interpersonal connection considered essential to a rich and meaningful life from the EPCP perspective--is structurally similar to and informed by the relationship that humans have to the living world around them. Specifically, the human relationship to the more-than-human world can facilitate an appreciation for the nuanced diversity and multiplicity of experience, generate a sense of awe for one's (and an other's) existence, and remind one of the importance of corporeality and sensuality in psychological life. These three focal areas, as well as their connection to the EPCP therapy relationship, are discussed in detail.

Edward (Ted) Hazelton, Meharry Medical College, Nashville
Constructs, Consciousness and the Broken Brain

The use of language in Personal Construct Theory is so significant that brain damage can be devastating for individuals, supporting relatives, and others. The impact of strokes, accidents, and seizures confuse the patient's own personally constructed world. Illustrations of individual cases will give special reference to the subjectivity of the recovery period of the individual demonstrated through objective interpretations in communication with the patient. A discussion concerning the changes in consciousness during recovery will be described. The comparison between subjective consciousness/period of recovery and objective observations/emotional reactions of the medical staff, relatives and friends will be discussed. Contemporary contributions from neuropsychology and neuroscience will be compared and contrasted to facilitate future research goals.

Rachelle Hole, University of British Columbia
Constructing a Deaf Identity: Implications of Narrative Methodology

Prelingual deafness is not simply the inability to perceive sound; it is the inability to perceive auditory/oral language and communication. In this presentation I will focus on the implications of adopting a poststructural narrative paradigm when performing research with deaf participants given the centrality of language in a deaf person's life experiences.

Erika Horwitz, University of British Columbia
Social Constructions of the Perfect Mother: Promoting Resistance and Deconstruction in the Counselling Process

The purpose of this presentation is to discuss the social constructions of the perfect mother and how these constructions have led to a series of myths that are historically and culturally specific. The social constructions of the perfect mother impacts the experience and practices of many mothers and have led to an unprecedented amount of pressure and stress in the lives of these women. This presentation will explore possible ways in which therapists can facilitate the deconstruction of and resistance to these myths in order to empower clients to explore alternative ways of mothering.

Sharalyn Jordan, University of British Columbia
Coming (out) to Canada: Narratives of Asian Women Who have Immigrated to Canada as Part of a Same-Sex couple

Gathering the narratives of women who have migrated to Canada to be with their same-gender partners has the potential to inform new conceptualizations of sexual orientation and identity. Additionally it challenges the cultural encapsulation of current psychological theories of sexual identity and orientation, enhances our understanding of contextual influences on identity, and reveals some of the ways that individuals negotiate multiple identities. In this paper, I discuss key concepts, early findings, and challenges faced in researching this topic.

Patrice A. Keats, University of British Columbia
Constructing Masks of the Self in Therapy

By using the mask as an expressive symbolic metaphor "in-action," therapists may assist their clients in exploring the many "faces" of the self. Current psychotherapists have combined the use of masks with drama therapy, psychodrama, and Gestalt models in order to increase exploration of the constructed self. These models provide a framework for the speech, gesture, or actions that masks evoke when clients observe, address, or wear their masks. This lecture will provide an introduction for therapist to understand the historical use of masks and how current psychological theory supports masking in therapeutic settings. An overview of practical aspects of masking includes projective techniques, mask construction, and process questions.

Derrick Klaassen, Marvin McDonald, and Matthew Graham, Trinity Western University
Constructivist Stances for Promoting Justice in Spirituality Research

The events of 9/11 highlight the urgency for effective bridges among worldviews. To nurture dialogue, scholars can help expand horizons of significance, engage critics with integrity, and transform communities through the promotion of social justice. Critical work in the study of religion and ideology can now emerge from specialist enclaves to foster crossroads of social and intellectual development. We illustrate ways that constructivist standpoints can unite ideological critique and empirical fruitfulness. We argue that constructivism enables scholars of spirituality to balance critique, respect, and reflexive equality. Taking up the psychology of religion can also enhance constructivist work on ideology.

Karina Koerner, University of Memphis
On Becoming an Inspired Therapist: A Student's Account of the Journey

This year's theme of the NAPCN conference includes a call for inspiring new practices. This can undoubtedly be done in numerous ways. From a student's perspective, however, one of the most efficient techniques is to inspire the one who is in the process of leaning to be a constructivist psychotherapist. This paper offers a personal account on the significance of being inspired, what is inspiring and what not, and what is reasonable to expect from the one who is teaching, while undertaking this journey, which may at times be challenging but nonetheless rewarding.

Stephanie Lewis Harter, Texas Tech University
Emotional Construing and Self-Constructions of Child Abuse Survivors

This paper reviews empirical and related theoretical descriptions of meaning making processes in the aftermath of child abuse, with particular attention to construction of self and integration of emotional aspects of experience, explicit experiences of abuse, as well as related family and social environments, invalidate the child's emotional experience, and related emerging constructions of self. Optimal therapeutic strategies might not only foster self-coherence at explicitly verbalized levels, but also integration of more tacit levels of experience, including awareness of physiological meaning processes.

Spencer A. McWilliams, California State University, San Marcos
Constructive Alternativism: Searching for the Core

We might consider applying the philosophy of constructive alternativism in our daily life, particularly in relation to the construing of "self," by developing reflexive awareness of construing as an invented and interim process. Exploring the "self" as an artifact of core construing, processes used to anticipate our own maintenance processes, from the perspective of applied constructive alternativism raises several fascinating issues. Can we speak of a true self? What correspondence can we find between core constructions and the actual events of our life? How can we gain greater awareness of core beliefs and entertain alternatives?

