Abstract
Personal construct theory is introduced as an all-embracing philosophy which provides a consistent framework for integrating different notions about the planning process. The implication is that ‘man-the-planner’ does not necessarily have constructs which are better, more accurate, or more predictive than his subject, ‘man-the-planned’. Policies can be seen as theories, in which case they should be clearly expressed as such. The theory and its methodology have been used in an empirical investigation of planning examinations in public. This revealed great variation between the constructs of planners, developers, and the public. This study is reported in a second paper, so as to amplify and illustrate the theoretical ideas developed here.
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