An investigation into variables affecting self-change on personal constructs

This study investigated the relationship between the anticipation of change, construct meaningfulness, construct differentiation, and the amount of change occurring on personal constructs over a six-week period. The anticipation of change was defined as the degree of change the subject expected to occur over the six-week time period. The anticipation of change was positively related to the amount of change that occurred in the construing of the self. Construct meaningfulness was defined as the importance of the construct for understanding the self. There was a negative relationship between construct meaningfulness and the amount of change that occurred over the six-week interval. Construct differentiation was defined in terms of the relationship between constructs. A less differentiated construct has relationships with many other constructs; a more differentiated construct is more independent of other constructs. Although self-change was more likely to occur on more differentiated constructs, this relationship decreased to near zero when the effects of anticipating change and construct meaningfulness were controlled. In summary, self-change is most likely to occur on constructs on which the person sees change as likely, which are less important to the person, and are more independent of other constructs.