Running head: A JOURNEY THROUGH MY PERSONALITY 1

A Journey Through My Personality: Tori’s Truth

Victoria Hunter

Catawba College

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of Psychology 3380, Psychology of

Personality

November 24, 2020

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A Journey Through My Personality: Tori’s Truth

There are many different theorists who address personality. Two important theorists are

Carl Rogers and George Kelly. They both have different perspectives on personality and would

have a different view on my life. I will be explaining the multiple aspects of my life as well as

my milestones in my life. I will be analyzing my own personality through the eyes of Rogers and

Kelly and elaborating about what I have learned about myself through them.

Carl Rogers created the Person-Centered Theory which argues for a very optimistic view

of humans and a basis of growth towards our ideal self. Rogers discusses the responsibility it is

of an individual to reach self-actualization. One of the most important things that must happen in

order to reach self-actualization is congruency. People need to be in a state of growth and

working towards their goals to become their ideal self. The Person-Centered Theory is a unique

theory that contributes greatly to personality development.

There are seven core assumptions about this theory which focuses on the articulation of

the formative tendency vs the actualizing tendency, maintenance and enhancement, growth, self-

concept vs organismic self, the ideal self, incongruency vs congruency, and awareness. The

formative tendency refers to the idea that humans grow from simple to complex throughout their

lifetime whereas actualizing tendency is where humans are striving to move towards

completeness and wholeness; to become a fully functioning person. Maintenance and

enhancement are places within your journey, either stagnant or moving, although you go through

each of these at different parts of your journey. Growth is an important assumption because

Roger’s theory focuses on the idea that humans can grow to be their most ideal self and reach

self-actualization. Self-concept is what we actually know about ourselves whereas organismic

self is what we don’t know and what we do know. The ideal self is who you strive to be, the best
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version of yourself. Incongruency is whenever a person’s self-image is different than the

person’s ideal self, there is very little overlap which makes it difficult to achieve self-

actualization. Congruency occurs whenever a person’s self-image is similar to the person’s ideal

self, there is more overlap between the two, this person can self-actualize. Awareness refers to

how people view the experiences that happen to them. All of these assumptions are a big part of

Rogers’s theory, which argues that people strive toward wholeness as a person; only you know

when you are truly whole.

The Person-Centered theory has a positive view of humans. It says that humans desire to

achieve self-actualization and that humans should be capable of understanding themselves well

enough to know what makes them happy and what does not in order to be able to achieve self-

actualization (Sousa, 2014). According to Sousa (2014), Rogers “sees people as socialized and

forward-moving, as striving to become fully functioning, and as having at the deepest core a

positive goodness. In short, people are to be trusted, and, as they are basically cooperative and

constructive, there is no need to control their aggressive impulses” (Sousa, 2014). Overall,

Rogers theory views humans as having their own capacity to grow and change; every individual

is responsible for growth and achievement of self-actualization within themselves.

There are six basic tenets about personality development within the Person-Centered

Theory (Rogers, 2007). The first tenet is that two people have to be in a psychological

relationship. Being in a psychological relationship does not require that the relationship has to be

out of the ordinary, it can be a relationship that happens in everyday life; similar to friendships

(Rogers, 2007). The second tenet is that the client has to be incongruent. As defined earlier,

incongruency refers to when people’s self-image does not align with their ideal self. The

individual has a hard time achieving self-actualization which leads to the third tenet. The third
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tenet requires that the therapist has to be congruent. Congruency is important because the

therapist has to be able to be truly open and honest about themselves with the client, being open

and honest about themselves can help show the client exactly what congruency looks like; what

they are striving to be. The fourth tenet requires that the therapist has an unconditional positive

regard for the client. Which means that the therapist accepts the client without any conditions.

The fifth tenet requires that the therapist has to be empathetic to the client, allowing the therapist

to be able to connect with the client and understand the client fully. The last tenet is that the

client knows that the therapist is being empathetic and understanding of them which can be

shown through verbal or nonverbal communication. When all of these conditions are met then

there is then it will yield greater personality change within the client (Rogers, 2007).

The ultimate goal of Person-Centered therapy is to become a fully functioning person.

