3 Rebecca Reynolds is assistant professor, School of Commun-ication & Information at Rutgers, the State University of NJ, and affiliate of the Center for Inter-national Scholarship on School Librarianship. Funded by an Ins-titute for Museum and Library Services early career development grant, she researches learning by young people during their active social media use and digital media content creation, and issues of motivation, agency and structure in the design of guided discovery-based e-learning interventions for youth. Her research is. She holds a BA (Sociology), MA (Media Studies) and a PhD (Mass Communication), with post-doctoral work in Information Studies.

Personal construct theoryRebecca Reynolds

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This chapter addresses American psychologist George Kelly’s personal construct theory, and its application in information sci-entist Carol Kuhlthau’s conceptualization of the information search process. Personal construct theory emerged in the 1950s as both a theory of personality and a clinical psychology founded upon the central premise that humans construct our own knowledge and understanding of the world through a proc-ess of active cognitive construction and meaning making, paral-leling in some ways the scientific process. Personal construct theory focuses on the general processes by which people make sense of and navigate their social worlds. Kelly views individu-als as agents who devise and revise conceptual templates he calls personal constructs, that enable them to interpret, antici-pate and respond to phenomena they encounter in the world. Individuals construct meaning from experiences, and refine meanings across time. Overall, Kelly’s theory focuses on the structure and function of how humans construe their experi-ences, on the organization of systems of personal constructs, and their change over time (Neimeyer, 1985).

Kelly’s complementary methodological contribution in his the-ory is called the repertory grid, and involves elicitation by a re-searcher of dichotomous categories or facets of individuals’ per-sonal mental constructs. This method of elicitation is also ap-plied in clinical psychological therapeutic contexts, towards transforming individuals from positions of psychological con-

Section 1

Introduction

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flict or inconsistency, to greater levels of self-awareness and cog-nitive integration. Through Kuhlthau’s application of the theory in her work on human information behaviour, personal con-struct theory has contributed to information scholars’ under-standing of knowledge development processes in information contexts, as well as ways in which information professionals such as librarians and school librarians can more effectively de-sign and support learning experiences for information users. In this chapter, we review the basic premises of personal construct theory, and discuss the ways in which, in addition to the philoso-phy of Dewey and theories of Vygotsky and Bruner, the key prin-ciples of Kelly’s theory have directly influenced Kuhlthau’s infor-mation search process model (and, indirectly, the work of those who continue to cite her model).

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IntroductionKelly originally published his theory and repertory grid method in the early 1950s, in two volumes spanning 1,218 pages (as a magnum opus), which was condensed into a much shorter sin-gle volume entitled A theory of personality: the psychology of personal constructs, published in 1955. The theory offers a con-trast to the behaviourism of Kelly’s day, which views the individ-ual as a passive respondent to environmental events (Bannister, 1966, cited in Fransella, 2005). The theory is also positioned in this way by Kelly himself, and secondary sources, in contrast to the earlier psychoanalytic and psychodynamic theorists who view the person as ‘a passive respondent to internal uncon-scious forces’ (Kelly, 1963: 7). The fundamental postulate of personal construct theory demonstrates the agency and auton-omy that are central in the theory. The postulate proposes, ‘a person’s processes are psychologically channelized by the ways in which he anticipates events’ (Kelly, 1963). By channel-ized, Kelly conceives the human’s psychological processes as op-erating through a structured network of pathways that is flexi-ble, frequently modified, and can be both facilitative and restric-tive of a person’s range of action (Kelly, 1963: 49). By antici-pates, Kelly states that he views man as a scientist who is seek-ing of prediction, with a general disposition towards future real events (p. 49). On the whole, in personal construct theory, hu-mans do not so much react to the past, as anticipate and reach

Section 2

Personal construct theory

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out to the future and make sense of the world through anticipa-tion, prediction and preparation, and ‘beating the world to the punch’ (Bannister and Fransella, 1986: 8). Future expectations offer a delimitation against which we project present meaning. In the theory, therefore,

a person is in business to understand their own nature and the na-ture of the world and to test that understanding in terms of how it guides them and enables them to see into the immediate and long-term future (Bannister and Fransella, 1986: 8).

These authors state that for Kelly, the science and invention of personal construction has the same central characteristic as art, that of imagination, whereby in personally constructing, one imagines and anticipates future events, identities and possibili-ties.

The corollaries of personal construct theory.In outlining the premises of his theory, Kelly defines eleven cor-ollaries under the fundamental postulate stated above, to elabo-rate on his vision of man’s predictive and imaginative disposi-tion (Kelly, 1963: 50-104; Feist and Feist, 2008: 587, 588). Each corollary is described briefly as follows.

