ABSTRACT
In this chapter I will discuss two major patterns of response to experience: opening responses and closing responses. Opening responses entail nonjudgemental acceptance of one's experiences pretty much as they are. Closing responses aim to interpret or organize those experiences on the basis of one's existing theories and constructs, and thereby close off aspects of the experience that do not coincide with those theories and constructs. Because the term 'closing' may have a somewhat negative connotation in comparison to 'opening', I prefer to use the term 'constructive' to point to the active process by which people construe their responses to their current experiences on the basis of their past experiences and expectations of future events.
