Personal Constructs Paper

To get a better sense of the types of judgments you make, think of specific people who fit the following categories: a family member, a teacher, a male friend, a female friend, a person you dislike, and a person you work or socialize with. Choose two of these people and list five to 10 adjectives that describe ways in which these people are similar and five to 10 adjectives that describe ways in which they are different. Then, choose two other people and repeat the exercise. It is acceptable to use some of the same adjectives again. Finally, choose another person (or one of the people you examined earlier) and compare them to yourself. List five to 10 adjectives that describe how you and this person are similar and five to 10 adjectives that describe how the two of you are different. These adjectives represent some of your personal constructs. Now analyze your list, clustering together constructs that are similar. 

Write a paper in which you discuss what your list reveals about your values. Address the following issues and any other insights you gained from completing the paper:

• Identify if you have a relatively stable set of constructs about people, or constructs which vary widely depending on whom you are judging, and explain how those constructs affect the way you communicate with others.
• Explain the role stereotyping plays in your judgment process; for example, do you use different types of constructs to describe men than to describe women? Are the constructs you use fair? Are they complete? Do they allow you to make adequate assessments of others?
• Explain if you judge yourself more favorably than you did others.
• Provide suggestions people can use to develop a rich and complex set of personal constructs, and explain why they were suggested.

The paper must be two to three pages in length (excluding reference and title pages) and formatted according to APA style. Use at least one scholarly resource in addition to the course text. Cite your resources in text and on the reference page.

NOTE: This written assignment has two components: lists of adjectives for the selected people and a two- to three-page paper describing your personal constructs. Be sure to include both sections in order to get full credit. You will incorporate information from this paper into the Final Portfolio due in Week Five of this course.