PERSON-CENTERED THEORY
both persons.
CARL ROGERS
 Wanted to be a farmer, a scientific farmer
 However, he never did become a farmer. After two years
of college, he changed his life goal from agriculture to the
ministry and later to psychology.
 He was quite shy and lacking in social skills.
 A sensitive boy, he was easily hurt by the teasing he
received from classmates and siblings.
 Rogers developed humanistic theory of personality that
grew out of his experiences. Unlike Freud who’s primarily
a theorist, and secondarily a therapist.
 Rogers was a consummate therapist but only a reluctant
theorist
BIOGRAPHY OF CARL ROGERS
 Carl Ransom Rogers was born on January 8, 1902, in Oak
Park, Illinois, the fourth of six children born to Walter and
Julia Cushing Rogers.
 From farming to religion (minister) to psychology
 Rogers was influenced by the progressive education
movement of John Dewey
 His life would now take a new direction—toward
psychology and education.
 He also attended a lecture by Alfred Adler, who shocked
Rogers and the other staff members with his contention
that an elaborate case history was unnecessary for
psychotherapy.
 During the early phase of his professional career, Rogers
was strongly influenced by the ideas of Otto Rank, who
had been one of Freud’s closest associates before his
dismissal from Freud’s inner circle.
 Despite his early problems with interpersonal
relationships, Rogers grew to become a leading
proponent of the notion that the interpersonal
relationship between two individuals is a powerful
ingredient that cultivates psychological growth within
 Rogers always insisted that the theory should remain
tentative, and it is with this thought that one should
approach a discussion of Rogerian personality theory
PERSON-CENTERED THEORY
 His approach was first known as “nondirective,” Later, his
approach was variously termed “client-centered,” “person-
centered,” “student-centered,” “group-centered,” and
“person to person.” We use the label client-centered in
reference to Rogers’s therapy and the more inclusive term
person-centered to refer to Rogerian personality theory.
BASIC ASSUMPTIONS
 What are the basic assumptions of person-centered
theory? Rogers postulated two broad assumptions—the
formative tendency and the actualizing tendency.
Formative Tendency
 A tendency for all matter, both organic and inorganic, to
evolve from simpler to more complex forms.
Actualizing Tendency
 A tendency within all humans (and other animals and
plants) to move toward completion or fulfillment of
potentials
 This tendency is the only motive people possess
 The need to satisfy one’s hunger drive, to express deep
emotions when they are felt, and to accept one’s self are all
examples of the single motive of actualization.
 Because each person operates as one complete organism,
actualization involves the whole person—physiological and
intellectual, rational and emotional, conscious and
unconscious.
Subsumed within the actualizing tendency:
 The need for (1) maintenance is similar to the lower steps
on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs; but it also includes the
tendency to resist change and to seek the status quo.
 Desire to protect their current, comfortable self-concept
 Fight against new ideas
 They distort experiences that do not quite fit
 They find change painful and growth frightening
 But also willing to learn and to change…
 This need to become more, to develop, and to achieve
growth is called (2) enhancement
 Willingness to learn things that are not immediately
rewarding
 Rogers’s position is that people are willing to face threat
and pain because of a biologically based tendency for the
organism to fulfill its basic nature (ex: a baby tries to walk
even if he falls)
 People have within themselves the creative power to
solve problems, to alter their self-concepts, and to
become increasingly self-directed
 Individuals perceive their experiences as reality
 Organism can reach their full genetic-potential provided
certain conditions are present (both necessary and
sufficient conditions for becoming a fully functioning or
self-actualizing person.).
 These conditions don’t cause it but permit actualization
THE SELF AND SELF-ACTUALIZATION
 According to Rogers, infants begin to develop a vague
concept of self when a portion of their experience
becomes personalized and differentiated in awareness as
“I” or “me” experiences. Infants gradually become aware
of their own identity as they learn what feels pleasant
and what does not. They then begin to evaluate
experiences as positive or negative, using as a criterion
the actualizing tendency. Because nourishment is a
requirement for actualization, infants value food and
devalue hunger. They also value sleep, fresh air, physical
contact, and health because each of these is needed for
actualization.
 Self-actualization is a subset of the actualization
tendency and is therefore not synonymous with it.
 Actualization tendency refers to organismic experiences
of the individual; that is, it refers to the whole person—
conscious and unconscious, physiological and cognitive.
 Self-actualization is the tendency to actualize the self as
perceived in awareness.
 Discrepancy may exists between the actualization tendency
and the self-actualization tendency if the organismic
experience and the perceived self are not in harmony
2 subsystem of the self
The Self-Concept
 Includes all those aspects of one’s being and one’s
experiences that are perceived in awareness (though not
always accurately) by the individual
 Not identical with organismic-self (because part of the
individual or his experiences maybe denied or distorted if it
doesn’t fit with the self-concept)
 An established self-concept does not make change
impossible, merely difficult. Change most readily occurs in
an atmosphere of acceptance by others, which allows a
person to reduce anxiety and threat and to take ownership
of ed experiences.
The Ideal Self
 Defined as one’s view of self as one wishes to be
 A wide gap between the ideal self and the self-concept
indicates incongruence and an unhealthy personality
Awareness
 Without awareness the self-concept and the ideal self
would not exist.
 Defined awareness as “the symbolic representation (not
necessarily in verbal symbols) of some portion of our
experience”
 He used the term synonymously with both consciousness
and symbolization
Levels of Awareness (3)