Roger’s theory also addresses a barrier to that goal: Conditions of Worth. Conditions of Worth

are the knowledge that you are loved, liked, or accepted only when you meet the expectations

that others have set for you. Personality development is diminished because people have lived

under these conditions of worth. They have not been able to express themselves fully for fear

that they will not be loved for who they really are. A great example of this is someone who has

decided their sexual orientation is gay and their family is against it to the point where they would

disown the child. The condition of worth in this scenario is that the child must be straight, if not,

they are not accepted by their family. Conditions of Worth breeches on their ability to become

the person they want to be and to self-actualize because they limit themselves in order to please

others due to conditions of worth. This goes back to the tenet that the therapist must have

positive regard for the client as opposed to conditions of worth in order for the client to be

themselves.
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Throughout one’s life, a person can become congruent through enhancement. Everyone’s

life is moving from simple to complex because of the different growth that occurs overtime

within the individual. There will be stages in life where they are doing maintenance while

awaiting the next step of their life, which is okay so long as they do not stay stagnant forever.

Overall, Rogers’s Person-Centered Theory has contributed ideas as to how a person can achieve

self-actualization through enhancement and that their personality manifests change in order to

achieve their ideal self-image.

In contrast to a theory that focuses on becoming a congruent person and argues that if

certain conditions are met, then a process will yield an outcome, we have the Personal Construct

Theory.

George Kelly’s Theory of Personal Constructs has an overall neutral view of humans,

depending on the individual, it would be either positive or negative. This theory focuses on the

need for humans to be willing to change, develop, and not remain stagnant in the idea of how

they wanted things to be like. The basic tenets about personality development according to this

theory is the eleven corollaries that go along with an individual’s basic postulate. The basic

postulate is that when a person’s processes are psychologically channelized by the ways in which

s/he anticipates events. An important aspect of this theory is a person’s constructs. A construct is

a schema; how you explain the world. All constructs are guided by anticipation of any future or

events. The Personal Construct theory is applied to maladaptive responses including threat,

anxiety, fear, and guilt, as well as being used in fixed role therapy.

George Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory has a view of humans that lays the

responsibility of your personality in your hands. Personality is your habitual behavior. You

cannot be inflexible according to George Kelly’s theory. It is important to be willing to

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reconstruct your constructs that you have for your life. Our personal experiences change our

constructions constantly throughout a lifetime and we are responsible for these changes (Chiari,

2013). Kelly (2003) says that the core assumption of this theory is that everything individuals

face (events) can be constructed into something new and that individuals should not be stuck on

one construct; we have to be willing to change or else we will not be happy. The other few basic

assumptions of this theory are that we interact with the world given our anticipation of events

and the meaning that we place on the events. We are guided by what we hope for in the future

and we plan for that, although, sometimes things happen, and we have to be willing to

reconstruct to find a new plan. We have to find a new plan through our behaviors and the view of

the world and ourselves. Construction is a personal affair, and we cannot base our own

constructions on the constructions of others (Kelly, 2003).

It is important to examine how the basic postulate works before explaining the different

corollaries within Kelly’s theory. The basic postulate begins with people, specifically, the things

about individuals that develop their personality. The basic postulate focuses on the psychological

aspect that states that as people, we have no other commitments to ourselves other than our

bodies chemistry and physiological needs (Kelly, 2003). There are eleven corollaries that are

based on this basic postulate. The eleven corollaries are construction, individuality, organization,

dichotomy, choice, range, experience, modulation, fragmentation, commonality, and sociality.

The construction corollary looks at an event and compares it to a previous encounter and see if

something similar has happened to you in the past, if so, you act accordingly. The individuality

corollary considers the fact that it is unlikely for anyone to have an identical experience,

therefore, all of your constructs are individually based. Organization corollary is the idea that all

of our constructs are related to each other (Kelly, 2003).

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The dichotomy corollary explains that we have many different constructs that are an

either-or type of situation as opposed to something that is fluid. Choice corollary occurs when

the person makes a choice from the dichotomous constructs made during the dichotomy

corollary. The range corollary suggests that realism is necessary for constructs; constructs cannot

apply to all situations; adaption is necessary. The experience corollary states that we change our

constructs based on our personal situations, through each experience, we have a better ability to

anticipate future events. The modulation corollary says that are constructs are easily changed

based on our new experiences (Kelly, 2003). For example, if you grow up in a small town with

very conservative views and you start college at a big liberal college, you will be introduced to

new ideas, different perspectives, and different religions. Due to your new college experience,

your constructs may change.