In Kelly’s construction corollary, we anticipate future events ac-cording to our interpretation or construal of recurrent themes from similar events previously experienced. Kelly states that ‘in

constructing, the person notes features in a series of elements which characterize some of the elements and are particularly uncharacteristic of others’ (1963: 50) in a process of differentia-tion . Setting the stage for the subsequent dichotomy corollary, he states that both the similarities and contrasts are inherent of the same construct. He suggests that this construal process is different from verbal formulation. Kelly states that ‘what is pre-dicted is not that tomorrow will be a duplicate of today but that there are replicative aspects of tomorrow’s event which may be safely predicted’ (1963: 53). In this way, we anticipate by construing a given event’s replications. Our personal con-structs are in essence our vision of, interpretation of, and mean-ing generated from our experiences with a given unit of under-standing, with an added regard towards how we expect the con-struct to manifest in our favour, moving forward. Our personal constructs anticipate future application. Subsequent corollaries are described more briefly and can be found in elaborated form in Kelly (1963).

The individuality corollary stipulates that people have had dif-ferent experiences and, therefore, construe events in different ways. We share common ground based on common experi-ences, and based on our construal of others’ experiences that are different from ours.

According to the organization corollary, we organize our per-sonal constructs in a system of relationships, with some con-

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structs in a super-ordinate position and others subordinate to them. This organization allows us to minimize incompatible con-structs. This system evolves, but not as readily as the individual constructs that compose the system themselves. People must make decisions about remodelling the system: how much must one tear down to accommodate new experiences? Kelly indi-cates that one must choose between preserving the integrity of the system, and replacing its faulty parts. In some cases, antici-pation of events will be more effective if one chooses to con-serve the system. In other cases, remodelling will improve antici-pation and result in better preparation (Kelly, 1963: 59). Here one can begin to imagine the role that information may play in future anticipation.

In the dichotomy corollary, Kelly presents the key assertion that all personal constructs are dichotomous, that is, we con-strue events in an either/or manner. Kelly calls these dichoto-mous constructs aspects. Construing concepts entails identify-ing the two dimensions of the concept (its either/or status). The two dichotomous aspects are considered in time sequence, in that one’s constructs are supported when one experiences two sequential events in time as replications. There must be an op-posing way that another, third event might not be a replication of the first two instances (Kelly, 1963: 59). In this formulation, the aspect of the event is the construct, and the variation in the aspects across the first and second events versus a possible third, represents the dichotomy. The particular aspect or con-

struct may or may not have relevance to other events, or to what Kelly terms ranges of convenience (Kelly, 1963: 60). It is upon this dichotomy corollary that his repertory grids method is largely based. Examples are provided in the discussion of this empirical technique below.

According to the choice corollary, we choose the alternative in a dichotomized construct that we see as extending our range of future choices, in a favourable way. Kelly states that we assume

whenever a person is confronted with the opportunity for making a choice, he will tend to make that choice in favor of the alterna-tive which seems to provide the best basis for anticipating the en-suing events (Kelly, 1963: 64).

Kelly suggests that individuals have a tendency to move toward that which appears to make his system more explicit and clear cut. However, one can think of many instances where we in fact do the opposite; Kelly notes that internal conflict is often a mat-ter of trying to balance off “secure definiteness of a narrowly en-compassed world, against the uncertain possibilities of life’s ad-venture.” We make choices that lead us to become more and more certain about fewer things, or “vaguely aware of more and more things on the misty horizon” (p. 67). Kelly himself posi-tions the choice corollary in stark contrast to “hedonism and mo-tivational theory,” his terms for behaviourism and psychoanaly-sis. He states that in personal construct theory, “there is a con-tinuing movement toward the anticipation of events rather than a series of barters for temporal satisfactions, and this move-

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ment is the essence of human life itself” (p. 68). In his compari-son (which has been critiqued as overly simplified), he sees this movement as originating from neither extrinsic reward nor com-plex machinations of psychosexual development and libido drives, but rather a basic disposition in humans to accumulate knowledge towards future anticipated events.

Kelly’s range corollary indicates that constructs are limited to a particular range of convenience, that is, they are not relevant to all situations. That which is outside of the range of convenience of a given construct or aspect and its dichotomous conditions is not considered part of the contrasting field but is simply an area of irrelevancy (Kelly, 1963: 69). His experience corollary states that we continually revise our personal constructs as the result of experience. As one’s anticipations or hypotheses are succes-sively revised in light of the unfolding sequence of events, the construction system undergoes a progressive evolution (Kelly, 1963: 72).

Kelly states that, in this regard, learning is assumed to take place. However, the modulation corollary indicates that not all new experiences lead to a revision of personal constructs. To the extent that constructs are permeable they are subject to change through experience. Concrete or impermeable con-structs resist modification regardless of our experience. New outlooks a person gains from experience need to be construed

by the person in order to make any sense out of it, requiring con-scious reflection. Kelly states,

‘One does not learn certain things merely from the nature of the stimuli which play upon him; he learns only what his framework is designed to permit him to see in the stimuli (Kelly, 1963: 79).

