CARL ROGERS

-Born on January 8, 1902 in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, the fourth of six children.

-There were no economic problems during his early life since Rogers’s father was a successful civil engineer and contractor while his mother was a housewife and a devout Christian.

CARL ROGERS

-His parents discouraged the development of friendships outside their home because, nonfamily members engaged in questionable activities.

-At the age of 12, his family moved to a farm where he developed an interest in science.

-With strict upbringing and many chores, he became isolated, independent and self-disciplined.

CARL ROGERS

-In 1919, he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin and chose to study agriculture. Later, he switched to religion to study for the ministry.

-In 1922, Rogers’s was one of the ten students selected to attend the World Student Christian Federation Conference in Peking, China for six (6) months.

-After graduation, he married Helen Elliott despite of strong parental disapproval and moved to New York City where he enrolled in the Liberal Union Theological Seminary.

CARL ROGERS

-He doubted that the best vehicle for help to individuals with problems was to be found in religious doctrine (Religion’s loss, emerged, Psychology’s gain).

-Rogers’s transferred to Columbia University to study clinical and educational psychology.

-Begun his clinical work at the Rochester Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (where he had worked as an intern while pursuing his Ph.D.)

CARL ROGERS

-Returned to his Alma Mater (Univ. of Wisconsin) in 1957 to teach, however, there was conflict in the psychology department that he became disillusioned with higher education.

-He accepted a research position in La Jolla, California, where he provided therapy, gave speeches and wrote until his death in 1987.

THEORY

Rogers’s is mainly interested in discovering the conditions under which a person can fully develop his or her potentialities.

The entire theory is built on a single “force of life,” he calls the actualizing tendency.

For a person to “grow,” he needs an environment that

provides him with:

Genuineness (openness and self-disclosure)

Acceptance (being seen with unconditional positive regard)

Empathy (being listened to and understood)

Rogers believed that every person can achieve their goals, wishes and desires in life. When or if they did so, self-actualization took place.

The Actualizing Tendency

The built-in motivation present in every life-form to develop its potentials to the fullest extent possible. He believes that all creatures strive to make the very best of their existence. If they fail to do so, it is not for a lack of desire.

Why do we want air, water and food?  Why do we seek safety, love and a sense of competence?  Why, do we seek to discover new medicines, invent new power sources, or create new works of art? That is because, it is in our nature as living things to do the very best we can!!! -quoted

“The organism has one basic tendency and striving – to actualize, maintain and enhance the experiencing organism” (Rogers, 1951).

All humans, as well as other living organisms, have an innate need to survive, grow and enhance themselves. All biological drives are included under actualizing tendency, because they must be satisfied if the organism is to continue its positive development. This “forward thrust of life” continues in spite of many obstacles.

For example:

Children first learning to walk stumble again and again, but, despite the pain, press on with their attempts to walk.

The actualizing tendency causes individual to

become:

More differentiated (complex)

More independent

More socially responsible

All of an organisms experiences are evaluated using the actual tendency as a frame of reference. Rogers calls this method of evaluating one’s experiences the organismic valuing process.

Those experiences that are in accordance with the actualizing tendency are satisfying and thus, are approached and maintained.

Those experiences that are contrary to the actualizing tendency are unsatisfying, and therefore are avoided or terminated.

Organismic Valuing Process

Creates a feedback system that allows the organism to coordinate its experiences with its tendency toward self-actualization.

Carl Rogers’s Person-Centered Theory

Central to his personality theory is the notion of the SELF or SELF-CONCEPT.

Self-concept

The organized, consistent set of perceptions, thoughts, feelings and beliefs people have about themselves.

Two Primary Sources Influencing the Self-

concept:

Childhood experiences

Evaluation by others

According to Rogers, we want to feel, experience and behave in ways which are consistent with our self-image and which reflect what we would like to be like, our ideal-self.

Three Components of Self-Concept:

Self-worth (or self-esteem) – what we think about ourselves. Rogers believed feelings of self-worth developed in early childhood and were formed from the interaction of the child with the mother and father.

Self-Image – How we see ourselves, which is important to good psychological health.

Includes the influence of our body image on inner personality. At a simple level, we might perceive ourselves as a good or bad person, beautiful or ugly. Self-image has an affect on how a person thinks feels and behaves in the world.

Ideal Self – This is the person who we would like to be. It consists of our goals and ambitions in life, and is dynamic – i.e. forever changing.

The ideal self in childhood is not the ideal self in our teens or late twenties etc.

Self-Worth and Positive Regard

Two basic needs of the child as viewed by Carl Rogers:

Positive Regard from other People

Self-Worth

Self-Worth and Positive Regard

How we think about ourselves, our feelings of self-worth are of fundamental importance both to psychological health and the likelihood that we can attain our goals and ambitions in life and achieve self-actualization.

Self-Worth and Positive Regard

High Self-Worth

-has confidence-positive feelings about him

or herself-faces challenges in life-accepts failure and

unhappiness at times, and is open with people.

Low Self-Worth

-avoid challenges in life-not accept that life can be

painful and unhappy at times

-he/she will be defensive and guarded with other people

Self-Worth and Positive Regard

Self-Worth are developed in early childhood through child’s interaction with the mother and father. As child grows older, interactions with significant others will affect his feeling of self-worth.

