The Response in Personal Structures

Abstract

This paper has two major purposes. The first is to present a conceptual framework for treating responses in a way consistent in orientation with the approach employed in developing the concept of personal structures. The second purpose is to show that it is possible to consider the collection of responses as having a structure just as we consider judgments, attitudes, opinions, perceptions, etc., as having a structure. Once we begin to develop ways to represent the structure of an individual's responses, or possible responses in their relation to the environment, we can speak more meaningfully of “those responses characteristic of the individual” for we can begin to describe some of the limits these characteristic responses place on the individual's ability to influence his environment. This paper is largely conceptual.