 First, some events are experienced below the threshold
of awareness and are either ignored or denied
 Ignored-too many stimuli; some others are ignored
 Denied-a mother who never wanted children, but out of
guilt she becomes overly caring to them. Her anger
toward her children may never reach consciousness but
yet remain a part of her experience and coloring her
conscious behavior toward them.
 Second, some experiences are accurately symbolized
and freely admitted to the self-structure (such
experiences are both nonthreatening and consistent with
the existing self-concept)
 Third, involves experiences that are perceived in a
distorted form. (When our experience is not consistent
with our view of self, we reshape or distort the experience
so that it can be assimilated into our existing self-
concept.)
Denial of Positive Experiences
 Many people have difficulty accepting genuine
compliments and positive feedback, even when
deserved.
 (Ex: I got a high grade because it’s just an easy subject)
 Genuine positive feedback or positive experience may
not be able to penetrate their self-concept.
BECOMING A PERSON
 Processes necessary to becoming a person:
 First, an individual must make contact—positive or
negative—with another person
 This is the minimum experience necessary for becoming a
person (a child must experience some contact from a
caregiver to survive)
 As children (or adults) become aware that another
person has some measure of regard for them, they begin
to value positive regard and devalue negative regard
 That is, the person develops a need to be loved, liked, or
accepted by another person, a need that Rogers referred
to as positive regard. If we perceive that others,
especially significant others, care for, prize, or value us,
then our need to receive positive regard is at least
partially satisfied
 Positive regard is a prerequisite for positive self-regard
(experience of prizing or valuing one’s self)
 Receiving positive regard from others is necessary for
positive self-regard, but once positive self-regard is
established, it becomes independent of the continual
need to be loved.
 This conception is quite similar to Maslow’s notion that
we must satisfy our love and belongingness needs before
self-esteem needs can become active, but once we begin
to feel confident and worthy, we no longer require a
replenishing supply of love and approval from others.
BARRIERS TO PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH (4)
 Not everyone becomes a psychologically healthy person.
Rather, most people experience conditions of worth,
incongruence, defensiveness, and disorganization
Conditions of Worth
 Perceive that their parents, peers, or partners love and
accept them only if they meet those people’s
expectations and approval. “A condition of worth arises
when the positive regard of a significant other is
conditional
 Conditions of worth become the criterion by which we
accept or reject our experiences
 We gradually assimilate into our self-structure the
attitudes we perceive others expressing toward us, and in
time we begin to evaluate experiences on this basis.
 From early childhood forward, most of us learn to
disregard our own organismic valuations and to look
beyond ourselves for direction and guidance. To the
degree that we introject the values of others, that is,
accept conditions of worth, we tend to be incongruent or
out of balance. Other people’s values can be assimilated
only in distorted fashion or at the risk of creating
disequilibrium and conflict within the self.
 Our perceptions of other people’s view of us are called
external evaluations.
 These evaluations, whether positive or negative, do not
foster psychological health but, rather, prevent us from
being completely open to our own experiences
 When our own experiences are distrusted, we distort our
awareness of them, thus solidifying the discrepancy
between our organismic evaluation and the values we
have introjected from others. As a result, we experience
incongruence
Incongruence
 We have seen that the organism and the self are two
separate entities that may or may not be congruent with
one another. Also recall that actualization refers to the
organism’s tendency to move toward fulfillment,
whereas self-actualization is the desire of the perceived
self to reach fulfillment.
 Psychological disequilibrium begins when we fail to
recognize our organismic experiences as self-experiences:
that is, when we do not accurately symbolize organismic