Following on this idea, the fragmentation corollary states that our behaviour is sometimes inconsistent because our construct subsystems can readily admit incompatible elements and func-tion in conflict. The modulation corollary implicitly tolerates inconsistency between subsystems. Depending on the super- and sub-ordinate features of the system that are being called upon in the given context, the impermeability of particular con-structs can halt learning.

The commonality corollary complements the individuality cor-ollary, stating that to the extent that we have had experiences similar to others, our personal constructs tend to be similar to the construction systems of those people. Kelly describes a ‘simi-larity of expectations’ view of culture in that individuals share a perception of what is expected of them. They engage in anticipa-tion of the future based on personal constructs built upon com-mon experiences with others.

Finally, the sociality corollary indicates that we are able to com-municate with and play a role in a social process involving oth-ers because we can construe their constructions. We not only ob-serve the behaviour of others, but we also interpret what that be-

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haviour means to them. We don’t have to share the same out-look but we must be able to understand theirs. Such understand-ing can be mutual. In other words, commonality is not a requi-site condition for sociality.

The agency that Kelly ascribes to individuals in constructing their knowledge in personal construct theory, and the metaphor of the individual-as-scientist, hold clear conceptual linkages to cognitivism and constructivism. One thinks immediately of Pi-aget’s theories, and the title of his famous work, To understand is to invent (Piaget, 1973). However, Kelly states that in his the-ory’s holistic view of the person, ‘The classic threefold division of psychology into cognition, affection, and conation has been completely abandoned’ (Kelly, 1963: 130). In the theory, he ar-gues, cognition, affect and behaviour are all addressed as inte-grated and inter-related dimensions of one’s learning and per-sonal construct development processes and, subsequently, their elicitation and revision in research, education and therapy work. This holistic approach strongly influenced Kuhlthau’s treatment of the information search process as involving phe-nomena along the same three dimensions (personal communica-tion, November 2012).

Repertory grid techniqueIn order to empirically ground his theory, Kelly developed the repertory grid method which was used in research and also ad-vanced as a clinical psychotherapeutic technique. The method

largely builds upon the construction and dichotomy corollaries, by eliciting input from a subject to reveal the duality of aspects in their mental models. In this method, the researcher asks the participant to discuss their construal of a given construct, for in-stance, one that emerges in a therapeutic context. The re-searcher helps the individual to identify, define and bound par-ticular aspects. Use of the grid in an interview context allows a researcher to understand the ways in which a person construes, interprets and gives meaning to his or her experiences. Through a process of elicitation, the researcher or clinical psy-chologist comes to better understand implicit beliefs in a partici-pant’s world view.

In introducing the technique, Fransella, Bell and Bannister (2004) use the interesting example of a participant’s view of hu-mans who have ‘cold eyes’ versus ‘warm eyes’. The subject is then asked to make associations between this physical character-istic of appearance and the qualities of human meanness and generosity. In this example, the authors suggest to imagine a Chi-square grid of the four variables, in which the participant counts individuals they know who bear the perceived facial at-tributes, and the subject’s assessment of the individuals’ disposi-tion (mean or generous). Here the subject has drawn upon his or her own experience in the world to formulate an association or relationship, presumably between cold eyes and meanness and warm eyes and generosity. The subject can then consider the evidence entered into the grid, and their prior association,

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and think about the nature and validity of what was previously a mainly intuitive judgment.

Judgments belie implicit theories we have about the world, and with the repertory grid, an expert interviewer aims to develop an understanding of these theories in individuals, conscious and unconscious. In a therapeutic context, discussing and mak-ing these implicit theories more conscious with subjects enables the therapist to help the subject identify underlying conflicts that may be restricting their freedom of choice and realization of possibilities.

Bell (2005) indicates that the grid technique attracted attention in the 1960s due to research published on its use with schizo-phrenics in Britain by Bannister and Fransella. The approach was used more widely in Britain than the U.S. through the 1980s and early 1990s, but research on the technique has since declined, according to Bell’s analysis of citations in the PsycINFO database (Bell, 2005: 68). It is still used in psycho-therapeutic contexts, and Fransella (2005) contains chapters discussing a range of varying purposes towards which the the-ory and repertory grids therapeutic technique are still being ap-plied, including nursing, family therapy, training of police forces, teacher education and organizational change.