The fragmentation corollary leads to incompatible constructs that we use at different

times. The commonality corollary suggests that we like people who have constructs similar to us

because we can examine how they handle a situation based on the same construct and see how it

works out for them in the case that we endure the same situation at a later date. Sociality

corollary encourages us to try to relate to other people so that we can understand other people

(Kelly, 2003). This allows us to have new perspectives and view the world as someone else does.

All of the corollaries go along with the basic postulate that helps us create and reconstruct our

constructs.

Whenever we have constructs, we have maladaptive behavior. These behaviors include

us feeling threat, anxiety, fear, and guilt. Whenever we feel that our construct is being threatened

and we are not capable of adapting to another construct, we do not know what to do and wish to

get rid of the threat. If we do not adapt and cannot eliminate the threat, we will not be able to
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continue our personality development; we will be stuck in a state of unhappiness until we are

able to deal with the problem. Whenever we feel anxiety, we are worried about our construct

because it is no longer there. In this case, we do not know what to do and do not adapt to another

construct. Feeling as though our construct is not working is fear. Whenever we encounter that

fear, the two options are to reconstruct our current construct or to not move forward. With fear

being a maladaptive behavior, they are not able to go through reconstruction. Whenever you feel

guilt due to behaving outside of your usual construct, you feel as though you must reconsider

your construct. You feel guilty for not following your construct and think that this may lead to

punishment of some form; this could be an actual punishment or something to give back to the

world (Kelly, 2003). All of these maladaptive behaviors result in us becoming stagnant in our

personality development and leading to unhappiness because we are not able to be flexible with

our constructs.

Using Personal Construct Theory in Fixed Role Therapy (a psychotherapeutic approach)

allows us to take the role of another person in our relationship which leads people to

understanding each other whenever they have conflicting constructs. Using fixed role therapy

could ultimately help us characterize our relationship and define our own self construct more

clearly. Fixed Role Therapy would be helpful to use in an area such as marriage counseling

(Kelly, 2003).

A big critique regarding this theory is that it does not consider the role of affect in

construction. According to Chiari (2013), there is nothing that distinguishes cognitions and

emotions within the Personal Construct Theory. The reason that the role of affect in construction

is not part of this theory is because humans only commitment is to their body’s chemistry and

physiological needs. Therefore, our emotions are left behind when reconstructing. Another
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critique is that there is a “cold attitude of the therapist toward the client” (Chiari, 2013, p. 258).

This is important to recognize because whenever a client feels as though the therapist is not

being warm to the client, they are going to be less receptive of what the therapist has to say.

Even with these critiques, Kelly has managed to establish a theory that works with others.

Overall, according to Kelly, personality is based on the way that we view ourselves and

how we view the world. The world determines how we view our past experiences which will

eventually affect how we make decisions in the future. These types of decisions will ultimately

change our personality because we have to be fluid and ready to change our construct at any

given time if the event permits it. Otherwise, we will be stuck in the state of unhappiness while

our personality is not developing.

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I was born August 2nd, 2000 to a single mother who gave me up for adoption prior to my

birth because of her inability to care for me due to her criminal history. My adopted parents are

Christians and from the middle-class. We had a triple wide trailer located in China Grove, NC in

a quiet, nice, neighborhood. My parents also had two other children who were both adopted as

well because my mother was not capable of having children; she previous had five miscarriages.

I have two sisters, Alex and Casey. Alex is 27 years old and she is not biologically related to me,

however, Casey, who is 21 years old, is my half-sister; we have the same mother, but different

dad’s. My parents were excited to have adopted yet another child because my mother always

wanted to be a mom; it was her dream. Her parents were excited to have grandchildren as well,

however, my grandparents held prejudices about people who were of a different race. Whenever

I was born, I looked as though I was completely white. My mother says this is a blessing because

my grandparents already knew me and loved me by the time my pigment started to show.

Racist comments and actions have been prevalent throughout my life. In elementary

school, someone was scared of me and did not like me because of my skin color and how my

hair looked. They bit themselves and told the teacher that I did it in order to get me in trouble. In

middle school, someone looked at me from across the bleachers and yelled “what are you

looking at brownie?”, making a comment on my race. One of my friend’s sisters cried for a

whole day whenever she first met me because she had never been around anyone who was of a

different race. Even my sister has made comments such as these out of anger. We were riding the

bus home and she looks at me and says, “You’re nothing but a black chick”. These things have

all resonate with me because they have impacted how I view myself throughout the entirety of

my life.
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I was very successful in my education; I cannot remember a semester when I was not a

part of the honor role. I was put into the AIG (academically and intelligently gifted) program in

elementary school, the “SMART team” in middle school, and AP courses/dual enrollment

courses in high school. I never attended a private school throughout my time in grade school, my

parents could not afford it because of having three children. However, I was educated at great

public institutions: China Grove Elementary, China Grove Middle School, and Jesse C. Carson

High School. Due to my successes in school, it gave me the opportunity to attend college with

some scholarships to help me pursue my goals of being a therapist.

