Carl Roger’s Self- Actualization Theory

• Carl Rogers (1959) believed that humans have one basic motive, that is the tendency
to self-actualize - i.e., to fulfill one's potential and achieve the highest level of 'human-
beingness' we can.
• Like a flower that will grow to its full potential if the conditions are right, but which is
constrained by its environment, so people will flourish and reach their potential if their
environment is good enough.
• However, unlike a flower, the potential of the individual human is unique, and we are
meant to develop in different ways according to our personality.
• Rogers believed that people are inherently good and creative. They become
destructive only when a poor self-concept or external constraints override the valuing
process.
• Carl Rogers believed that for a person to achieve self-actualization they must be in a
state of congruence.
• Carl Rogers believed that for a person to achieve self-actualization they must be in a
state of congruence.
• This means that self-actualization occurs when a person’s “ideal self” (i.e., who they
would like to be) is congruent with their actual behavior (real self-image).
• Rogers describes an individual who is actualizing as a fully functioning person. The
main determinant of whether we will become self-actualized is childhood experience.

The Development of the Self in Childhood

• As infants gradually develop a more complex experiential field from widening social
encounters, one part of their experience becomes differentiated from the rest.
• This separate part, defined by the words I, me, and myself, is the self or self-concept.
• The formation of the self-concept involves distinguishing what is directly and
immediately a part of the self from the people, objects, and events that are external to
the self.
• The self concept is also our image of what we are, what we should be, and what we
would like to be.
• All aspects of the self strive for consistency. (E.g., aggressive behavior)
Positive Regard
• As the self emerges, infants develop a need for what Rogers called positive regard.
• The need for positive regard is universal and persistent. It includes acceptance, love,
and approval from other people, most notably from the mother during infancy.
• Because positive regard is crucial to personality development, infant behavior is
guided by the amount of affection and love bestowed.
• If positive regard for the infant persists despite the infant’s undesirable behaviors, the
condition is called unconditional positive regard.
• By this, Rogers meant that the mother’s love for the child is granted freely and fully; it
is not conditional or dependent on the child’s behavior.
• An important aspect of the need for positive regard is its reciprocal nature. When
people perceive themselves to be satisfying someone else’s need for positive regard,
they in turn experience satisfaction of that need themselves.

Incongruence
• A person’s ideal self may not be consistent with what actually happens in life and
experiences of the person. Hence, a difference may exist between a person’s ideal self
and actual experience. This is called incongruence.
Congruence
• Where a person’s ideal self and actual experience are consistent or very similar, a
state of congruence exists.
• Rarely, if ever, does a total state of congruence exist; all people experience a certain
amount of incongruence.
 The self-
• Experiences that are incongruent or incompatible with our self-concept become
threatening and are manifested as anxiety.
• For example, if our self-concept includes the belief that we love all humanity, once we
meet someone toward whom we feel hatred, we are likely to develop anxiety.
• Hating is not congruent with our image of us as loving persons. To maintain our self-
concept, we must deny the hatred.
• 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.
• The closer our self-image and ideal-self are to each other, the more consistent or
congruent we are and the higher our sense of self-worth.
• 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 is "a discrepancy between the actual experience of the organism and
the self-picture of the individual insofar as it represents that experience.
• As we prefer to see ourselves in ways that are consistent with our self-image, we may
use defense mechanisms like denial or repression 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 her or his real feelings and
experiences will defend because the truth hurts.

Characteristics of Fully Functioning Persons

• Awareness of all experience; open to positive as well as negative feelings
• Freshness of appreciation for all experiences
• Trust in one’s own behavior and feelings
• Freedom of choice, without inhibitions
• Creativity and spontaneity
• Continual need to grow, to strive to maximize one’s potential