Self-Worth and Positive Regard

Positive Regard – is to do with how other people evaluate and judge us in social interaction.

Unconditional Positive Regard

is where parents, significant others (and the humanist therapist) accepts and loves the person for what he or she is regardless of the mistakes committed.

Conditional Positive Regard

is where positive regard, praise and approval, depend upon the child, for example, he/she behaves in ways that the parents think correct. 

This “conditioning” leads us to have conditional positive self-regard as well.  We begin to like ourselves only if we meet up with the standards others have applied to us, rather than if we are truly actualizing our potentials.  And since these standards were created without keeping each individual in mind, more often than not we find ourselves unable to meet them, and therefore unable to maintain any sense of self-esteem.

Conditions of Worth

(similar to superego) the individuals belief that he or she is worthy of affection only when expressing desirable behaviors.

Congruence and Incongruence

Rogers said that people’s self-concepts often do not exactly match reality. For example, a person may consider himself to be very honest but often lies to his boss about why he is late to work.

Congruence

Is a fairly accurate match between the self-concept and reality.

A person’s ideal self and actual experience are consistent or very similar.

Its development is dependent on unconditional positive regard.

A person must be in this state for him to achieve self-actualization.

Incongruence

Is a discrepancy between the actual experience of the organism and the self-picture of the individual insofar as it represents that experience.

A person is said to be in a state of incongruence if some of the totality of their experience is unacceptable to them and is denied or distorted in the self-image.

Incongruence

There is a gap between the real self and the ideal self, the “I am” and the “I should”

Results of Incongruence

People experience anxiety when their self-concept are being threatened. In order to protect themselves from anxiety, they distort their experiences so that they can hold on to their self-concept. (e.g. a belief of being a generous person but stingy with her money)

Defense Mechanisms

As we prefer to see ourselves in ways that are consistent with our self-image, we may use defense mechanisms in order to feel less threatened by some of what we consider to be our undesirable feelings.

A person whose self-concept is incongruent with his or her real feelings and experiences will defend because the truth hurts.

Two defenses:

Denial- blocking out of threatening situation altogether.

Keeping a memory or an impulse out of your awareness (refuse to perceive it) you may be able to avoid a threatening situation. (Repression in Freud’s term)

Two defenses:

Perceptual Distortion- a matter of reinterpreting the situation so that it appears less threatening. 

(student being threatened by tests and grade may blame the professor for poor teaching, bad attitude or for giving a tricky questions; RATIONALIZATION in Freud’s term).

A Fully-functioning person…

Openness to Experience

-it is the accurate perception of one's experiences in the world, including one's feelings. 

-being able to accept reality and one’s feelings.

-if one cannot be open to his feelings, he cannot be open to actualization

A Fully-functioning person…

Existential Living- This is living in the here-and-now.  Rogers, as a part of getting in touch with reality, insists that we not live in the past or the future -- the one is gone, and the other isn't anything at all, yet!  The present is the only reality we have. 

A Fully-functioning person…

Organismic trusting- We should allow ourselves to be guided by the organismic valuing process.  We should trust ourselves, do what feels right, what comes natural. 

Rogers meant trust your real self, and you can only know what your real self has to say if you are open to experience and living existentially! In other words, organismic trusting assumes you are in contact with the actualizing tendency.

A Fully-functioning person…

Experiential freedom- Rogers felt that it was irrelevant whether or not people really had free will.  We feel very much as if we do. We feel free when choices are available to us.  Rogers says that the fully-functioning person acknowledges that feeling of freedom, and takes responsibility for his choices.

A Fully-functioning person…

Creativity-  If you feel free and responsible, you will act accordingly, and participate in the world.  A fully-functioning person, in touch with actualization, will feel obliged by their nature to contribute to the actualization of others, even life itself.  This can be through creativity in the arts or sciences, through social concern and parental love, or simply by doing one's best at one's job.

Maladjusted Person

Defensive Living - Not open to experience

Live According to preconceived plan - generally laid down by parents.

Disregards organism - not intuitive

Feels manipulated - not free to choose

Common and conforming

Client-Centered/Rogerian Therapy

He originally called it non-directive, because he felt that the therapist should not lead the client, but rather be there for the client while the latter directs the progress of the therapy.

Clients look to therapists for guidance, and will find it even when the therapist is trying not to guide.

Client-Centered/Rogerian Therapy

One of the phrases that Rogers used to describe his therapy is ”SUPPORTIVE, not reconstructive," and he uses the analogy of learning to ride a bicycle to explain:  When you help a child to learn to ride a bike, you can't just tell them how.  They have to try it for themselves.  And you can't hold them up the whole time either.  There comes a point when you have to let them go.  If they fall, they fall, but if you hang on, they never learn.

Rogerian Technique

Reflection- is the mirroring of emotional communication.

(The therapist is expected to communicate to the client that he is indeed listening and cares enough to understand.)

Qualities of an Effective Therapist

Congruence: genuineness, honesty with the client.

Empathy: the ability to feel what the client feels.

Learn from Client- therapy is a two-way street

Unconditional positive regard – genuinely like the client

Thank you!!