What general behavior did Kelly believe people engage in regarding their personal constructs?

In Kelly's Personal Construct Theory, individuals are seen as active agents who are continually engaging with their personal constructs—mental frameworks that help them understand and interpret their experiences. The notion that people seek to validate and improve their constructs highlights the dynamic nature of personal constructs. Individuals assess their constructs based on their experiences and the outcomes of their thoughts and actions.

When people encounter new experiences or information that challenge their existing constructs, they may either validate those constructs by finding evidence that supports them or modify them to better accommodate new information. This process of validation and improvement is key to personal development and reflects a fundamental aspect of human cognition—people are motivated to create a coherent and functional understanding of the world around them. Thus, this tendency to refine personal constructs is central to Kelly’s perspective on how individuals interact with their environments and grow psychologically.