Humanistic psychology carl rogers november 2011

Humanistic Psychology: Carl Rogers(Essential reading: Glassman and Hadad 2004 – Chapter 6 or an equivalent text.)

Objectives of this session?

Provide an overview of the theories of Carl Rogers.

Evaluation of his ideas. Communicate to you the ‘power’ and the

positive perspective of the theories.

Why is this important (reminder).

One of the central disciplines or approaches of psychology.

Key cultural response to earlier more restrictive or negative views of psychology.

Links with developments in research methods in the 1970s onwards, and the emergence of ‘Positive Psychology’.

Humanistic Psychology is unique in psychological approaches in its emphasis on subjective experience.

Humanistic psychology is an approach which speaks to the positive and optimistic within us … the potential for it to be a ‘healing’ perspective.

Background:

Psychology in the 1950s dominated by: Behaviourism. Psychoanalysis. Many considered these approaches either limited or

negative. Humanistic Psychology was a cultural ‘reaction’

to these circumstances, and called a ‘Third Force’ to contrast with these other two approaches.

Carl Rogers

‘Client-Centred Therapy’

‘Person-centred Therapy’

References

Glassman. W. and Hadad, M. (2004). Approaches to Psychology (Fourth Edition).

Jorgensen, I.S. and Nafsad, H.E. (2004) Positive Psychology: Historical, Philosophical and Epistemological Perspectives.

Webspace.ship.edu/cboer/rogers/html Rogers, C. and Stevens, B. (1967) Person

to person: The Problem of Being Human

Carl Rogers & Abraham Maslow

Two primary theorists in Humanistic Psychology.

Carl Rogers (1902 – 1987):Theorist, psychologist and therapist.Moved away from the ‘medical model’ of

therapy, with the ‘therapist’ as expert, and the person as ‘patient’ – to ‘client centred’.

Carl Rogers: Background

• Born 1902.• Initial focus was agriculture, then religion.• PhD at Columbia University in 1931.• Clinical psychology. Early work with children.• Moved to Ohio State University in 1940.• Wrote his first book on psychotherapy in 1942.• Set up a counselling centre at University of

Chicago in 1945.• Published ‘Client Centred Therapy’ in 1951.

Carl Rogers: Key aspects of theory

Phenomenology and the ‘Self’. The Phenomenal Field.

The organism and the ‘actualizing tendency’. The Ideal Self, Congruence and

Incongruence. Personality Development and Conditions for

Growth. The Fully Functioning Person

Phenomenology and the ‘Self’

“Rogers referred to an individual’s unique perception of the world as their phenomenal field”.

“We live by a perceptual map which is never reality itself”.

Our perceptions of external reality are what shapes our lives.

The most significant influence on how we act in our phenomenal field is our sense of self.

(Glassman and Hadad 2004: p260 / 1).

The organism and the ‘actualizing tendency’. We have physical needs arising from the

biological nature of our being. “The actualizing tendency reflects (our)

desire to grow, to develop and to enhance (our) capacities”.An intrinsic part of our/all life.Capacity to guide and direct our behaviour “in

to ways that foster growth and happiness”.

(Glassman and Hadad 2004: p260).

Phenomenology and the ‘Self’ (2)

Our ‘Self’ is fluid and changing. “An organized consistent gestalt, constantly in the process

of forming and reforming”. (Rogers 1959: p201). Dynamically changing, reflecting the actualizing tendency.

The Self: Who we are at a given moment. Influenced by the factors that shape perception. Guided by our ‘actualizing tendency’. “The Self may … reflect the past, but it is not constrained

by it; it is always possible for a new pattern to emerge…”.


The Ideal Self, Congruence and Incongruence. In addition to our ‘Self’ there is the ‘Ideal Self’:

“… who we would like to be, and the goals and aspirations we have for our lives”.

The ‘Ideal Self’ can be similar to the real ‘Self’ or radically different.

If they are similar, a person experiences a sense of ‘congruence’ or integration.

If they are dissimilar a person experiences a sense of incongruence, contradictions and a mismatch / anxiety.

(Glassman and Hadad 2004: p261 / 2.)

Personality Development

Development is influenced by the nature and quality of social interaction.