Critical reception of the theory

Upon reviewing Kelly’s original magnum opus, Jerome Bruner hails the theory on its book jacket (1963), describing it as ‘a genuine new departure and spirited contribution to the psy-chology of personality’. However, he also notes,

with respect to ancestry, Professor Kelly seems to care little for it. One misses references to such works as Piaget’s ‘The child’s con-struction of reality’, the early work of Werner and the writings of Harry Stack Sullivan, Lewin and Allport – all of whom are on his side and are good allies to boot (Bruner in Mancuso, 1970: 62).

Others note that its ‘insularity renders it less adequate as a comprehensive theory than it could be were it to take into ac-count work arising from other traditions’ (Bannister and Fran-sella, 1986: 52). Kelly was also critiqued for a superficial treat-ment of the distinctions he draws between personal construct theory and existing psychological perspectives, psychoanalysis in particular (Neimeyer, 1985: 112). Neimeyer suggests, how-ever, that Kelly’s failure to find intellectual support in compati-ble phenomenological and existential thinkers was less likely due to Kelly’s misinterpretation of such work and desire to dif-ferentiate his own, than towards absent firsthand awareness of such traditions as he developed the theory during his early aca-demic career at a small Quaker college in the rural Midwest.

Biographies of Kelly note that his somewhat unilateral ap-proach to theory building has roots in his rural, isolated up-bringing, ascribing to Kelly almost a type of folk hero status. Ne-imeyer (1985) for instance discusses Kelly’s childhood in rural

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Kansas being raised in the Bible belt by highly religious parents whom he calls among ‘the last of the homesteaders on the American frontier’ (p. 105). Fransella (2005) indicates that Kelly was influenced by the pragmatic philosophies of John Dewey, Vaihinger’s (1924) philosophy of ‘as if’ and constructive alternativism, and Moreno’s work on psychodrama as having shaped Kelly’s use of make-believe and role-playing strategies in personal construct therapeutic approaches (Fransella, 2005: 7). Neimeyer (1985: 13) suggests that ‘the self-reliance of Kelly’s childhood seems to be reflected in the form of his theorizing as well as its content’. That is, the agentive capacity Kelly ascribes to individuals in our ability to construct our own knowledge and our capacity to re-shape personal constructs to open up greater freedom and self-determination through greater awareness and self-correction of inconsistencies, made possible for instance by clinical therapeutic repertory grid techniques, can be seen to connect to such roots.

While Kelly’s contributions to psychology theory were recog-nized by central figures including Bruner, he died suddenly in 1967, after having established himself in academia in the late 1950s, first at Fort Hays Kansas State College, then Ohio State University and ultimately at Brandeis University where in 1965 he had taken up an endowed chair at the invitation of Abraham Maslow (Fransella and Neimeyer, 2005). By then he had taken on leadership roles in the American Psychological Association, and had cultivated a devoted cohort of graduate students who

went on to advance his original work in the U.S. and in Europe. His work is now seen as having been eclipsed by the cognitive revolution in the field of psychology (perhaps in part due to his untimely death), but his theory still sees a following, particu-larly in the UK among clinicians who adhere to more experien-tial constructivist techniques.

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Kuhlthau and personal construct the-oryPersonal construct theory has influenced scholarship in a range of domains and disciplines including information science, clini-cal psychology, educational psychology, organizational develop-ment and market research. Kelly’s work has strongly influenced information scientist Carol Kuhlthau’s information search proc-ess model (1993, 2004), as well as her guided inquiry model and design techniques for school librarianship instruction (Kuhlthau, Maniotes & Caspari, 2007, 2012).

Kuhlthau first encountered the theory during her doctoral edu-cation in the 1970s at Rutgers University when she was consider-ing the interplay of information seeking and learning phenom-ena. The theory was included in the reading list of an educa-tional psychology PhD seminar offered at the Graduate School of Education, and Kuhlthau found the cognitive construction processes described in Kelly’s theory to be germane to her obser-vations of information users in the library and school library contexts she was investigating at the time (personal communica-tion, November, 2012). Her dissertation (1983) cites Kelly in the literature review, outlining Kelly’s fundamental postulate and corollaries, and linking each of the main principles of the theory with hypothetical phases of the search process, which

Section 3

The application of personal construct theory in information science

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she then goes on to investigate and report upon in the empirical thesis study.

Kuhlthau’s subsequent career scholarship on the information search process essentially positions information seeking as a process of knowledge construction. She draws upon construct theory to help explain the constructive process she sees information users en-gaging in, to build knowl-edge and derive meaning from their inquiry. She states,

it is the individual for-mulation of a personal perspective or focus from the information gathered to create some-thing new, at least for oneself, that fits with the notion of construc-tion” (Kuhlthau, 1983: 4).

Kuhlthau’s work was unique at the time, in bringing in learning theory perspectives to enhance the field's discourse on informa-tion behaviour.

