Aspects of the Measurements of Cognitive Complexity : Historical and Theoretical Review

Cognitive complexity has been one of the important variables (constructs) which describe personality structure since 1950s (e. g. Bieri, 1955). The concept has its origin in G. A. Kelly\u27s personal construct psychology and is thought to represent the degree of multidimensionality to which an individual person recognizes others. Though numerous studies on cognitive complexity have been accumulated using mainly correlational methods, the results were often inconsistent and controvertible. These days, the efforts have been made to resolve the problematic situation from several view points, which include application of recent cognitive perspectives, re-examination of Kelly\u27s own ideas, etc. The purpose of this paper is to review the historical development of the concept of cognitive conplexity and to explore a unified view which settles contradictions in many studies. First, we reconsider Kelly\u27s own theories about the measurement of cognitive complexity and point their significance of the present day. Next, while examining controversies about personality traits, which have critical importance to discuss cognitive complexity, we consider the influence Mischel et al.\u27s situationistic approach gave to the research of cognitive complexity. Finally, we make several points about the ways to resolve contradictive studies, and show some suggestions of our preliminary studies