rogers and self actualisation

• Rogers argued that for personal growth to be achieved an individual's concept of self must be broadly equivelant to, or have congruence with, their ideal self.
• if an gap too big exists between the two selves the person will experience a state of incongruence and self-actualisation will in turn not be possible due to negative feelings of self worth that arise from incongruence.
• to reduce the gap between the actual and ideal self Rogers developed client-centred therapy, also called counselling to help people cope with the problems of everyday life
• Rogers claimed that many of the issues we experience as adults, such as worthlessness and low self esteem, have their roots in childhood and can often be explained by a lack of unconditional positive regard (or lack of love) from our parents.
• lack of unconditional positive regard examples- a parent who sets boundaries or limits on their love for their child (conditions of worth) by claiming 'i will only love you if' is storing up psychological problems for the child in the future