Kuhlthau’s 2004 book Seeking meaning summarizes the theo-retical underpinnings of her work, which were outlined in ear-

lier texts (e.g., 1983, 1993). Chapter 2, ‘Learning as process’, ref-erences Dewey, Kelly, and Bruner. She examines each theory and identifies the areas of relevance to information seeking in particular. In Dewey she draws upon the ideas of construction through acting and reflecting, and one’s capacity to transfer knowledge, situating information search in the second, intellec-

tualization phase of Dewey's five-phase model of reflective thinking: the stage at which a learner conceptualizes a problem. She then builds upon Kelly’s conceptualiza-tion of individuals’ capac-ity for ongoing person-al development and learn-ing through personal con-struct evolution (1993, 2004). She cites the role of prediction in Kelly's

work as being central to the construction process, in that predic-tion leads to action, which confirms or rejects the construct.

Kelly’s “holistic” approach to human psychology described ear-lier (Kelly, 1963: 130) is modelled by Kuhlthau in her develop-ment of the information search process, in that she conceptual-izes information seeking processes as occurring across the three

Figure 1: Kuhlthau’s model of the information search process

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diverse dimensions of cognition, affect and behaviour. In this way, she again offered a contribution to the field at the time, in considering the interplay of thinking and feeling, as co-operating dimensions of learning not typically addressed in the more cognitive information processing models of information behaviour of the 1980s. Figure 1 presents Kuhlthau’s model as a reference point, and how these three holistic domains operate across the model’s phases. Studies of the process in the work-place have revealed that in more complex tasks, where the goal requires considerable information-seeking, construction and learning, people are likely to experience the process as de-scribed in the model (Kuhlthau, 1999).

Uncertainty principle

Kuhlthau’s uncertainty principle (1993, 2004) may be the di-mension of her scholarship in which we see the most direct in-fluence from Kelly. Kuhlthau (1993) outlines and presents evi-dence for the uncertainty principle in the Journal of Documen-tation (1993), proposing that uncertainty which is due to a lack of understanding, a gap in meaning, or a limited construct, initi-ates the process of information seeking (1993). Kuhlthau (2004: 20) states that when Kelly ‘describes an individual’s experience within the process of construction, a dynamic, uncertain proc-ess is revealed’. She states ‘when [Kelly] depicts people work-ing through the process by a series of choices from alterna-

tives, these choices are anything but obvious and straightfor-ward, particularly in the early phases” (2004: 20). In this way, Kuhlthau maintains her position on the role of affect in in-formation behaviour; she states ‘the affective experience of the user is likely to have a profound effect on the process of con-struction’ (2004: 25).

Kuhlthau (1993) discusses uncertainty as a cognitive state that causes affective symptoms of anxiety and lack of confidence. Kuhlthau (1993) notes that, in the early phases of the search process, individuals may hold vague, unclear thoughts about a topic or question that elicits these symptoms.  She indicates that as knowledge states shift to more clearly focused thoughts as one moves through the process, a parallel shift occurs in feel-ings of increased confidence. 

In outlining the premises of the uncertainty principle, Kuhlthau (1993) takes a formatting cue from Kelly, presenting it as a set of corollaries, restated below. Like Kelly, she thus highlights the role of confusion, doubt and possible threat that exist especially in the early phases of knowledge construction, and the anxiety and difficulty inherent to the process of personal construct change.

1.  Process corollaryThe process of information seeking involves construction in which the person actively pursues understanding and meaning from the information encountered over a period of time.  The

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process is commonly experienced in a series of thoughts and feelings that shift from vague and anxious to clear and confi-dent, as the search progresses.

2. Formulation corollary Formulation is thinking, developing an understanding and ex-tending and defining a topic from the information encountered in the early stages of a search.  The formulation of a focus or a guiding idea is a critical, pivotal point in the ISP when a general topic becomes clearer and a particular perspective is formed as the person moves from uncertainty to understanding.

3. Redundancy corollary The interplay of seeking what is expected or redundant and en-countering what is unexpected or unique results in an underly-ing tension of the ISP.  Redundant information fits into what the user already knows and is readily recognized as being rele-vant or not.  Unique information is new and extends knowledge and does not match the person’s constructs requiring recon-struction to be recognized as useful.  Too much redundant infor-mation leads to boredom, whereas too much unique informa-tion causes anxiety.  The lack of redundancy in the early stages of the ISP may be an underlying cause of anxiety related to un-certainty. Uncertainty may decrease as redundancy increases.

4. Mood corollary Mood, a stance or attitude that the person assumes, opens or closes the range of possibilities in a search.  According to Kelly,

an invitational mood leads to expansive, exploratory actions, whereas an indicative mood fosters conclusive actions that lead to closure.  The person’s mood is likely to shift during the ISP.  An invitational mood may be helpful in the early stages and an indicative mood in the later stages. A person in an invitational mood would tend to take more expansive, exploratory actions, while a user in an indicative mood prefers conclusive actions that lead to closure.