“Positive regard”: Positive social contacts may provide a feeling of

belonging, being valued and loved. Any form of attention is ‘positive regard’. Positive regard is so important, we may ignore other

aspects of the Self in order to obtain it. Has an ‘evolutionary’ quality? We need social approval.

(Glassman and Hadad 2004: p263.)

Personality Development (2)

“Conditions of worth”: Obtaining ‘positive regard’ is a measure of ‘self worth’,

and can become an end in itself. ‘Conditions of worth’ are often created externally by

others (e.g. parents). Introjecting the values of others into our ‘ideal’ sense

of self can involve a distancing fro who we really are. “When pleasing others becomes more important than

… one’s own actualizing tendency, then healthy growth is threatened.”



The ‘would-should’ dilemma:The values of others introjected to our ‘ideal

self’ become experienced as part of our nature.

The ‘would-should’ dilemma is the conflict between our personal needs and goals and the expectations of others. This creates an ‘incongruence’ between our ‘ideal’ and actual self.



Conditional and Unconditional Positive Regard: UPR is an acceptance and caring extended because

we are human. Regard for the person may be unconditional – while

acceptance of actions may still be conditional.

CPR is extended for meeting certain standards of behaviour.

Creates a ‘mixed message’ where acceptable behaviour is confused with an acceptable self.


Conditions for Growth?

What fosters or creates ‘congruence’? Unconditional positive regard, openness and

empathy. Unconditional positive regard:

“…accepting each person has value without reference to what they do or don’t do … this other individual as a separate person having worth in his own right.”

UPR allows the individual to develop a sense of self through their own actualizing tendency, perceptions and experiences.


Conditions for Growth? (2)

Openness (or congruence): “ … a person freely expressing their own sense of

self, rather than playing a role or hiding behind a façade”.

Rogers believed that openness also created increasing self-awareness.

Empathy: The ability to understand another person’s feelings,

perceptions and points of view.


Conditions for Growth? (3)

The three conditions of growth will tend to be experienced together.

The conditions for growth are intended to allow a person to evaluate their own experiences based on their actualizing tendency.

The conditions are a ‘continuum’ – we try to express them. It is the act of trying that is important.

(Glassman and Hadad 2004: p266 / 7).

Dynamics of Rogers’ Core Conditions?

Actualisation Society

OrganismicValuing

Conditionsof worth

PositiveSelf-regard

ConditionalPositive selfregard

Real Self Ideal Self

Source: Webspace.ship.edu/cboer/rogers/html

Rogers: Core Conditions for Growth• “One way of assisting the individual to move

towards openness to experience is through a relationship in which he is prized as a separate person,

• in which the experiencing going on within him is empathically understood and valued,

• and in which he is given the freedom to experience his own feelings and those of others without being threatened in doing so”.

(Rogers 1967: p24)

Dynamics of Rogers’ Core Conditions?

Actualisation Society

OrganismicValuing

Conditionsof worth

PositiveSelf-regard

ConditionalPositive selfregard

Real Self Ideal Self

Congruence

UnconditionalPositiveRegard

Empathy

Source: Webspace.ship.edu/cboer/rogers/html

Rogers: Core Conditions for Growth (received from ‘a.n.other’)• Congruence:

– Genuine. Without front or facade. Openly being the feelings flowing inside him.

– Live these feelings, in relationship. Communicate them.• Empathy:

– An accurate understanding of the private world of the other person, and communicating this.

– When someone understands, without judging, I can blossom and grow.

– Empathy communicates a value placed on the other person.

Rogers: Core Conditions for Growth Unconditional Positive Regard:

Care for the other in a non-possessive way.Respect for the other as a separate individual.Positive feelings, without judgements.

(Rogers 1967: p90 – 94)

The Outcome? “The Fully Functioning Person” The ‘ideal’ of growth is to be the fully

functioning person. Congruence produces a confidence and

self-esteem that allows us an openness to experience our world and feelings. Trusting our ability to deal with the world, we can experience spontaneity, self-direction and compassion.


The “Fully Functioning Person”

Openness to experience. Existential Living. Organismic Trusting. Experiential freedom. Creativity. Do you recognise similarities with

descriptions of self-actualisation?

The ‘Mature Person’

Being ‘real’. Being ‘who one is’. Expressing one’s feelings honestly.

Self-direction. Pride and confidence in one’s life choices.

