George Kelly As A Humanistic Psychology

969 Words2 Pages

The article was a biography about George Kelly, a psychologist who believed psychology was fundamentally a mathematical discipline (Benjafield, 2008). Benjafield wrote the article to discuss what type of psychologist Kelly was. Some individuals argued that Kelly was a cognitive psychologist while others considered him a humanistic psychologist. Even though many people had differing views on Kelly, Kelly resisted being placed in either category. Kelly saw himself as a unique individual who could not be placed into a group with other psychologist. Benjafield attempts to place Kelly in an appropriate place in intellectual history by comparing his attitude to psychology to other notable individuals within the field (Benjafield, 2008).
Not only …show more content…

In 1926, Kelly received a degree in mathematics and physics from Friends University in Kansas and Park College in Missouri (Benjafield, 2008). He also earned a degree in education from Edinburgh in 1930 after he completed studies in educational sociology. The following year in 1931, Kelly procured a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. By 1946, Kelly was the director and a professor of the clinical program at Ohio State, however, his impressive resume does not end there. On top of teaching psychology, Kelly also taught classes in speech and drama. Kelly served in World War II and was a member of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery and later on in his life he operated a travelling clinic in Kansas (Benjafield, …show more content…

However, Kelly had doubts about the practicality of humanistic psychology (Benjafield, 2008). Kelly’s approach to psychology does have some shared characteristics of humanistic psychology, but it also has its own distinctiveness. Lastly, Benjafield discussed the idea that Kelly could not be compared to either Maslow or Neisser. Even though Maslow and Neisser had great educational backgrounds, Kelly by far had the most diverse. Kelly’s previous schooling in mathematics made him highly influenced by Herbart. Herbart was by no means the single most influential person in Kelly’s life. Kelly mentioned people such as Charles Darwin and Sigmund Freud in works such as The Psychology of Personal Constructs (A Theory of Personality). However, Kelly was often vague when it came to referencing his sources which presents many issues (Benjafield,

Open Document