5. Prediction corollary The ISP is a series of personal choices based on the person’s pre-dictions of what will happen if a particular action is taken.  Peo-ple make predictions derived from constructs built on past expe-rience about what sources, information and strategies will be relevant and effective. These predictions lead to the choices they make in the stages of the ISP.  People develop expectations and make predictions about the sources used or not used, the sequence of source use, and the information selected from the sources as relevant or irrelevant. Relevance is not absolute or constant but varies considerably from person to person.

6. Interest Corollary Interest increases as the exploratory inquiry leads to formula-tion in the ISP.  Motivation and intellectual engagement inten-sify along with construction.  Personal interest may be expected to increase as uncertainty decreases. The person’s interest and motivation grows as the search progresses.  Interest is higher in later stages after the person has formed a focus and has enough

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understanding of the topic to become intellectually engaged.  (Kuhlthau, 1993: 345)

The redundancy and prediction corollaries above present clear linkages to Kelly’s fundamental postulate of anticipation. Kuhlthau (2004: 21) indicates that Bruner, too, sees prediction or expectancy as an important component in recognizing the re-dundancy of information, ‘whereas uniqueness places our sys-tem on alert, and there is a limit to how much new information we can take’. Uniqueness is high and redundancy low in the early phases, when thoughts are vague and unfocused. One wants to avoid introducing too much uniqueness (or redun-dancy for that matter) in any phase.

Kuhlthau and Kelly’s conceptualizations are shown to be further interwoven in a discussion of the information search process Kuhlthau presents on her faculty webpage, as follows.

Kelly describes the emotional experience of constructing meaning from new information. The information is assimilated in a series of phases, beginning with confusion. Confusion increases as incon-sistencies and incompatibilities are confronted between the infor-mation and the constructs the person already holds. As confusion mounts, it frequently causes doubt in the ability to assimilate the new information. The disruption caused by the new ideas may be-come so threatening that the new information is discarded and construction abandoned. At this point, Kelly proposes another al-ternative to move the process of construction along. The person may form a tentative hypothesis to move toward incorporating

the new construct into the existing system of personally held con-structs (http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~kuhlthau/information_search_process.htm,

While Kelly’s original work does not identify new ideas encoun-tered by the individual as information, per se, it is clear to see how, in coming to his text from an information behaviour per-spective, Kuhlthau equates the two concepts. When individuals form a new anticipatory hypothesis, as discussed in the quote above, Kelly’s work indicates that the individual then may choose to test it towards future situations or actions, a process that opens up alternative possibilities for learning, meaning-making and new construct development. Kuhlthau (2004) cites Kelly’s concept of elaborative choice, which is a choice that broadens understanding, to represent this hypothesis genera-tion and testing process, in which new information plays a driv-ing role. The stakes here appear to be high, in that abandoning construction due to confusion and doubt can impede integra-tion and growth, whereas making a broadening elaborative choice (daring to explore and experiment) can expand one’s ho-rizons. A view towards the potential role of scaffolding and inter-vention in this process is starting to emerge.

Kelly’s influence on Kuhlthau’s prac-tice models

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Kuhlthau states that like other practice-based scholarly fields, theory informs practice in library science, allowing the practitio-ner to “base practice on general principles rather than depend-ing solely on hunches and intuition” (2004: xv). The uncer-tainty principle article (1993) sets the stage for Kuhlthau and colleagues’ most recently published guided inquiry and guided inquiry design models, which specifies the role that practitio-ners can play in supporting information users as they proceed through the phases of the search process. It is during phases of uncertainty, in particular, in which practitioners can offer inter-ventions that increase the likelihood of one’s successful manage-ment, processing and integration of novel constructs.

Kuhlthau views the information and library practitioner as one who, with proper training such as that specified in the guided inquiry model (2007), can guide and support users through the phases of the search process to support their knowledge con-struction. She and colleagues state that a constructive process of learning in the library requires services that enable individu-als to relate new information to what they already know and ex-tend that knowing to form new understandings (2007: 5). Her applied model for practice is targeted largely towards the school librarian, whose role is specialized towards more formalized support of student learning and knowledge construction than that of the generalist librarian. The practice model is outlined initially in the book, Guided inquiry (Kuhlthau, et al., 2007), and then articulated in a more detailed prescribed set of instruc-

tional design principles and activities in Guided inquiry design (Kuhlthau, et al., 2012). The latter includes lesson plans, graphic organizers and other supports to help school librarians scaffold and structure students’ experiences engaging in infor-mation search process.

