The Program Papers and Workshops Plenaries and Symposia Lifetime Achievement Award The Participants The Schedule

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Crockett's Role Category Questionnaire was completed by 40 couples (40 men, 40 women). A significant correlation was found between partners in terms of their overall cognitive complexity scores (r = 0.58, p < 0.001). This finding was interpreted in terms of the individuality and sociality corollaries of personal construct theory.

Writing embodied research is about putting our writing practices in the human sciences into question. How do we write research texts that reveal the emotionality, positionality, reflexivity and dialogical nature of the research process? How do we re-embody our research texts and move toward interactional forms of representation? And why do we want to? Why is it important to the enterprise of human science research?

The purpose of this study is to investigate students' preference for rationalist versus constructivist psychotherapy and the role of language in counseling with bilingual Hispanic students. Constructivist orientations are expected to be related to more metaphorical interventions, particularly in contexts where English is a second language. 

This presentation offers a constructivist approach to sexual desire difficulties in women by encouraging in-depth exploration of sexual meanings and their impact on sexual desire.   The concepts of holonic constructivist sex therapy are presented as a scheme for mapping problematic sexual desire in a way that permits integration with other constructivist approaches to therapy.

This paper presents a qualitative investigation to understand and describe the transformational nature of interpersonal experiences that have contributed to the formation of positive attitudes toward gay men, among heterosexual individuals. Exploring this question has social implications by helping to understand how people are continuously constructing and changing their realities to transcend societal norms and overcome prejudices.

This paper examines the implications of affirmative appropriations of "deviant" sexualities from a Personal Construct Perspective.  It is argued that the construction of self can only be impoverished when derived from an externally manufactured role, however enlightened or liberal that role may appear.

Practitioners frequently complain that constructivists and contextualists are long on theory but short on practical guidelines. In this workshop, I discuss concrete techniques and conceptual tools that have served me well in the consulting room, including constructs that I have found useful to teach directly to clients.

Continuing the tradition of recent constructivism conferences, the presenter will lead a PhiloCafe related to constructivism within a casual environment. The exact topic will be selected by those attending. 

This session held at "The Gilded Otter," a wonderful local restaurant and micro-brewery that is an easy five minute walk from the SUNY New Paltz campus. Chicken wings, pizza, and nachos will be provided!

Constructivism has provided a useful framework for conceptualizing the long-term effects of childhood sexual abuse, the family context in which it can occur, and subsequent therapeutic processes.  This paper will review theoretical and empirical contributions to understanding abuse survivors' constructions of themselves and their world. 

This workshop introduces the narrative solutions approach developed by the presenters in their work at the Catskill Family Institute (CFI). This approach applies constructivist principles to the practical art of being helpful to people, focusing on how to bring out their best through planful conversation and how to mobilize creative solutions. The presenters will use clinical examples to demonstrate their approach.

Constructivism has been assumed to be dependent on verbal language. Recent research br Iverson and Thelin has shown that the relationship between gesture and verbal language are closely coordinated in the brain. Practical work will be experienced by members to clarify the significance between the words and gesture in communication.

Constructivist thinking about the nature of truth and the nature of science has real effects on how research is conducted and valued.  This presentation will focus on questions such as: "What are the links between constructivist thinking and new sciences?", "How can we promote new paradigms of human science research?", "What is the relationship between knowing and research?" and, ultimately, "What is science?"

This paper addresses the application of constructivist philosophy to the use of self-report scale methodology.  This study examined whether altering the linguistic presentation of items could significantly change the self-report of participants.  The results have ramifications for the use of self-report scales as a tool for expressing the human experience.

We evaluated a special program designed to encourage girls' participation in advanced mathematics and science courses. Women instructors taught  all-girl mathematics and science classes during grades 9 and 10. Girls in this program subsequently completed significantly more advanced science and mathematics courses than did coeducational male and female controls. 

Giambattista Vico “dared to challenge received views of a singular, stable, external reality known either by the senses or by reason” (Mahoney, 1988, p 16). Vico also proposed that  through social interactions, persons acquire categories (constructions)  that their reference groups had developed to tell a “good story” about putative “realities.”

Math anxiety has been the focus of a variety of research in the last 30 years, but there have been few comprehensive models to explain its phenomenology. By combining the notions of structural arrest, Leitner (1997), and Kellyian (1955) anxiety we can see the beginnings of a comprehensive constructivist model for conceptualizing math anxiety.

This paper explores how self-concept differentiation (SCD) and self-concept clarity (SCC) are relevant constructs for the African-American female population.  The researcher intends to demonstrate differentiation as an adaptive feature amidst many necessary roles for women, rather than a predictor or antecedent of psychological maladjustment as has been suggested in past research.

Case studies revealed user impressions of the repertory grid as a decision-making and problem solving aid.  Results indicated a beneficial experience with the grid on a number of variables.  Important practical issues are discussed in terms of the grid's utility for decisions and problems. 

This workshop will acquaint participants with the essential intervention strategies of Depth-Oriented Brief Therpay (DOBT) and Narrative Therapy approaches, and foster some familiarity with them through a blend of videotaped demonstrations, didactic presentation, and participant exercises. 

This paper draws attention to unscrutinized assumptions regarding the researcher's role as data owner.  We discuss the origin of these assumptions, as well as how they are implicit in current research ethics policies. We then discuss the negative consequences of these assumptions and conclude by presenting a constructivist approach to rethinking the researcher's relationship to participants and the data they provide.

Research has shown that African American women experience their bodies in a healthier fashion than their European American counterparts, and that these differences may be due to cultural differences. Results suggested that environment, rather than acculturation, was found to have a significant relationship with level of body satisfaction for the sample.