Throughout elementary school, there is nothing major that happened in my life worth

documenting. I went through the normal changes that every elementary schooler goes through,

doing different sports and figuring out the things that I liked. I played soccer (note to self: was

not very good), I was a cheerleader, and I was a dancer. I also learned how to play the guitar at

age ten. I had many different interests at such a young age and it helped me figure out things that

I actually enjoyed doing. The one thing that has continued since elementary school is my love for

guitar playing. My elementary school time was very easy for me and nothing significant really

happened. Middle school is where things started to get interesting; particularly eighth grade year.

Many things happened my eighth-grade year I had my first kiss, and I met my biological

mother for the first time. Both of these events influenced me dramatically. I had my first kiss in

November of 2013. This was an influential moment in my life because my first kiss was with a

girl; this started my journey to discovering my sexuality. I grew up in a Christian household and

have been taught that liking the same sex is wrong. After I had my first kiss, I wrestled with my

thoughts and emotions but, my feelings were undeniable. I liked a girl, her name was Montana.

We had a relationship that I hid from my parents for a while, however, one day my mother went
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through my phone in the middle of the night and she saw that we were together. It was ironic

because we went to go pick Montana up for church that morning. My mother wrestled with it for

a little bit and was more in shock because she did not know how to react about it. My mother

eventually expressed her emotions through yelling or forbidding me to see my new girlfriend.

After this, she sent me to the preacher’s office. It was an interesting encounter because he did not

say I was going to hell, he just talked with me about how I felt. My mother later came around to

me dating girls, unfortunately for her, by that time, I had started dating a guy. She was confused

and told me I could date girls, or I could date guys but, that she could not deal with both. Later

on, I entered a long-term relationship with a girl named Gabi, we were together for three and a

half years, we broke up my sophomore year of college. Whenever I started dating her, my

mother relaxed and learned that my sexuality was my own journey to encounter. I had officially

labeled myself as gay because I thought that that was it for me, I was with one girl for a long

time and thought that it was last, however, soon after we ended and after my heartbreak healed. I

met a guy named Lucas who immediately caught my attention. We started dating and have been

for sixth months. I have learned that my sexuality is not something that matters and that I should

be with someone who I love and who treats me well, regardless of their gender. I learned to not

let my sexuality define me, I still am who I am regardless of who I choose to date. My sexuality

was a long journey that began with that first kiss.

The second influential thing that occurred in middle school was meeting my biological

mother named Heather. I remember this like it was yesterday. Casey and I went together to

Heather’s mother’s house (our mom took us) and we met her for the first time. She was

astonished by how much we had grown up. Casey and I were nervous and did not really talk

much. We all went to each lunch. One of the most memorable things about that day is when we
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got back to the house and she dropped her tea and got really mad. She had anger issues just like

Casey. That did not matter though because I was so excited to meet her. After this encounter, it

got me thinking, why did she not want to change for me and Casey? I had researched her

multiple times prior to this encounter and found that she had criminal charges for drugs and

prostitution. I thought that it was crazy that she would choose to continue drugs and prostitution

as opposed to changing her life to be able to keep my sister and me. It was eventually something

that I let go, however, it is still something I think about. I see her maybe once a year now, which

is more than I thought was possible before. I am grateful for that.

Highschool had many trials for me as well. It started in nineth grade, I was eating a Casa

Grande and I felt like I had eaten too much; I went to the bathroom and forced myself to throw

up. This became a reoccurring thing throughout high school, along with not eating. I remember

going five days without eating anything and still forcing myself to throw up. It was not helpful

that my best friend also had an eating disorder. I did not know that I had an eating disorder. I just

knew that I was not happy with myself and that I looked at food as being the one thing that I

could control. My friend and my partner at the time went to the guidance counselor with a list of

my purges and what was happening. Then, I walked in and saw my mother sitting on the couch.

