ROGERS PERSON CENTERED APPROACH:Humanistic, Actualizing tendency

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Personality Psychology PSY 405

Lesson 21

ROGERS PERSON CENTERED APPROACH

Client Centered Approach or

Client Centered Therapy

Self Theory of Personality

1- Phenomenological theory of personality is that a person's behavior is obtained through observation of

his internal frame of reference. why an individual thinks, feels, and behaves in a given way, it is necessary

to know how that person perceives and interprets the world.

2- Humanistic

Humanistic view puts the emphasis on the positive aspects of life, free choices and personal growth

experiences.

Example:

In order to understand the personality of my Pakistani students I have to study their frame of reference and

see how they think , feel and behave.

So I have to put myself in their position and understand their personality

(empathy).

3-Actualizing tendency

An innate need to survive, grow and enhance one's self.

4- Fully Functioning Person is Rogers' view of the Good Life

It is a term used by Rogers to designate individuals who are using their capacities and talents, realizing

their potentials.

1-Biographical Sketch

2-Actualizing tendency

3-Rogers phenomenological position

4-Concept of self

5-Need for positive regard

6-Conditions of worth

7-Unconditional positive regard

8-Experience of threat and process of defense

Threat

Anxiety

9-Defense mechanisms

10-Fully functioning person

Five characteristics:

1-Openness to experience

2-Experiential living

3-Organismic trusting

4-Experiential freedom

5-Creativity or psychological maturity

Personality Psychology PSY 405

11-Rogers view of science and research

12-Measuring self concept

13-Personality organization

14-Client centered therapy

15-Psychotherapy and gardening

16-Student centered teaching

17-Summary

18-Evaluation

Roger's Person Centered Approach

A Phenomenological Theory of Personality

Phenomenology is the study of the individual's subjective experience, feelings, and private concepts as

well as his or her personal views of world and self. As a disciplined effort to explain why each of us

experiences and relates to the world as we do, phenomenological psychology today has one of its most

articulate spokesmen in Carl Rogers. For Rogers, behavior is utterly dependent upon how one perceives the

world-that is, behavior is the result of immediate events as they are perceived and interpreted by the

individual. Such an approach to personology emphasizes the self and its characteristics. Indeed, Rogers'

theory is often referred to as a self theory of personality because, for him, "the best vantage point for

understanding behavior is from the internal frame of reference of the individual himself" (Rogers, 1951, p.

494).

Biographical Sketch

Carl Ransom Rogers was born January 8, 1902, in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. He was the

fourth of six children five of whom were hoys. His father was a civil engineer and contractor who achieved

financial success in his profession, so the family was economically secure throughout Rogers' childhood

and early youth.

Rogers has written several books on counseling and personality, including Psychotherapy and Personality

Change (with R. Dymond, 1954), On Becoming a Person: A Therapist's View of Psychotherapy (1961),

Freedom to Learn: A View of What Education Might Become (1969), Carl Rogers on Encounter Groups

(1970), Becoming Partners: Marriage and Its Alternatives (1972), and Carl Rogers on Personal Power

(1977). His autobiography appears in A History of Psychology in Autobiography (Volume 5, 1967, pp.

341-384). Carl Rogers is unquestionably one of the most influential American psychologists.

On the basis of his clinical experience, Rogers has concluded that the inner-most core of human nature is

essentially purposive, forward-moving, constructive, realistic, and quite trustworthy. He regards the person

as an active force of energy oriented toward future goals and self-directed purposes, rather than a creature

pushed and pulled by forces beyond his or her control

Rogers contends that Christianity has nourished the belief that man is innately evil and sinful. Moreover, it

is his contention that this negative view of humanity has been reinforced by Freud, who presented a portrait

of the person with an id and an unconscious which would, if permitted expression, manifest itself in incest,

homicide, thievery, rape, and other horrendous acts. According to this view, humanity is basically and

fundamentally irrational, non-socialized, selfish, and destructive of self and others. Rogers (I957a) agrees

that people occasionally express a variety of bitter and murderous feelings, abnormal impulses, and bizarre

and antisocial actions. Thus, when people are functioning fully, when they are free to experience and to

satisfy their inner natures, they show themselves to be positive and rational creatures those can be trusted to

live in harmony with themselves and others. Aware that his view of human nature, may be considered to be

nothing more, than naive optimism.

In sum, Rogers has a profound (almost religious) sense of respect for human nature. He posits that the

human organism has a natural tendency to move in the direction of differentiation, self-responsibility,

cooperation, and maturity. The expression of this basic nature, according to Rogers, allows for the

continuation and enhancement of the individual and the species.

Personality Psychology PSY 405

Actualizing Tendency as Life's Master Motive

In line with his positive view of human nature, Rogers hypothesizes that all behavior is energized and

directed by a single, unitary motive which he calls the actualizing tendency

Certain definitive characteristics mark the actualizing tendency. First, it is rooted in the physiological

processes of the entire body (i.e., it is a biological fact, not a psychological tendency). At an organic level

this inborn tendency involves not only the maintenance of the organism by meeting deficiency needs (air,

food, water) but also the enhancement of the organism by providing for development and differentiation of

the body's organs and functions, its growth and continual regeneration. Of even greater significance for the

human personality is the motivating force which the actualizing tendency provides for increased autonomy

and self-reliance, for enlarging one's field of experience, and for being creative.