Valuing one’s self and feelings positively. Focusing on life as a process rather than a goal. Valuing openness – relationships – other people.

Glassman and Hadad (2004: p270)

Evaluating Rogers’ Theories?

Phased broadly and generally. Hard to measure or create means of

evaluation (except via inter-subjective agreement).

Questionable whether we can define ‘ideal development’.

Cross-cultural studies would suggest the model of self might be inconsistent.


Evaluating Rogers’ Theories? (2)

There is a ‘one size fits all’ quality to the theory? The same conditions work for all? Do they?

Taken as ‘defined’ or ‘dogma’ by his followers for many years. Only now being further developed.

A ‘turning point’ in psychology in his (Rogers’) focus on phenomenology.

Evaluating Rogers’ Theories? (3)

A positive and constructive view of humanity. A hopeful ‘face value’ that has been and is inspiring to many.

Provided the first focus in therapy away from ‘techniques’ and ‘professional power’ towards the quality of relationship.

Has been built on in developments of Positive Psychology.

Voted repeatedly (American Psychological Association) as the most influential psychotherapist in the field.

Connections with other theories?

Theory Element of Rogers’ theory

Evolutionary psychology Our need for ‘positive regard’. Our need for social connection.

Social psychology Influence and impact of relationship. Development in relationship. E.g. Vygotsky, and zone of proximal development.

Behaviourism The ‘core conditions of growth’ are a form of conditioning.

Psychodynamics and Freud ‘Animalistic self’ versus ‘biological self’. Super ego relates to the ‘ideal self’.

A measure of Carl Rogers

"In my early professionals years I was asking the question: How can I treat, or cure, or change this person? Now I would phrase the question in this way: How can I provide a relationship which this person may use for his own personal growth?

A measure of Carl Rogers (2)

I have gradually come to one negative conclusion about the good life. It seems to me that the good life is not any fixed state. It is not, in my estimation, a state of virtue, or contentment, or nirvana, or happiness. It is not a condition in which the individual is adjusted or fulfilled or actualized. To use psychological terms, it is not a state of drive-reduction, or tension-reduction, or homeostasis.

The good life is a process, not a state of being.

It is a direction not a destination." From On Becoming a Person, 1961

Summary (1)

“Man does not simply have the characteristics of a machine; he is not simply a being in the grip of unconscious motives; he is a person in the process of creating himself, a person who creates meaning in life, a person who embodies a dimension of subjective freedom”

Summary (2)

“He is a figure who, though he may be alone in a vastly complex universe, and though he may be part of that universe and its destiny, is also able to live dimensions of his life which are not fully or adequately contained in a description of his conditioning or unconscious.”Rogers 1964: p129)

How do I become who I am (in “theory”)?

“Behaviourism”• I learn by association.• Repetitive experiencesshape or even create myresponse.• Intervention in this ‘cycle’is possible to change my / our experience.

“Psychodynamics”(E.g. Freud and Melanie Klein)• My ‘unconscious’ profoundly shapesmy world and life.• I am motivated by instincts and drivessuch as aggression and sexuality,while also struggling to balance those drives with what society expects.• I am likely to live in a state of tensionas a result.• I have an internalised version of my externalexperience of the world. This acts as a ‘template’which shapes my relationships and reactions.

Humanistic Psychology• I have choice. I am motivated by an ‘actualising’ tendency, to become whoI am and the best of who I am.• My capacity to grow and be the bestof who I am is fundamentally influencedby the ‘regard’ and empathy I receive fromothers and the extent to which they supportmy being and becoming who I am.

‘ I ‘Interiorindividual

‘ IT ’Exterior

Individual

‘ We ’CollectiveCultural

‘ ITS ’Social system

Environment

(Adapted and developed from different writing of Ken Wilber.)

Psychodynamics. Instincts. Ego. Id.Intrapersonal. Phenomenology.Self-actualization.

Experimental psychology.Cognitive psychology.‘Brain’. ‘Organism’.Behaviourism.

Interpersonal. Relationships.‘Object relations’ theoryGroup psychology?Family ‘system’. ‘Super ego’?Humanistic psychology.

Cross-cultural psychology.‘Generalized’ psychology.Organisational psychology.Source of the ‘super ego’?

Humanistic psychology carl rogers november 2011

Education

Transcript of Humanistic psychology carl rogers november 2011