She knew everything. I had a doctor’s appointment that afternoon. They diagnosed me with

Bulimia and sent me to a hospital. I was only in the hospital for a few days. This experience was

very impactful in my life. While I was in the hospital, they forced me to eat and I was not

allowed to go to the bathroom until thirty minutes had passed after my meal. After I had been

hospitalized, I realized how bad my eating disorder actually was. I was put into therapy and my

therapist would come to my school once a week and I would be required to eat lunch with her

everyday in the guidance counselor’s office so that she could ensure that I would eat. She was a
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very nice therapist who was very impactful with my life experiences. She knew that I would

have to go to the bathroom but, she could not let me go alone so she would sneakily hide in the

atrium of my school to make sure I did not purge I tried to break the habit and would be

successful for a while, then something bad would happen and I would retreat to old ways. I’m

proud to say that I have not purged in a few years.

Soon after my sixteenth birthday, I applied for a job at Pizza Hut as a server. I worked

about five days a week and overtime I have applied myself and moved up the chain. I was

promoted to team trainer when I was seventeen and a few months after my eighteenth birthday, I

was promoted to management. I have been working there for four and a half years now; I would

like to think I have gained a lot of experience because of us.

The next significant milestone in my life was my high school graduation and starting

college. Graduation was something I had been looking forward to for a long time. I was nervous

about starting the next chapter in my life and it was overwhelming realizing that my high school

chapter had come to a close. Shortly after the Freshman Retreat at Catawba College, I realized it

would be okay. I met some friends, although only one of them I am still close to. That is Kim.

She has been in at least one of my classes every semester and we are very close, she is my best

friend. I am thankful to have made a close friendship in high school with someone I have

depended on.

Recently, the last milestone I have made is moving out. I moved out on October 30th,

2020. Kim, Chris, and I are now roommates in a cute duplex in Salisbury. This has given me a

level of independence that I have not had before. It has also given me more responsibility that I

feel as though I have handled very well. Right now, my life is going amazing.
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Throughout the course of my life, there are certain views and attitudes that I have. I

personally, would never smoke cigarettes. It is something I have always been against because it

is something that is dangerous to my body and I cannot stand the smell. I am still a Christian; I

just believe that love is love and that it is not my choice who other people want to be with. I am

also pro-choice. I do not approve of abortions but, I do understand that it is every woman’s

choice of what they want to do with their own body. I personally would not make that choice. I

think that there are some reasons why people may want to have an abortion that I can understand,

for example: if they were raped or if they were doing everything possible to prevent pregnancy.

At that point, the pregnancy is not due to their lack of responsibility. They took on the

responsibility of having safe sex or it was already out of their control. All of my other views I am

honestly not sure of because I have not thought long and hard about. However, I think other

people have the right to feel however they would like to about any situations as long as they are

not opposing on the rights of others.

Using OCEAN as a measure of personality, I am extremely open, conscientious, and

agreeable. I am very introverted, and I am not neurotic. I think that the reason I am open is

because I want to always be aware of other people’s opinion. I think that my attitudes regarding

abortion and about other people’s ideas are important. I do not feel like it is my place to impose

on other people’s beliefs and I am open to hearing them. I think that I am conscientious because I

like order. I like things always being in their place and my area to always be clean. I want to

make sure that my assignments are always turned in on time and that I have put my best effort

forth on the assignment. I think that I am aggregable because I do not like confrontation. I am

open to hearing other people’s perspectives and okay with that. I am extremely introverted. I do

not like having to talk to new people; Kim usually introduces me to new people. I am also very
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empathetic. I care about how everyone is feeling or doing. I want to make sure that everyone

knows that I am there for them, no matter who they are. I am also very determined. Whatever I

set my mind to I do it, regardless of if that is a cleaning goal, a school goal, or a life goal. I am

also very accountable. Whenever someone asks me to do something, I make sure that I complete

the task that has been asked of me.

I plan to finish my bachelor’s degree and go to graduate school to attain my master’s

degree in mental health counseling. For my future, I hope to become a therapist because I love

helping others and want people to know they have someone to come to. I think my personality

characteristics like openness and empathy will be beneficial in my future career. I also plan to

have a family whenever I am older. Something I’ve always wanted is to be a mother I cannot

wait to see how my life; I’m excited for what the future holds.

There has been a lot of events throughout my life that have shaped my personality. There

are many theorists who would view my personality development in different ways. I am going to

use Rogers’s theory and Kelly’s theory to discover how they would view my personality.

