Understanding Social Anxiety Disorder Through George Kelly's Personal Construct Theory

     George Kelly's Personal Construct Theory (PCT) offers a powerful lens to understand how individuals develop and maintain Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). According to Kelly (1955/1963), people build unique systems of bipolar constructs—like "confident–insecure" or "accepted–rejected"—that shape how they interpret social experiences. Those with SAD often rely on rigid and negative constructs that make them anticipate rejection or embarrassment, especially in unfamiliar social settings.

     In PCT, personality is structured by personal constructs that influence one's thoughts, feelings, and actions. Individuals with SAD tend to over-rely on maladaptive constructs that interpret neutral social cues as threatening (Walker, 2021). This rigid construct system restricts emotional flexibility and reinforces anxious responses in social situations.

    Kelly (1955/1963) described anxiety as arising when one's construct system fails to predict events. In SAD, unpredictable or ambiguous social situations cause distress because the individual lacks constructive frameworks to interpret them. Over time, this leads to avoidance and reinforces the fear of social failure (Winter & Procter, 2014).

    Kelly believed that psychopathology stems from an inflexible construct system that resists change. In therapy, techniques like the repertory grid and fixed-role therapy help clients experiment with new, more adaptive ways of construing themselves (Procter, 2015). These interventions promote psychological growth, which allows clients to revise outdated or harmful social constructs.

     In sum, Kelly's theory emphasizes that therapeutic change for SAD involves symptom relief and helping individuals reconstruct how they perceive themselves and others in social contexts.

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