CARL ROGERS

-Born on January 8, 1902 in Oak

Park, Illinois, a suburb of
Chicago, the fourth of six
children.

-There were no economic

problems during his early life
since Rogers’s father was a
successful civil engineer and
contractor while his mother was
a housewife and a devout
Christian.
 CARL ROGERS

-His parents discouraged the

development of friendships
outside their home because,
nonfamily members engaged in
questionable activities.

-At the age of 12, his family

moved to a farm where he
developed an interest in science.

-With strict upbringing and

many chores, he became
isolated, independent and self-
disciplined.
 CARL ROGERS

-In 1919, he enrolled at the

University of Wisconsin and
chose to study agriculture. Later,
he switched to religion to study for
the ministry.

-In 1922, Rogers’s was one of the

ten students selected to attend the
World Student Christian
Federation Conference in Peking,
China for six (6) months.

-After graduation, he married

Helen Elliott despite of strong
parental disapproval and moved to
New York City where he enrolled
in the Liberal Union Theological
Seminary.
 CARL ROGERS

-He doubted that the best vehicle

for help to individuals with
problems was to be found in
religious doctrine (Religion’s loss,
emerged, Psychology’s gain).

-Rogers’s transferred to Columbia

University to study clinical and
educational psychology.

-Begun his clinical work at the

Rochester Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Children
(where he had worked as an intern
while pursuing his Ph.D.)
 CARL ROGERS

-Returned to his Alma Mater

(Univ. of Wisconsin) in 1957 to
teach, however, there was
conflict in the psychology
department that he became
disillusioned with higher
education.

-He accepted a research position

in La Jolla, California, where he
provided therapy, gave speeches
and wrote until his death in
1987.
 THEORY

 Rogers’s is mainly interested in discovering the

conditions under which a person can fully
develop his or her potentialities.
 The entire theory is built on a single “force of
life,” he calls the actualizing tendency.
For a person to “grow,” he needs
an environment that provides him
with:
 Genuineness (openness and self-disclosure)

 Acceptance (being seen with unconditional

positive regard)
 Empathy (being listened to and understood)
 Rogers believed that every person can
achieve their goals, wishes and desires in
life. When or if they did so, self-
actualization took place.
 The Actualizing Tendency

 The built-in motivation present in every

life-form to develop its potentials to the
fullest extent possible. He believes that all
creatures strive to make the very best of
their existence. If they fail to do so, it is
not for a lack of desire.
 Why do we want air, water and food? Why do
we seek safety, love and a sense of
competence? Why, do we seek to discover new
medicines, invent new power sources, or create
new works of art? That is because, it is in our
nature as living things to do the very best we
can!!! -quoted
“The organism has one basic tendency and striving – to actualize,
maintain and enhance the experiencing organism” (Rogers, 1951).

 All humans, as well as other living

organisms, have an innate need to survive,
grow and enhance themselves. All biological
drives are included under actualizing tendency,
because they must be satisfied if the organism
is to continue its positive development. This
“forward thrust of life” continues in spite of
many obstacles.
 For example:
Children first learning to walk stumble
again and again, but, despite the pain,
press on with their attempts to walk.
The actualizing tendency causes
individual to become:

 More differentiated (complex)

 More independent

 More socially responsible

 All of an organisms experiences are
evaluated using the actual tendency as a
frame of reference. Rogers calls this
method of evaluating one’s experiences
the organismic valuing process.
 Those experiences that are in accordance
with the actualizing tendency are
satisfying and thus, are approached and
maintained.
 Those experiences that are contrary to
the actualizing tendency are unsatisfying,
and therefore are avoided or terminated.
 Organismic Valuing Process

 Creates a feedback system that allows the

organism to coordinate its experiences
with its tendency toward self-
actualization.
Carl Rogers’s Person-Centered
Theory

 Central to his personality theory is

the notion of the SELF or SELF-
CONCEPT.
 Self-concept

 The organized, consistent set of

perceptions, thoughts, feelings and
beliefs people have about
themselves.
 Two Primary Sources
Influencing the Self-concept:

 Childhood experiences
 Evaluation by others
 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.
 Three Components of Self-
Concept:

 Self-worth (or self-esteem) – what we

think about ourselves. Rogers believed
feelings of self-worth developed in early
childhood and were formed from the
interaction of the child with the mother
and father.
 Self-Image – How we see ourselves, which is
important to good psychological health.

 Includes the influence of our body image on inner

personality. At a simple level, we might perceive
ourselves as a good or bad person, beautiful or ugly.
Self-image has an affect on how a person thinks feels
and behaves in the world.
 Ideal Self – This is the person who we
would like to be. It consists of our goals
and ambitions in life, and is dynamic –
i.e. forever changing.
 The ideal self in childhood is not the
ideal self in our teens or late twenties etc.
Self-Worth and Positive Regard
 Two basic needs of
the child as viewed
by Carl Rogers:

 Positive Regard
from other People
 Self-Worth
Self-Worth and Positive Regard

 How we think about ourselves, our

feelings of self-worth are of
fundamental importance both to
psychological health and the likelihood
that we can attain our goals and
ambitions in life and achieve self-
actualization.
 Self-Worth and Positive Regard

 High Self-Worth  Low Self-Worth

-has confidence -avoid challenges in life
-positive feelings about him or -not accept that life can be
herself painful and unhappy at
-faces challenges in life times
-accepts failure and -he/she will be defensive and
unhappiness at times, and is guarded with other people
open with people.
Self-Worth and Positive Regard