The authors describe guided inquiry as ‘a practical way of im-plementing an inquiry approach that addresses these 21st-century learning needs for students (Kuhlthau, et al., 2007). They recommend a three-member core team to plan and super-vise the inquiry, with an extended team of other experts joining in when they are needed (2007). Kuhlthau and Maniotes (2010) suggest that in a constructivist guided inquiry-type learn-ing environment, the instructional team adopts an observa-tional perspective, to teach and assess learners as well as to no-tice when a learning need arises. They recommend the follow-ing intervening measures, wherein we also see the influence of Kelly.

When the team observes confusion and uncertainty, they need to be ready to intervene. For example, when students get frustrated in the exploring stage, they need to be encouraged to take time to read and reflect, as well as guided in making sense of information and strategies for working through the learning process. Provid-ing targeted intervention in each stage of the inquiry process deep-ens students' learning experiences. Through an accumulation of these timely experiences in the learning process, students learn to recognize changes in their feelings and thoughts. They learn "how

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to learn" in a lasting and transferable way from a variety of sources. (Kuhlthau and Maniotes, 2010)

These practice-based texts are being adopted by programmes of school librarianship training, including at Rutgers University, where students are encouraged to initiate guided inquiry mod-els of team teaching when hired by schools post-training. Re-search has indicated that in schools adopting these approaches, such teamwork contributes positively to the overall learning cli-mate and school culture, quality of the pedagogy of participat-ing teachers, and learning outcomes of students (Todd, et al., 2011).

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Besides its clear influence on Kuhlthau’s project, a small num-ber of additional research studies have also been identified in the information sciences, in which personal construct theory has been directly applied. Hunter, Caputi and Tan (2012) offer a summary of the theory’s contribution to theoretical perspectives on information systems, and discuss how the repertory grid technique has been applied in several studies that aim to under-stand information system uses by end users.

The authors provide an overview of the theory, and move into a discussion of how the repertory grids technique has proven ap-plicable in a range of information systems research studies. The repertory grid method generates rich qualitative narrative data documenting the research participant’s explanations in the form of interview notes and transcripts, which can be useful to researchers working to understand the thoughts and percep-tions of actors. Hunter, Caputi and Tan state that if

the researcher wants to attempt to understand why a research participant thinks about a topic in a particular way, it becomes incumbent upon the researcher to delve into the meanings that a participant attributes to the concepts employed to describe their thinking (Hunter et al., 2012: 2).

They cite three studies in which the repertory grids technique has been applied to investigate various aspects of user knowl-edge acquisition in relation to the development of expert sys-tems. These studies are Botten, et al. (1989), Latta and Swigger

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(1992) and Phythian and King (1992). They then further summa-rize previously published findings from co-author Hunter and colleagues’ research employing the repertory grid technique to investigate the skills of excellent systems analysts (Hunter 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999; Hunter and Beck 1996a, b, 2000). The authors (2012) highlight the usefulness of the repertory grid in interviews in Hunter’s previous informa-tion systems research, and also present examples from Napier et al. (2009) who used the repertory grid technique while inter-viewing practicing information technology project managers in order to identify skills that successful project managers demon-strate as well as to explore any distinct skill patterns that repre-sent archetypes. They indicate that eliciting an understanding of participants’ personal constructs through the repertory grid’s laddering technique can lead to findings that aid in theory-building (Hunter, et al., 2012). This direct application of Kelly’s repertory grids method is a unique contribution.

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Kuhlthau continues to maintain her position as one of the most often-cited scholars in the field of information science. In this chapter, we have outlined ways in which Kelly’s personal con-struct theory underpins Kuhlthau’s model of the information search process and uncertainty principles, resonating through-out her scholarship, from theory to applied practice models. Kuhlthau’s unique contribution to scholarship in information science stands in her conceptualization of human information behaviour as a constructive process of knowledge building and learning. The influence of Kelly is seen in the holistic approach she takes by including cognition, affect and behaviour in the search process, and in explicating the role of uncertainty from the information user perspective. Further, the therapeutic role of a clinician in the application of a repertory grid technique in personal construct theory is in some ways mirrored in the inter-vening and supportive role of the library practitioner in Kuhlthau’s guided inquiry model.

While Kelly’s theory was largely supplanted by the cognitive revolution and his theory is not frequently cited nowadays, as recently as September, 2012, the academic journal Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry published an article entitled “Still radical after all these years: George Kelly's The psychology of personal constructs” (Winter, 2012). The work hails Kelly’s theory and repertory grid technique as a perspective to be revis-ited by today’s psychotherapists and clinicians who may feel

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hemmed in by work in mental health settings dominated by quick-fix, cognitive-behavioural approaches. The article lauds the more humanistic personal construct theory for its emphasis on one’s individual and personal agency to anticipate the future, revise one’s constructs, and construct new possibilities.