Orit Reem, University of British Columbia
The Lived Experience of Hope in Therapy

I studied the lived experience and meaning of hope in psychotherapy for clients using the hermeneutic phenomenological method. Five women in their forties who have completed therapy were interviewed regarding their experience. Hope in therapy was described as an active experience, with four distinct areas of movement: coming into strength, coming into possibilities and change, coming into connection and coming into universal trust. The themes described the essence of the experience for the five women.

Tamara Lynn Rozeck-Allen and Anne Marshall, University of Victoria
After the Sex Trade: Constructing Transformation

Counsellors, social workers, and social program coordinators have had the opportunity to understand the multidimensional challenges and requisites in exiting the sex trade, particularly with regard to child sexual exploitation. What has not been reflected in the social construction of the sex trade, is the experience of transformation of women who have exited the sex trade. Themes that emerged from in-depth interviews with women who have exited the sex trade will be presented. These themes include reconnecting with mainstream society, trust, intimacy, co-construction of self, mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual developments, economic viability, strength building, and resiliency.

Buddy Saunders, Rue Cromwell, and Karl Yngvar Dale, University of Kansas, University of Tromso
Building a Constructivist Model of Dissociation Using Hierarchical Classification

We attempt a story of how individuals sort out events, organize hierarchy, but then, with devastation beyond personal control, suffer disconnections and collapse of hierarchy. Then people falter in personal narrative accounts, lose recall of some events, and lose skill in coping with new events. Constructs that provide continuity of time or self may be lost. In fact, alternate notions of self may arise. Inspiration is taken from (a) Sewell's PTSD studies, (b) Bell's description of symmetric vs. asymmetric constructs, (c) DeBoeck and Rosenberg's Hierarchical Classifications Model. Ultimate focus is upon a data set of Norwegian patients with DID and other dissociative disorders.

Kenneth Sewell, University of North Texas, and Louis Gamino, Scott & White Medical Center, Temple, Texas
Reconstructing Sociality After Bereavement: A Quantitative and Qualitative Study

The death of a loved one requires adjustments at a variety of levels: psychological, physical, familial, functional, and emotional, among others. In particular, intrapersonal and interpersonal negotiations in the real of "sociality" are necessitated by bereavement, if the bereaved person is to establish an effective post-loss adaptation. The present paper will discuss data from a sample of bereaved persons in the south-central United States. Analyses, both quantitative and qualitative, will examine the extent to wich a breach of sociality via loss relates meaningfully to functioning in the areas of psychological symptoms, social connectedness, and meaning-making.

Bonnie Shapiro, University of Calgary
Naturalistic Studies of Children's Help-Seeking Behavior in Learning Settings

In this paper presentation, I will engage colleagues in discussion regarding a naturalistic study currently underway to understand features of children's help-seeking behaviors in learning settings and specifically in science learning settings. This work focuses both on the environments created to provide help to learners and the active skills and strategies that children use and develop as part of the process of learning to ask for assistance when needed.

Mildred Shaw and Brian Gaines, University of Calgary
Personal Construct Psychology as a Basis for Cognitive Science

The year 1955 saw both the publication of George Kelly's seminal work on Personal Construct Psychology and the birth of cognitive science, modeling human behavior as concepts and rules. In the 1990s, it became apparent that the transfer of knowledge from experts to computer systems was extremely difficult, and that the resultant systems were rigid and brittle. This presentation outlines the development of artificial intelligence, cognitive science and expert systems, and the limits of expert systems technology. An alternative approach to cognitive science is proposed, which commences with PCP as a comprehensive psychological theory and uses it to model human thinking and knowledge transfer processes.

Tobias Teich, Matthias Meyer, and Jens Aderhold, Chemnitz University of Technology (Germany)
Optimisation of Social Structure in Business Network by Grid Technique and Polyhydral Analysis

This paper deals with defining and analysing social, communicative, and cognitive competencies of managers acting in network contexts. We tackle the complex relationship of role demands and role adoption by applying grid technique and polyhedral analysis. We can gather data on context specific personal constructs by the grid technique. Using this data, polyhedral analysis shows how defined persons are integrated into the relation structures within a network. Beyond this, we show if and how relevant criteria such as holes, connectivity and eccentricity can be employed for analysing problems stemming from personnel management. Bases upon the applied methods it is possible to provide information about the relevant structures within networks being used in personnel selection and competency development. Decision makers have the task to select among the measures of personnel management. These measures should be suitable in the relevant context for ensuring stability and efficiency of the network

Jill Thomas and Mark Schlutsmeyer, Miami University
A Place for the Imaginal in Experiential Personal Construct Therapy

This paper discusses the concepts of discursive and presentational symbolism as they are related to the process of verbal and non-verbal symbolization of construction. Discursive symbolism, most directly associated with language seems to be favored in theory and in practice. However, we argue that optimal functioning in experiential personal construct psychology necessitates presentational symbolization, and as such this should be encouraged and supported by the therapeutic process. Archetypal psychology offers ways of appreciating this type of symbolization that can be incorporated into EPCP therapy. This paper will explain the archetypal perspective and will discuss ways in which this realm of symbolization of experience can be explored in EPCP.

Kristian Weihs and Jonathan Raskin, State University of New York at New Paltz
Kelly at Friends University: The Quaker Influence

It is proposed George Kelly's exposure to Quaker thought and practice while a student at Friends University had a significant influence on the later development of personal construct psychology (PCP). After considering Kelly's college years at Friends, the relevance of Quakerism to PCP is explored. The influence of a distinctive Quaker approach is examined in terms of (1) Kelly's early experimental approach with clients in his traveling clinic; (2) the revolutionary approach to psychology PCP entails; (3) the conception of the person as personal scientist; (4) the egalitarian approach; (5) PCP as praxis; and (6) anecdotal evidence concerning George Kelly's personal construction of religion.

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