experiences into awareness because they appear to be
inconsistent with our emerging self-concept.
 Conditions of worth that we received during early
childhood lead to a somewhat false self-concept, one
based on distortions and denials. The self-concept that
emerges includes vague perceptions that are not in
harmony with our organismic experiences, and this
incongruence between self and experience leads to
discrepant and seemingly inconsistent behaviors.
Sometimes we behave in ways that maintain or enhance
our actualizing tendency, and at other times, we may
behave in a manner designed to maintain or enhance a
self-concept founded on other people’s expectations and
evaluations of us.
 Vulnerability The greater the incongruence between our
perceived self and our organismic experience, the more
vulnerable we are. People are vulnerable when they are
unaware of the discrepancy between their organismic
self and their significant experience. Lacking awareness of
their incongruence, vulnerable people often behave in
ways that are incomprehensible not only to others but
also to themselves
 Anxiety and Threat whereas vulnerability exists when we
have no awareness of the incongruence within our self,
anxiety and threat are experienced as we gain awareness
of such an incongruence
 Anxiety is defined as “a state of uneasiness or tension
whose cause is unknown”
 As we become more aware of the incongruence between
our organismic experience and our perception of self, our
anxiety begins to evolve into threat: that is, an awareness
that our self is no longer whole or congruent
 Anxiety and threat can represent steps toward
psychological health because they signal to us that our
organismic experience is inconsistent with our self-
concept.
Defensiveness
 In order to prevent this inconsistency between our
organismic experience and our perceived self, we react in
a defensive manner.
 Defensiveness is the protection of the self-concept
against anxiety and threat by denying or distorting
experiences inconsistent with it
 2 chief defenses are distortion and denial:
 1Distortion, we misinterpret an experience in order to fit
it into some aspect of our self-concept. We perceive the
experience in awareness, but we fail to understand its
true meaning
 2Denial, we refuse to perceive an experience in
awareness, or at least we keep some aspect of it from
reaching symbolization
Disorganization
 Sometimes defenses fail and behavior becomes
disorganized or psychotic
 But why would defenses fail to function?
 When the incongruence between people’s perceived self
and their organismic experience is either too obvious or
occurs too suddenly to be denied or distorted, their
behavior becomes disorganized.
 Ironically, people are particularly vulnerable to
disorganization during therapy, especially if a therapist
accurately interprets their actions and also insists that
they face the experience prematurely
 In a state of disorganization, people sometimes behave
consistently with their organismic experience and
sometimes in accordance with their shattered self-
concept.
PSYCHOTHERAPY
 Rogerian therapy, therefore, can be viewed in terms of
conditions, process, and outcomes.
 First, an anxious or vulnerable client must come into
contact with a congruent therapist who also possesses
empathy and unconditional positive regard for that client.
 Next, the client must perceive these characteristics in the
therapist.
 Finally, the contact between client and therapist must be
of some duration.
 Even though all three conditions are necessary for
psychological growth, Rogers believed that congruence is
more basic than either unconditional positive regard or
empathic listening. Congruence is a general quality
possessed by the therapist, whereas the other two
conditions are specific feelings or attitudes that the
therapist has for an individual client.
Counselor Congruence
 The first necessary and sufficient condition for
therapeutic change is a congruent therapist. Congruence
exists when a person’s organismic experiences are
matched by an awareness of them and by an ability and
willingness to openly express these feelings
 Like most other people, congruent therapists are
constantly exposed to new organismic experiences, but
unlike most people, they accept these experiences into
awareness, which contributes to their psychological
growth.
 Because congruence involves (1) feelings, (2) awareness,
and (3) expression, incongruence can arise from either of