Additionally, Rogers maintains that the actualizing tendency is common to all forms of life, it is

characteristic not only of human beings, or only of animals, but of all living things. It is the essence of life.

Rogers' Phenomenological Position

It has already been noted that Rogers' theory is illustrative of the phenomenological approach to

personality. A phenomenological position holds that what is real to an individual (i.e., what reality is

thought, understood, or felt to be) is that which exists within that person's internal frame of reference, or

subjective world, including everything in his or her awareness at any point in time. It follows that an

individual's perceptions and experiences not only constitute that person's reality but also form the basis for

his or her actions; one responds to events in accordance with how one perceives and interprets them. For

example, a thirsty man stranded in the desert will run as eagerly to a pool of water that is a mirage as to a

real pool. Similarly, two people observing an identical set of circumstances may later recall two very

different outcomes, which is often the case with "eyewitness" accounts of unidentified flying objects,

traffic accidents, and other unexpected events.

One important implication of a phenomenological perspective for a theory of personality is that the best

understanding of a person's behavior is obtained through observation of his or her internal frame of

reference. To explain why an individual thinks, feels, and behaves in a given way, it is necessary to know

how that person perceives and interprets the world. Subjective experience is thus the key to understanding

behavior. This means that the most important object of psychological study is a person's subjective

experiences, because these experiences alone are the ultimate causal agents of behavior.

Finally, Rogers' choice of a phenomenological approach to personality theory reflects his belief that the

complexity of behavior can only be understood by reference to the entire person. In other words, Rogers

espouses a holistic view of personality, the view that a person behaves as an integrated organism and that

his or her unity cannot be derived from atomistic (i.e., reductionistic) approaches to behavior. As will

become evident in the ensuing discussion, Rogers' commitment to a holistic point of view is manifest in

practically every facet of his thought.

Concept of Self: Who am I anyway?

The self is the most important construct in Rogers' theory of personality; indeed, the concept of self is

indispensable to an appreciation of Rogers' view of human behavior.

The conscious perceptions, and values of the concept "I" or "me." The self-concept denotes the individual's

conception of the kind of person he or she is. The self-concept is one's image of oneself. Especially

included are awareness of being (what I am) and awareness of function (what I can do).

The self-concept includes not only one's perceptions of what one is like but also what one thinks one ought

to be and would like to be. This latter component of the self is called the ideal self. The ideal self represents

the self-concept that the individual would. Most like to possess. It is basically equivalent to the superego in

Freudian theory.

Rogers postulates that when the self is first formed, it is governed by the organismic valuing process alone.

In other words, the infant or child evaluates each new experience in terms of whether it facilitates or

impedes his or her innate actualizing tendency. For instance, hunger, thirst, cold, pain, and sudden loud

noises are negatively valued, since they interfere with the maintenance of biological integrity. Food, water,

Personality Psychology PSY 405

security, and love are positively valued; they favor the enhancement of the organismic tendency. In a sense,

the organismic valuing process is a monitoring system that keeps the human infant on the proper course of

need, satisfaction. Infants evaluate their experiences according to whether or not they like them, whether

they are pleasing or displeasing, and so on. Such evaluations result from their spontaneous responses to

direct experiences, i.e., they are completely "natural."

Need for Positive Regard

Rogers contends that all persons possess a basic desire to experience attitudes such as warmth, respect,

admiration, love, and acceptance from significant people in their lives. This need for positive regard

develops as the awareness of self emerges, and it is pervasive and persistent. It is first seen in the infant's

need to be loved and cared for, and is subsequently reflected in the person's satisfaction when approved by

others and frustration when disapproved. Roger indicates that positive regard may be either learned or

innately given to all persons, and although he prefers the former explanation (i.e., that it is a secondary

learned motive), its origin is irrelevant to his theory.

Conditions of Worth

Given the fact that a child has a compelling need for Positive regard, she becomes increasingly sensitive to

or influenced by the attitudes. For example, such is the case when a father tells his son that bringing home a

straight "A" report card will not only earn him an increase in his weekly allowance but also excuse him

from having to wash the family car and mow the grass. Conditional positive regard is also manifest in many

other types of human relationships involving the giving or withholding of approval and support.

Rogers states rather forcefully that conditions of worth imposed on a child are detrimental to his or her

becoming a fully functioning person. This is because the child tries to attain standards set by others rather

than to identify and attain what she or he really is or wants to be. Thus, he comes to evaluate himself and

his worth as an individual (what is valuable and what is not valuable about himself) in terms of only those

of his actions, thoughts, and feelings that received approval and support.

Unconditional Positive Regard

While it is obvious that no person is completely devoid of conditions of worth, Rogers feels that it is

possible to give or (receive positive regard irrespective of the worth placed on specific aspects of a person's

behavior. This means that a person is accepted and respected for what he or she is without any ifs, ands, or

buts.' Such unconditional positive regard is strikingly evident in a mother's love for her child when-

regardless of the child's actions, thoughts, and feelings- he or she is genuinely loved and respected. She

loves the child because it is her child, not because the child has fulfilled any specific condition or lived up

to a Specific Expectation

It can be seen, then, that Rogers' emphasis on unconditional positive regard as the ideal approach to

child rearing does not imply an absence of discipline, social constraints, or other forms of behavioral

control. What it does mean is providing an atmosphere in which a child is valued and loved for exactly

what he or she is- a precious human being. When children perceive themselves in such a way that no

self-experience is more or less worthy of positive regard than any other, they are experiencing

unconditional positive self-regard.

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