To begin the evaluation of my personality using Carl Rogers Person-Centered Theory, I

would like to focus on my self concept and my ideal self. I know that I am a supportive friend,

empathetic, open, agreeable, determined, and sometimes a procrastinator. I love the person I

have become but, I think that my ideal self would utilize my time better, learn to procrastinate

less, express my emotions better, and be a more optimistic person overall. The goal of this theory

is to achieve self-actualization; in order for me to achieve it, I have to be congruent. Based on

Roger’s theory, I would say that I am more congruent than incongruent and moving towards

completeness and wholeness. I have been working on obtaining my ideal self and making

changes to reach that goal. This would be considered enhancement within my personality.
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The core assumptions of this theory relate to my personality development as well. The

formative tendency vs the actualizing tendency is evident through my life because elementary

school was really simplistic for me and I did not start having any obstacles or complexities

within my life until I reached eighth grade when I started my journey of discovering my

sexuality and meeting my mother. I have also been a part of the maintenance and enhancement

assumption. Maintenance has occurred in my life whenever I was deep into my eating disorder. I

was not working towards a goal; I was remaining stagnant and not willing to change until

absolutely necessary. From there, I finally began to continue and allow enhancement to occur. I

made strides to being a better optimistic version of myself by not resorting on my eating disorder

whenever things go bad. I am also currently in the enhancement phase. I have been trying to

work on how I allocate my time and have been distributing it between class work, time with my

loved ones, and exercising. The core assumption of growth has also occurred throughout my life

as my opinions have changed and adapted. Prior to eighth grade, I thought that it was wrong for

people to like someone of the same sex, now, I am much more open minded and think that it is

none of my business what other people choose to do with their life. Through doing this, I

achieved part of my ideal self from when I was younger: I wanted to be more accepting and

loving of others. I am fairly aware of my self-concept, which I think is overall very positive,

however, I think that my organismic self may be a reflection of how other people see me. I know

how I see myself but, I am not sure how others view me. I feel as though I have a good hold on

awareness. I know whenever I am in the wrong and I try to look at things from an outside

perspective. However, whenever I was in high school, I did not display awareness because I was

not mentally healthy. I was making internal attributions for the negative experiences regardless

of what it was. I did not make internal attributions about good things. Whenever good things
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would happen, I would have a pessimistic outlook on it and think that it was temporary or out of

my control.

Overall, I feel as though Rogers would agree that over time I have become significantly

closer to self-actualization. This theory is focused on human’s desire to achieve self-actualization

and our capability of knowing ourselves well enough in order to obtain it (Sousa, 2014). I have

created a firm knowledge of myself and know what makes me happy and what does not. This has

allowed me to move closer to self-actualization. Things that I have learned that make me happy

are things like playing guitar, listening to music, and hanging out with friends. Things I have

learned that does not make me happy are things like weighing myself, waiting until last minute

to turn in assignments, and being by myself.

Throughout my life, I have changed. My sexuality has changed throughout the years:

straight, bisexual, lesbian. My disordered eating tendencies. My successes throughout education.

I have been responsible for all of these changes and have made myself accountable for each of

them.

Rogers (2007) also has six tenets regarding personality development. However,

psychological relationship does not have to happen in therapy, however, my personality

development may have occurred in therapy. My therapist and I met the first tenet by being in a

psychological relationship. I met the second tenet which requires the client (me) to be

incongruent. I was very incongruent at that time because I was dealing with depression and my

eating disorder severely. My therapist was very congruent. She was always optimistic and honest

about the trials she has been through; she showed me her true colors. My therapist met the fourth

tenet as well because she did not look down on me for my bad behaviors, she tried to bring me

up and accepted me the way that I was, although she did try to help me. My therapist met the
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fifth tenet by being empathetic because she had dealt with other patients who had been diagnosed

with eating disorders as well. I also knew that she was being empathetic because she was always

trying to listen and be understanding; this is the last tenet. According to Rogers (2007), my

personality has been changed because these tenets have been met. I have made efforts to strive

more towards self-actualization and have overall become more congruent.

The next topic that is covered in Rogers’s theory is the barrier to becoming a fully

functioning human: Conditions of Worth. I have experienced conditions of worth whenever my

mother found out that I was dating a girl. My personality had been diminished prior to her

knowledge of me liking girls because I felt as though I was not able to express my true feelings

because I know that they were against it. I had not told her at all, she found it out on her own

because I was keeping the information from her because I knew she would not approve. The

condition of worth in my life was that I must be straight. My mother did not approve but,

overtime she learned to accept me, and the condition of worth faded away.

