ABSTRACT
Personal construct theory differs from personality theories centred on the ‘self in that the self is seen as a construct along with all other constructs, albeit a very important one. The former approach exploits the person’s conviction that part of their behaviour is alien to them by encapsulating the problem in the medical model. A person can see themselves as a stutterer in the context of talking to people, but in more general contexts they see themselves as quite different from the group of ‘stutterers’. There is some suggestion that a person’s choice of symptom could be related to how they see themselves in relation to others. Clinical work by personal construct psychologists using forms of grid has thrown up much that is problematic for the individual about the ideal self. C. Stefan defines persons from a construct theory viewpoint as either experimenters or non-experimenters.