the two points dividing these three experiences.
Unconditional Positive Regard
 Positive regard is the need to be liked, prized, or
accepted by another person. When this need exists
without any conditions or qualifications, unconditional
positive regard occurs
 Although therapists may value some client behaviors
more than others, their positive regard remains constant
and unwavering.
 External evaluation, whether positive or negative, leads
to clients’ defensiveness and prevents psychological
growth
 “Regard” means that there is a close relationship and
that the therapist sees the client as an important person
 “Positive” indicates that the direction of the relationship
is toward warm and caring feelings
 “Unconditional” suggests that the positive regard is no
longer dependent on specific client behaviors and does
not have to be continually earned
Empathic Listening
 Empathy exists when therapists accurately sense the
feelings of their clients and are able to communicate
these perceptions so that clients know that another
person has entered their world of feelings without
prejudice, projection, or evaluation.
 Empathy “means temporarily living in the other’s life,
moving about in it delicately without making judgments”
 Client-centered therapists do not take empathy for
granted; they check the accuracy of their sensings by
trying them out on the client (Ex: “It seems to me that...”
“Would I be right if I say…?”)
 Empathic listening is a powerful tool, which along with
genuineness and caring, facilitates personal growth
within the client
 What precisely is the role of empathy in psychological
change?
 Empathy is effective because it enables clients to listen to
themselves and, in effect, become their own therapists
 Empathy does not mean that a therapist has the same
feelings as the client. A therapist does not feel anger,
frustration, confusion, resentment, or sexual attraction at
the same time a client experiences them. Rather, a
therapist is experiencing the depth of the client’s feeling
while permitting the client to be a separate person
 Empathy does not mean that a therapist has the same
feelings as the client. A therapist does not feel anger,
frustration, confusion, resentment, or sexual attraction at
the same time a client experiences them. Rather, a
therapist is experiencing the depth of the client’s feeling
while permitting the client to be a separate person
PROCESS
7 Stages of Therapeutic Change
 The process of constructive personality change can be
placed on a continuum from most defensive to most
integrated. Rogers arbitrarily divided this continuum into
seven stages.
Stage 1 is characterized by:
 Unwillingness to communicate
 Extremely rigid and resistant to change
 Don’t recognize problem
 Refuse to own personal feelings
In Stage 2
 Slightly less rigid
 Discuss external events and other people
 But still disown or fail to recognize own feelings
 May talk about feelings as if they were objective phenomena
Stage 3
 More freely talk about self, although still as an object.
“I’m doing the best I can at work, but my boss still
doesn’t like me.”
 Clients talk about feelings and emotions in the past or
future tense and avoid present feelings.
 Refuse to accept their emotions, keep personal feelings
at a distance from the here-and-now situation,
 Only vaguely perceive that they can make personal
choices
 Deny individual responsibility for most of their decisions.
Stage 4
 Begin to talk of deep feelings but not ones presently felt
(was instead of is)
 They deny or distort experiences, although they may
have some dim recognition that they are capable of
feeling emotions in the present.
 Begin to question some values that have been introjected
from others; start to see the incongruence between
perceived self and organismic experience.
 Accept more freedom and responsibility than they did in
Stage 3 and begin to tentatively allow themselves to
become involved in a relationship with the therapist
Stage 5
 Begun to undergo significant change and growth
 Express feelings in the present, although they have not
yet accurately symbolized those feelings
 Beginning to rely on an internal locus of evaluation for
their feelings and to
 Make new discoveries about themselves. They also
 Experience a greater differentiation of feelings and
develop more appreciation for nuances among them
 Begin to make their own decisions and to accept
responsibility for their choices.
Stage 6
