Reading Assignment No.

5
Theories of Personality (TTh 8:30-10:00 AM)
By: Danielle Kate M. Fontamillas

1. How did Carl Rogers’s clinical experience differ from Sigmund Freud’s?

• Unlike Freud, Carl Rogers failed clinically before developing the non-directive approach
to therapy.
• Rogers developed a "client-centered" approach, while Freud founded psychodynamics.
• Rogers claimed that his approach does not use a predetermined theoretical structure
like Freudian psychoanalysis in which the therapist must fit the patient's problem.
Person-centered therapists only believe in the client's worth.
• Rogers opposed free association, dream analysis, and case histories. He believed they
made clients dependent on the therapist, who then assumed an aura of expertise and
authority and could solve their problems if the clients did what they said.
• He focused on the individual rather than the unconscious and was more humanistic than
Freud.
• His patients had adjustment issues, not severe emotional disorders like Freud's.

2. Differentiate the two basic assumptions of Rogers. And explain the factors involved in
experiencing incongruence.

• All matter—organic and inorganic—has a formative tendency to evolve from simpler to

more complex forms. It shows that the universe is creative, not disintegrative. It also
examines how consciousness evolves from primitive unconsciousness to highly
organized awareness.
• The actualizing tendency it is the 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. Actualization involves the whole person—physiological,
intellectual, rational, emotional, conscious, and unconscious—because each person is a
complete organism.

Factors involved in experiencing incongruence:

• Vulnerability – when they are unaware of the discrepancy between their organismic self
and their significant experience.
• Anxiety – a state of uneasiness or tension whose cause is unknown.
• Threat – can represent steps toward psychological health because they signal to us that
our organismic experience is inconsistent with our self-concept.
3. Explain how conditions of worth, incongruence, defensiveness, and disorganization become
barriers to psychological growth.

• Conditions of Worth – this is the opposite of receiving unconditional positive regard. It

becomes a barrier to psychological growth because it becomes a criterion for accepting
or rejecting our experiences. When we see that others accept us regardless of our
actions, we begin to believe that we are valued unconditionally. However, if we believe
that some of our behaviors are approved and others are not, we can see that our worth
is conditional. Essentially, it prevents us from being completely open to our own
experiences.
• Incongruence – psychological disequilibrium begins when we fail to recognize our
organismic experiences as self-experiences; that is, when we fail to accurately symbolize
organismic experiences into awareness because they appear to contradict our
developing self-concept. The source of psychological disorders is the disjunction
between our self-concept and our organismic experience.
• Defensiveness – is the defense of the self-concept against anxiety and threat through
denial or distortion of experiences that contradict it. When one of our experiences
contradicts a part of our self-concept, we will react defensively to protect the current
structure of our self-concept.
a. Distortion – we misinterpret an experience to incorporate it into some
aspect of our self-concept. In awareness, we perceive the experience but do
not comprehend its true meaning.
b. Denial – we refuse to perceive an experience in awareness, or at the very
least, we prevent some aspect of it from becoming symbolized.
• Disorganization – a gap between people's organismic experiences and their sense of
self. People's behavior becomes disorganized when the incongruence between their
perceived self and their organismic experience is either too obvious or occurs too
suddenly to be denied or distorted.

4. What are the conditions necessary for Psychological Growth. Explain each condition.

• Counselor Congruence – it is when a counselor is genuinely authentic and honest with

their client. They are a complete human being with the same emotions that we do. They
don't put on a mask, don't try to put on a happy face, and avoid any pretense of
friendliness or affection when these emotions aren't truly felt. It entails emotions,
awareness, and expression.
• Unconditional Positive Regard (UPR) – this is when the therapist unconditionally accepts
the client. The attitude is free of possessiveness, evaluations, and reservations.
Unconditional positive regard implies that therapists accept and value their clients
unconditionally, without regard for their behavior.
 • Empathic Listening – when therapists accurately sense their clients' feelings and can
communicate these perceptions in such a way that clients understand that another
person has entered their world without prejudice, projection, or evaluation When a
therapist sees things from the client's perspective, the client feels safe and
unthreatened.

5. What concept/s could you relate most in Rogers’ theory and why?

Simply put, I found deep resonance in nearly every one of Rogers' theories and ideas. First, I liked
that he took the time to explain what factors contribute to personal development. The vast
majority of people in the world want to feel accepted and understood by someone without any
hint of pretense. One of the things I seek most at Christ's feet is an expression of love that is not
conditional on anything I do or say. Secondly, I find myself agreeing with the readings because of
their emphasis on encouraging curiosity and originality. Truly, growth and improvement are
continuous processes that never reach completion. Every one of us grows and develops as time
passes, and even the smallest of these improvements is cause for joy. In the third place, I've been
thinking a lot his concept on the conditions of worth. I can't help but think that maybe I captured
this bit of wisdom when I was young, to the point that I'll always feel the need to put on a show
to earn the approval of those around me (this shall be discussed in the theory I am in the process
of making). In sum, I found Rogers' theory to be the most compelling of its kind I've encountered.