A constructivist perspective on the Rorschach is outlined. Ways the Rorschach can be adapted for use as part of pyramid and laddering procedures, the self-confrontation method, narrative solutions work, and social constructionist therapy are discussed.

Participants will be introduced to the basic tenets of Systemic Cognitive-Developmental Supervision (SCDS), and to two core techniques that can be used to augment their current supervision approach.

This paper will review narratives of traumatic events from a Personal Construct framework.  It will compare clinical content analyses of trauma narratives to previously used computerized word count programs, for more sensitive and theoretically relevant assessment of personal responses to traumatic events and beneficial aspects of written trauma disclosure.

The study examined whether personal construals of nonviolence vary systematically according to "conceptual systems."  A total of 100 adults from diverse fields of study were rated for stage of conceptual functioning using Harvey's "This I Believe" test.  Data from a RepGrid designed to represent crucial dimensions of nonviolence were analyzed through FOCUS.

In the "restorative justice" movement conflicts are seen as property belonging to the adversaries; not to be arrogated by
lawyers or health professionals (labeling offensive behaviour "illness" or "disorder"). One such approach, from Australia, will be described in detail, emphasizing the remarkable transformations in group affects that may take place. 

This paper aims to extend Kelly's views on the validation cycle (involving validation and invalidation) and the metaphor of the scientist by proposing that nonvalidation strategies are also frequently adopted.  The implications of nonvalidation for theory and practice are explored. 

Kelly took a somewhat radical view of "applied psychology," arguing that our understanding of human behaving should start from the manner in which human beings actually engage with the world. This paper explores the personal construct psychology view of applied psychology, and the implications of it for fields such as health and education.

Research has shown that measures of self-concept using personal constructs are more strongly related to a criterion than are measures using conventional constructs. Also, studies have used personal constructs to test theories of self-consistency, self-enhancement, and self-discrepancy, demonstrating the reliability and validity of this method.

Chair: Franz Epting, University of Florida

Vivien Burr and Trevor Butt, University of Huddersfield
Making a Difference

John Shotter, University of New Hampshire
At the Boundaries of Being: Refiguring Intellectual Inquiry

Robert A. Neimeyer, University of Memphis
Embracing Multiphrenia: Toward a Post-Kellian Constructivism

What does the future hold for constructivist approaches to psychology? The participants of this session grapple with this issue and offer some ideas about the directions in which they would like to see constructivist, constructionist, and narrative psychologies move in the new millennium. 

Chair: Jonathan D. Raskin, SUNY New Paltz

Larry Leitner, Miami University, and April J. Faidley, Flagstone Psychology, LLP
Disorder, Diagnoses, and the Struggles of Humanness

Sheila McNamee, University of New Hampshire
The Social Construction of Disorder: From Pathology to Potential

Vivien Burr and Trevor Butt, University of Huddersfield
Psychological Disorders: Discovered or Invented?

Presenters will compare constructivist and constructionist critiques and alternatives to the DSM conception of mental disorder. The question posed: Do constructivists and constructionists have anything in common in their critiques of DSM diagnosis and their respective approaches to problems-in-living?

Chair: Trevor Butt, University of Huddersfield

Vivien Burr, University of Huddersfield
The Extra-discursive in Social Constructionism

Trevor Butt, University of Huddersfield
The Construction of the Erotic

Kenneth W. Sewell, University of North Texas
The Experience Cycle and the Sexual Response Cycle: Conceptualization and Application to Sexual Dysfunction

David M. Mills, Seattle, WA
A Kinesthetic of the Unknown

In this symposium, we bring a psychological perspective to bear on the body-subject. We attempt to understand the intentionality and practical knowledge of this embodied person in broadly constructivist terms.

Chair: Larry Leitner, Miami University

Linda Endres, Miami University
Experiential Personal Construct Psychotherapy with an Adolescent

Derek C. Oliver, Miami University
Experiential Personal Construct Psychotherapy with a Family

Amberly Reid Panepinto, Miami University
Experiential Personal Construct Psychotherapy with a College Student

Sally Phillips, Miami University
Experiential Personal Construct Psychotherapy with a Graduate Student

EPCP addresses the process by which individuals engage in and assign meaning to interpersonal relationships; such meaning-making can be construed along three axes (Leitner, Faidley, & Celantana, 2000). We will present four case studies conceptualized upon these axes. The therapies of two adolescents, an adult, and a family will be discussed.

Chair: Adam M. Lewandowski, The Center for Youth

Caroline M. Stanley, SUNY New Paltz
Abnormality: Does It Define Us or Do We Define It?

Susanne Lake, SUNY New Paltz
Meaning in Auditory Hallucinations

Discussant: Jonathan D. Raskin, SUNY New Paltz

Conceptual and practical issues concerning constructivist perspectives on abnormality will be discussed. After addressing whether definitions of abnormality are constructed or discovered, compulsive eating and auditory hallucinations will be analyzed from a meaning-based orientation.

Chair: Michael F. Mascolo, Merrimack College

Michael F. Mascolo, Janet Kimball, and Louise Boucher, Merrimack College
Selves in Transition: Narrating the Dramas of Everyday Life

Robin Pearce, Boston University
Rushmore: A Storied Place

David Vogel, New Hampshire Hospital and Leigh McCollough, Harvard Medical School
Gee Whiz!  Everybody's a Critic

Discussant: TBA

Why does literature seem to reveal more about the human condition than much academic psychology? Where psychologists often strive for objective and reductive descriptions of discrete processes, literature offers interpretive accounts of whole persons interacting over time. This symposium explores ways to develop narrative analyses human action over time without compromising traditional concerns for precision.

Franz Epting will be honored for his lifetime achievements in personal construct psychology. Several of his colleagues and former students will speak. Franz also will be presented an official award from NAPCN. Greg Neimeyer will "MC" the festivities.