Overall, Rogers’s theory encourages me to know that I am congruent and am achieving

self-actualization. It has shown me that I have grown throughout my life; I have had stages of

maintenance and enhancement. This theory says that I will eventually reach self-actualization

because I have finally become congruent which makes it easiest to achieve self-actualization. I

am happy that these things have happened because they have contributed to who I am as a person

today and I am glad that I was able to evaluate my personality using the Person-Centered

Theory.

The next theory I would like to use to evaluate my personality is George Kelly’s Personal

Construct Theory. This theory focuses on the necessity that humans have to be willing to change;

they cannot remain stagnant in their life. This theory focuses on the eleven corollaries based on
A JOURNEY THROUGH MY PERSONALITY 20

the basic postulate; this is based on how each person anticipates an event. However, a person’s

constructs are most important in this theory.

Kelly’s theory says that our constructs change based on our experiences. For example,

because I thought that liking the same sex was wrong and then I was put in that situation, my

construct changed. I no longer held the same stance on same sex marriage as I had prior. I have

to be willing to change my constructs or I will be stagnant. Whenever I realized I liked Montana,

I was in denial for a long time and was unwilling to change my construct; I would always say “I

love you as a friend”. This was something that eventually changed, and I got use to the idea of

my construct changing. I have now had to go through my construct of my sexuality changing

recently as well because I am no longer identifying as gay because I have chosen to pursue a

relationship with a man. I was more open to my constructs being able to change which made it

easier to accept that I wanted to be with a guy as opposed to a girl.

Kelly’s theory also says that we make constructs based on what we hope for our future.

My construct for my future is that I will go to graduate school and become a therapist. However,

I am rather unwilling to change this construct because I do not have a new plan. Therefore, if I

need to change my construct and become unwilling, I will be unhappy with my life because I

was unable to find a new plan and change the way I view the world.

The eleven corollaries have all played a part in my life. The construction corollary played

itself out whenever I first took Interpersonal Relations and was given my first test. When the

second test came around, I looked back to how I studied for the first test and decided to change

based on my results. I had originally not studied for the test much because I was used to not

studying much in high school and Interpersonal Relations was in my first semester of college.

However, for the second exam, I studied immensely in order to receive a better grade because I
A JOURNEY THROUGH MY PERSONALITY 21

knew that my “not-studying” tactic was not going to work in college after I received my first test

grade in Interpersonal Relations.

The second corollary is the individuality corollary which has been evident in my life

where my personal construct that same-sex marriage was not accepted, other people held a

different view and thought that they deserve the same rights as everyone else. I changed my

construct because of events that have happened to me and because I am open. I was willing to

listen to everyone’s ideas about sexuality which allowed me to reconstruct and become a more

open person.

The third corollary is the organization corollary which is present in my life is based on

my personal construct of independence. I personally feel that independence is related to other big

things in your life such as paying for your education, paying for car repairs, and paying for your

living space. In order for me to obtain complete independence, I have to receive a good quality

education and obtain a good job. Although I am not entirely independent from my parents, I have

made strides towards achieving that and will eventually do so.

The fourth corollary is the dichotomy corollary which has also been shown in my life

during my sexuality. I had a previous construct that I could either be gay or I could either be

straight, there was no in between. Now, my construct has been changed and I am okay with

dating someone who I feel a connection with and feelings for, regardless of their gender; this

construct became fluid.

The fifth corollary is the choice corollary which relates to my construct for the dichotomy

corollary. I made the construct that I could either be gay or straight and because I was in a long-

term relationship, I chose the either-or; that I was gay. Now, that I have had more experiences,

my construct has changed.

A JOURNEY THROUGH MY PERSONALITY 22

The sixth corollary is the range corollary which I would apply to my experiences with my

eating disorder. It was unrealistic for me to immediately stop my habits whenever I changed my

construct. It was a slow-moving process which I had to accept, which is why therapy became

necessary. I knew that I had changed my construct but, that my goal of not reverting back to my

eating disorder would be more attainable with help from therapy as opposed to trying to obtain

my goal on my own.

The seventh corollary is the experience corollary which I relate to my biological mother.

After I had first met her, we invited her to come down and stay with us for a week for my

birthday. She ended up in jail. Due to my experience, I knew not to ask her to come down and

stay for a while anymore because I knew she was not reliable.

