TOP Rogers

• Carl Rogers


  Born into a devoutly religious family in a Chicago suburb in 1902
• Carl Rogers' upbringing


  • To avoid the temptations of sinful life, the Rogers family moved to a nearby farm
  • In such an environment, Carl became interested in scientific farming and learned to appreciate the scientific method
• Carl Rogers' education and career


  1. Graduated from the University of Wisconsin

  2. Intended to become a minister, but gave up that notion

  3. Completed a PhD in psychology from Columbia University in 1931

  4. Took a position at Ohio State University in 1940

  5. Held positions at the University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin

  6. Moved to California in 1964 and helped found the Center for Studies of the Person

  7. Died in 1987 at age 85
• Person-centered theory of personality


  Used by Rogers to meet his own demands for a structural model that could explain and predict outcomes of client-centered therapy
• Basic assumptions of person-centered theory

  • Formative tendency: all matter, both organic and inorganic, tends to evolve from simpler to more complex forms
  • Actualizing tendency: all living things, including humans, tend to move toward completion or fulfillment of potentials
• Conditions for human self-actualization


  Relationship with another person who is genuine, or congruent, and who demonstrates complete acceptance and empathy
• Self and self-actualization


  • Sense of self or personal identity begins to emerge during infancy
  • Self-actualization is a subsystem of the actualization tendency and refers to the tendency to actualize the self as perceived in awareness
  • Self-concept includes all those aspects of one's identity that are perceived in awareness
  • Ideal self is our view of our self as we would like it to be or what we would aspire to be
• Awareness

  • People are aware of both their self-concept and their ideal self
  • Experiences can be symbolized below the threshold of awareness and ignored, denied, or not allowed into the self-concept
  • Experiences can be distorted or reshaped to fit into an existing self-concept
  • Experiences that are consistent with the self-concept are accurately symbolized and freely admitted to the self-structure
• Human needs

  • Maintenance needs: for food, air, safety, and to resist change and maintain self-concept
  • Enhancement needs: to grow and realize one's full human potential
  • Needs for positive regard: to be loved or accepted
  • Needs for self-regard: to value oneself
• Conditions of worth


  Most people are not unconditionally accepted, but perceive conditions of worth - that they are loved and accepted only when they meet the conditions set by others
• Psychological stagnation


  • Incongruence between self-concept and organismic experience can lead to anxiety, threat, defensiveness, and disorganization
  • Distortion and denial are used to prevent incongruence
• Effective client-centered psychotherapy


  Requires a vulnerable or anxious client to have contact of some duration with a congruent counselor who demonstrates unconditional positive regard and listens with empathy, and the client perceives the congruence, unconditional positive regard and empathy
• conditions include a relationship with another person who is genuine, or congruent, and who demonstrates complete acceptance and empathy for that person. 
• The self has two subsystem:

  1. The self-concept, which includes all those aspects of one’s identity that are perceived in awareness 

  2. The ideal self, or our view of our self as we would like it to be or what we would aspire to be.
• three (3) levels of awareness: 

  1. Those that are symbolized below the threshold of awareness and are ignored, denied, or not allowed into the self-concept; 
  2. Those that are distorted or reshaped to fit it into an existing self-concept; and 
  3. Those that are consistent with the self-concept and thus are accurately symbolized and freely admitted to the self-structure. 
• ENHANCEMENT NEEDS 

  • Include needs to grow and to realize one’s full human potential.
• As awareness of self emerges, an infant begins to receive position regard from another person, that is, to be loved or accepted.
• NEEDS FOR POSITIVE REGARD

  this value sometimes becomes more powerful than the reward they receive for meeting their organismic needs.
• The greater the incongruence between self-concept and the organismic experience, the more vulnerable that person becomes.