 Experience dramatic growth and an irreversible
movement toward becoming fully functioning or self-
actualizing
 Freely allow into awareness those experiences that they
had previously denied or distorted
 Become more congruent
 No longer evaluate their own behavior from an external
viewpoint but rely on their organismic self as the criterion
for evaluating experiences.
 Begin to develop unconditional self-regard
 An interesting concomitant to this stage is a physiological
loosening. These people experience their whole
organismic self, as their muscles relax, tears flow,
circulation improves, and physical symptoms disappear.
 Stage 6 signals an end to therapy. Indeed, if therapy were
to be terminated at this point, clients would still progress
to the next level.
Stage 7
 Can occur outside the therapeutic encounter, because
growth at Stage 6 seems to be irreversible
 Clients who reach Stage 7 become fully functioning
“persons of tomorrow”
Theoretical Explanation for Therapeutic Change
 When persons come to experience themselves as prized
and unconditionally accepted, they realize that they are
lovable.
 As clients perceive that they are emphatically
understood, they are freed to listen to themselves more
accurately, to have empathy for their own feelings. As a
consequence, when these persons come to prize
themselves and to accurately understand themselves,
their perceived self becomes more congruent with their
organismic experiences.
OUTCOMES
 The most basic outcome of successful client-centered
therapy is a congruent client who is less defensive and
more open to experience.
 Each of the remaining outcomes is a logical extension of
this basic one:
 Have a clearer picture of themselves and a more realistic
view of the world
 Better able to assimilate experiences into the self on the
symbolic level
 More effective in solving problems
 Have a higher level of positive self-regard
 Narrow the gap between self-ideal and real self
 Etc.
THE PERSON OF TOMORROW
 Whereas Maslow was primarily a researcher,
 Rogers was first of all a psychotherapist whose concern
with psychologically healthy people grew out of his
general theory of therapy.
 If the three necessary and sufficient therapeutic
conditions of congruence, unconditional positive regard,
and empathy are optimal, then what kind of person
would emerge?
 More adaptable: would be more likely to survive—hence
the title “persons of tomorrow.”
 Open to their experiences: accurately symbolizing them in
awareness
 Trust in their organismic selves: They would not depend
on others for guidance
 Live fully in the moment: They would see each experience
with a new freshness and appreciate it fully in the
present moment (existential living)
 Ability to experience harmonious relations with others
 They would feel no need to be liked or loved by
everyone, because they would know that they are
unconditionally prized and accepted by someone.
 More integrated, more whole, with no artificial boundary
between conscious processes and unconscious ones

 Basic trust of human nature: would not harm others

merely for personal gain; they would care about others
and be ready to help when needed; they would
experience anger but could be trusted not to strike out
unreasonably against others

 Enjoy a greater richness in life: They would neither distort

internal stimuli nor buffer their emotions
CONCEPT OF HUMANITY
 Rogers, however, contended that people have some
degree of free choice and some capacity to be self-
directed. Admitting that some portion of human behavior
is controlled, predictable, and lawful, Rogers argued that
the important values and choices are within the scope of
personal control.

 However, Rogers was also aware that people can be quite

brutal, nasty, and neurotic

 Yet, one of the most refreshing and invigorating parts of

my experience is to work with such individuals and to
discover the strongly positive directional tendencies
which exist in them, as in all of us, at the deepest levels

 Tendency toward growth and self-actualization has a

biological basis

 Rogers’s theory is also high on teleology, maintaining that

people strive with purpose toward goals that they freely
set for themselves

 Uniqueness than on similarities

 Did not deny the importance of unconscious processes,

his primary emphasis was on the ability of people to
consciously choose

 Biological versus social influences

 No evaluation in terms of morality applies to the nature

of humanity.