The eighth corollary is the modulation corollary which I can relate back to my education

again. At the beginning of college, I was used to not studying that much and just attending

classes because that is what I was able to do in high school. However, whenever I received my

first bad test grade, I knew my construct on college had to change. I learned that I had to spend

time on task in order to obtain the grades that I wanted.

The nineth corollary is the fragmentation corollary which I would relate back to my

construct of my desire to be independent. I do acts of independency all of the time; I pay for my

college, work a full-time job, pay rent, etc. However, on Thursday nights I am home by myself

because my boyfriend, roommates, and friends are all at work. I am forced to spend my

afternoons and nights alone which is something I am not good with. During this time, I tend to

call my roommate about five times while she is on deliveries. I have a problem with being alone

even though I have a construct of independency.

A JOURNEY THROUGH MY PERSONALITY 23

The tenth corollary is the commonality corollary which I can relate to my best friend. My

best friend and I have similar constructs on people. We would rather people be honest, we have

similar views whenever it comes to politics, and we tend to have the same response when it

comes to things other than money. We have become so similar over time that we even study the

same way, read the same books, etc. We have similar constructs about how we interpret life and

that brings us closer together.

The last corollary is the sociality corollary which I can relate to my relationship with my

sister. I never understood why my sister allowed herself to stay in a toxic relationship with a

person who physically and verbally abused her until I was a part of a toxic relationship where I

was mistreated. It is easy to want to stay in something that you know but, it is not always what is

best.

The next portion of the theory talks about different maladaptive behaviors like threat,

anxiety, fear, and guilt. I do not personally think I have ever felt one of my constructs be

threatened, however, I think that I would feel like it was threatened if I was not able to attend

graduate school for whatever reason because I do not have another plan, I do not know what I

would do. My personality would not develop because I would not be adapting. I have felt anxiety

regarding my construct of who my biological mother was because I did not know that she had

been a prostitute and sold drugs, whenever I found out who she was, I did not know what to do

and I could not adapt to a new construct of her. I have felt fear that my construct is not working

whenever I stayed up late nights to write a paper. I have adapted however and changed my

construct because it was not working that way. I felt guilt whenever I chose to date girls because

everyone around me made me feel guilty. I was bullied at school for it by people who were

supposed to be my friends, I had the encounter with the preacher. I felt guilty and I thought that I
A JOURNEY THROUGH MY PERSONALITY 24

would be punished. My mother punished me by not allowing me to see my significant other. All

of these things put a halt in my personality development because I was not able to adapt to a new

construct.

This theory has an interesting way of viewing my life and looks into deeper meanings of

different portions of my life. I feel as though this theory helped me to evaluate myself and my

actions further. I would be interesting in looking at myself through more personality theorists.

Overall, I think that this personality analysis has been very helpful to me understanding

my actions in the past specifically. I feel as though Kelly’s theory was most helpful in helping

me to think deeper about things in my past that I had stowed away because I did not want to

think about them anymore. I feel like this paper has made me think about things that I had

forgotten about within my life. This paper has made an impact on my current personality

development because I was able to become more self-aware of exactly who I am and who I was.

I have learned that the most impactful moments in my life have been my eating disorder, my

sexuality, and meeting my biological mother. Without these three key aspects, I would not be the

same person that I am today. I have learned that I am growing currently and have the ability to be

resilient against anything that occurs in my life even though I may remain stagnant for a time

period. I will always be able to continue to grow and work towards my ideal self. I learned that I

need to be more relaxed about my constructs and be willing to change them or I will be stuck

where I am unhappy; this has been added to my ideal self (being willing to change). I learned

that my personality is under my control but, it is also a function of my past and experiences. This

paper made me recognize the amount of growth that I have made throughout my short lifetime. I

am grateful for the growth I have made as well as the experience I have gained and look forward

to what the future will bring.

A JOURNEY THROUGH MY PERSONALITY 25

References

Chiari, G. (2013). Emotion in personal construct theory: A controversial question. Journal of

Constructivist Psychology, 26(4), 249-261.

https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10720537.2013.812853

Kelly, G. A. (2003). A brief introduction to personal construct theory. International Handbook of

Personal Construct Psychology, 3-20. https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/0470013370.ch1

Rogers, C. R. (2007). The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change.

Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 44(3), 240-248.

https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-3204.44.3.240

Sousa, D. A. (2014). Client centered therapy. Indian Journal of Applied Research, 4(2), 10-13.

https://dx.doi.org/10.15373/2249555X/FEB2014/133