Winter (2012) closes with a poignant quote from Kelly (1963: 63), which we restate here:

We take the stand that there are always some alternative construc-tions available to choose among in dealing with the world. No one needs to paint himself into a corner; no one needs to be completely hemmed in by circumstances; no one needs to be the victim of his biography.

Whether addressing information behaviour from theoretical or applied standpoints, Kuhlthau and Kelly both offer perspectives of optimism in human potential to construct new meaning. In-formation plays a key role in this process, and revisiting these literatures elicits in the author the conclusion that a human de-velopment perspective towards information behaviour may war-rant continued consideration.

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Introductory worksFransella, F. (2005). The essential practitioner's handbook of personal construct psy-chology.  Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons.

Kelly, G. A. (1963).  A theory of personality: the psychologyof personal constructs. (2nd. ed.). New York, NY: Norton.

Kuhlthau, C. C. (2004). Seeking meaning: a processapproach to library and information services. (2nd ed.). Westport, CT: Libraries Un-limited.

Kuhlthau, C. C. (1993). A principle of uncertainty forinformation seeking. Journal of Documentation, 49(4), 339-355.

ReferencesBannister, D. (1966). A new theory of personality. In B. Foss (Ed.) New horizons in psychology. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin.

Bannister, D. & Fransella, F. (1986). Inquiring man: the psychology of personal con-structs. (3rd ed.). London: Croom Helm.

Bell, R. (2005), The repertory grid technique. In F. Fransella, (Ed.) The essential practitioner’s hand-book of personal construct psychology. (pp. 67-75) Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons.

Botten, N., Kusiak, A., & Raz, T. (1989). Knowledge bases: Integration, verification and partitioning. European Journal of Operations Research, 42(2), 1.

Bruner, J.S. (1956). You are your constructs. Contemporary Psychology, 1 (12), 355-7.

Feist, J., & Feist, G. J. (2008). Theories of personality. (7th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.

Fransella, F. (2005). The essential practitioner's handbook of personal construct psy-chology. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons.

Fransella, F. & Neimeyer, R.A. (2005). George Alexander Kelly: The man and his the-ory. In Fransella, F (Ed.) The essential practitioner's handbook of personal construct psychology. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons.

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Introductory works and references

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Fransella, F., Bell, R, & Bannister, D. (2004). A manual for repertory grid technique. (2nd ed.). Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons.

Hunter, M.G., Caputi, P. & Tan, F.B. (2012). Employing personal construct theory to understand information systems: A practical guide for researchers. In Y.K. Dwivedi et al. (eds.), Information Systems Theory: Explaining and Predicting Our Digital Society, Vol. 2, Integrated Series in Information Systems 29. NYC: Springer.

Kelly, G. A. (1963). A theory of personality: the psychology of personal constructs. (2nd. ed.). New York, NY: Norton.

Kuhlthau, C. C. (1993). A principle of uncertainty for information seeking. Journal of Documentation, 49(4), 339-355.

Kuhlthau, C. C. (2004). Seeking meaning: a process approach to library and infor-mation services, 2nd edition. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.

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Kuhlthau, C., Maniotes, L., & Caspari, A. (2012). Guided inquiry design: a frame-work for inquiry in your school. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.

Kuhlthau, C. (1983). The library research process: case studies and interventions with high school seniors in advanced placement English classes using Kelly's theory of constructs. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Rutgers University, New Bruns-wick, NJ, USA.

Kuhlthau, C. & Maniotes, L. K. (2010). Building guided inquiry teams for 21st-century learners. School Library Monthly, 26(5), accessed online 4/15/13 from http://www.schoollibrarymonthly.com/articles/kuhlthau&maniotes2010-v26n5p18.html

Latta, G. F., & Swigger, K. (1992). Validation of the repertory grid for use in model-ling knowledge. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 42(2), 115–129.

Mancuso, J. C. (Ed.) (1970). Readings for a Cognitive Theory of Personality. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Neimeyer, R.A. (1985). The development of personal construct psychology. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.

Phythian, G. J., & King, M. (1992). Developing an expert system for tender enquiry evaluation: A case study. European Journal of Operations Research, 56 (1), 15–29.

Piaget. (1973). To understand is to invent: The future of education. New York: Gross-man Publishers.

Todd, R.J., Gordon, C.A. & Lu, Y. (2011). One common goal: student learning. Execu-tive summary of findings and recommendations of the New Jersey school library sur-vey phase 2. Report of the Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries. Retrieved 2 January, 2013 from http://cissl.rutgers.edu/images/stories/docs/njasl_phase%20_2_final.pdf. (Ar-chived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/6FYq5v1G1)

Winter DA (2012). Still radical after all these years: George Kelly's “The psychology of personal constructs”. Clinical child psychology and psychiatry. 18(2):276-83.