 Self-Worth are developed in early

childhood through child’s
interaction with the mother and
father. As child grows older,
interactions with significant others
will affect his feeling of self-worth.
Self-Worth and Positive Regard

 Positive Regard – is to do with how

other people evaluate and judge us in
social interaction.
Unconditional Positive Regard

 is where parents, significant others

(and the humanist therapist) accepts
and loves the person for what he or
she is regardless of the mistakes
committed.
 Conditional Positive Regard

 is where positive regard, praise and

approval, depend upon the child, for
example, he/she behaves in ways
that the parents think correct.
 This “conditioning” leads us to have
conditional positive self-regard as well. We
begin to like ourselves only if we meet up with
the standards others have applied to us, rather
than if we are truly actualizing our
potentials. And since these standards were
created without keeping each individual in
mind, more often than not we find ourselves
unable to meet them, and therefore unable to
maintain any sense of self-esteem.
 Conditions of Worth

 (similar to superego) the individuals

belief that he or she is worthy of
affection only when expressing
desirable behaviors.
Congruence and Incongruence

 Rogers said that people’s self-concepts

often do not exactly match reality. For
example, a person may consider himself
to be very honest but often lies to his boss
about why he is late to work.
 Congruence

 Is a fairly accurate match between the self-

concept and reality.
 A person’s ideal self and actual experience are
consistent or very similar.
 Its development is dependent on unconditional
positive regard.
 A person must be in this state for him to
achieve self-actualization.
 Incongruence

 Is a discrepancy between the actual experience

of the organism and the self-picture of the
individual insofar as it represents that
experience.
 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

 There is a gap between the real self

and the ideal self, the “I am” and the
“I should”
 Results of Incongruence

 People experience anxiety when their self-

concept are being threatened. In order to
protect themselves from anxiety, they distort
their experiences so that they can hold on to
their self-concept. (e.g. a belief of being a
generous person but stingy with her money)
 Defense Mechanisms

 As we prefer to see ourselves in ways that

are consistent with our self-image, we
may use defense mechanisms 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 his or her real feelings
and experiences will defend because the
truth hurts.
 Two defenses:

 Denial- blocking out of threatening

situation altogether.
 Keeping a memory or an impulse
out of your awareness (refuse to
perceive it) you may be able to avoid
a threatening situation. (Repression in
Freud’s term)
 Two defenses:

 Perceptual Distortion- a matter of

reinterpreting the situation so that it
appears less threatening.
(student being threatened by tests and grade may blame the professor
for poor teaching, bad attitude or for giving a tricky questions;
RATIONALIZATION in Freud’s term).
 A Fully-functioning person…

 Openness to Experience
-it is the accurate perception of one's experiences in
the world, including one's feelings.
-being able to accept reality and one’s feelings.
-if one cannot be open to his feelings, he cannot be
open to actualization
A Fully-functioning person…

 Existential Living- This is living in

the here-and-now. Rogers, as a part of
getting in touch with reality, insists that
we not live in the past or the future -- the
one is gone, and the other isn't anything
at all, yet! The present is the only reality
we have.
A Fully-functioning person…

 Organismic trusting- We should allow

ourselves to be guided by the organismic valuing
process. We should trust ourselves, do what feels right,
what comes natural.

 Rogers meant trust your real self, and you can only
know what your real self has to say if you are open to
experience and living existentially! In other words,
organismic trusting assumes you are in contact with
the actualizing tendency.
 A Fully-functioning person…

 Experiential freedom- Rogers felt that it

was irrelevant whether or not people really had
free will. We feel very much as if we do. We
feel free when choices are available to
us. Rogers says that the fully-functioning
person acknowledges that feeling of freedom,
and takes responsibility for his choices.
A Fully-functioning person…

 Creativity- If you feel free and responsible,

you will act accordingly, and participate in the
world. A fully-functioning person, in touch with
actualization, will feel obliged by their nature to
contribute to the actualization of others, even life
itself. This can be through creativity in the arts or
sciences, through social concern and parental love, or
simply by doing one's best at one's job.
 Maladjusted Person

 Defensive Living - Not open to experience

 Live According to preconceived plan -

generally laid down by parents.
 Disregards organism - not intuitive

 Feels manipulated - not free to choose

 Common and conforming

 Client-Centered/Rogerian
Therapy

 He originally called it non-directive, because he

felt that the therapist should not lead the client,
but rather be there for the client while the latter
directs the progress of the therapy.
 Clients look to therapists for guidance, and will
find it even when the therapist is trying not to
guide.
 Client-Centered/Rogerian
Therapy
 One of the phrases that Rogers used to describe
his therapy is ”SUPPORTIVE, not
reconstructive," and he uses the analogy of
learning to ride a bicycle to explain: When you
help a child to learn to ride a bike, you can't just
tell them how. They have to try it for
themselves. And you can't hold them up the whole
time either. There comes a point when you have to
let them go. If they fall, they fall, but if you hang
on, they never learn.
 Rogerian Technique

 Reflection- is the mirroring of

emotional communication.
(The therapist is expected to communicate to the
client that he is indeed listening and cares
enough to understand.)
 Qualities of an Effective
Therapist
 Congruence: genuineness, honesty with the
client.
 Empathy: the ability to feel what the client
feels.
 Learn from Client- therapy is a two-way
street
 Unconditional positive regard – genuinely
Thank you!! 