Humanistic Existential Perspective

Carl Ransom RogersRollo Reese May

SEMINAR ON PERSONALITY

ByLekshmi Priya.K.B2nd MSc Applied Psycholgy

Humanistic Perspective

• Humanistic perspective focus on each individual's potential and stressed the importance of growth and self- actualization

• Humanistic psychology emerged during the 1950s as a reaction to psychoanalysis and behaviorism, which dominated psychology at the time.

• Psychoanalysis was focused on understanding the unconscious motivations that drive behavior while behaviorism studied the conditioning processes that produce behavior.

• Humanist thinkers felt that both psychoanalysis and behaviorism were too pessimistic, either focusing on the most tragic of emotions or failing to take into account the role of personal choice. 

• In 1962, Abraham Maslow published ”Toward a Psychology of Being”, in which he described humanistic psychology as the "third force" in psychology

Focus of Humanist

• It emphasize the role of individual

• Each individuals have potentials and stressed the importance of growth and self actualization.

• People are innately good and mental and social problems results in deviations from the natural tendency.

  Humanists hold the following beliefs:• The present is the most important aspect of the person and therefore

humanists focus on the here and now rather than looking at the past or trying to predict the future.

• Humanistic theory is reality based and to be psychologically healthy people must take responsibility for themselves, whether the person’s actions are positive or negative.

• The individual, merely by being human, posses an inherent worth. 

• The goal of life should always be to achieve personal growth and understanding. 

• Only through self-improvement and self-knowledge can one truly be happy.

Carl Ransom Rogers (1902-1987)

BIOGRAPHY

• Carl Rogers was born on January 8, 1902, in Oak Park, Illinois, the fourth of six children to Walter and Julia Rogers. 

• His father, a successful contractor, engineer, and farmer, believed in the virtue of hard work.

• His mother had strong fundamentalist religious convictions and raised her six children (five boys) in a home where drinking, smoking, dancing, and playing cards were sinful. She believed that the elect people of God should not mingle with those whose actions indicated that they were otherwise.

BIOGRAPHY cont…

• Rogers later said that his attitude as a youth toward others outside the home "was characterized by distance and aloofness … taken over from … parents."

• He had only superficial contacts with others. He was a solitary boy who between numerous farm chores found time to read.

• His interests outside of school focused on science, reading his father's books on scientific farming, and studying systematically the life cycle of moths found in woods near his home.

BIOGRAPHY cont…

• Rogers' college years brought a break with the orientation of his parents and an end to his solitary life style.

• During those years at the University of Wisconsin (1919-1924) he began dating and soon developed a close relationship with his childhood friend Helen Elliot, whom he married upon graduation.

• During his sophomore year he changed majors from agriculture to history, thinking that the latter would be more suitable for a career in religious work. 

BIOGRAPHY cont…

• He majored in clinical psychology and child guidance and graduated with a master's degree (1926) and a doctorate (1931). 

• In 1928 the Rogers family (now including a two-year-old son and a daughter on the way) moved to Rochester, New York, where he began work as a psychologist for the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children. 

• Several incidents in the Rochester clinic helped him "to perceive …he becomes more open… . and he finds that he is free to grow and change in desired directions."

BIOGRAPHY cont…

• During mid-career, as a college professor, Rogers was able to apply his approach to counseling and further test the ideas that had grown out of earlier experiences.

• This also was a period of wide involvement in professional organizations and much writing effort. His theory and method quickly grew in popularity, but many established psychiatrists remained dubious as to their scientific rigor and applicability. 

BIOGRAPHY cont…

• Throughout his career he was active in professional organizations including being elected president of the American Association of Applied Psychology (1944), the American Psychological Association (1946), and the American Academy of Psychotherapists (1956).

• He received both the First Distinguished Professional Contribution Award and the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association

• He was prominent in the human potential movement, and his book on encounter groups had an impressive impact.

Rogers's Theory of Personality

• Carl Rogers was a highly-influential humanistic psychologist who developed a personality theory that emphasized the importance of self-actualizing tendency in shaping human personalities.

• Carl Roger's theory is phenomenological and idiographic.

Development of Personality

• Positive Regard• Unconditional positive regard• Positive self regard• Conditions of worth• Conditional positive regard

Carl Rogers (1951) viewed the child as having two Basic Needs.

• positive regard from other people and self-worth.

• positive regard : Rogers believed that we need to be regarded positively by others; we need to feel valued, respected, treated with affection and loved. Positive regard is to do with how other people evaluate and judge us in social interaction. Rogers made a distinction between unconditional positive regard and conditional positive regard.

• self-worth :Self-worth may be seen as a continuum from very high to very low.  For Carl Rogers (1959) a person who has high self-worth, that is, has confidence and positive feelings about him or her self, faces challenges in life, accepts failure and unhappiness at times, and is open with people.

• Rogers believed feelings of self-worth developed in early childhood and were formed from the interaction of the child with the mother and father. As a child grows older, interactions with significant others will affect feelings of self-worth.

• Positive Regard: Acceptance , love and approval from others.

• Unconditional positive regard: Approval granted regardless of a person’s behaviour.In Roger’s person-centered therapy, the therapist offer the client UPR

• Positive self regard:The condition under which we grant ourselves acceptance and approval

• Conditions of worth: A belief that we are worthy of approval only when we express desirable bahviours and attitudes and refrain from expressing those that bring disapproval from others. Similar to Freud’s super ego.

• Conditional positive regard:Approval,love or acceptance granted only when a person expresses desirable bahaviours and attitudes.

Structure of personality

Rogers did not emphasize structural constructs. But there are two constructs that are fundamental in his theory they are:

1. The organism 2. The self• Ideal self

• Congruence and Incongruence

• The organism : is a "phenomenal field“(subjective reality) includes all experiences available at a given moment, both conscious and unconscious (Rogers, 1959).As development occurs, a portion of this field becomes differentiated and this becomes the person's "self" (Hall &Lindzey, 1985; Rogers, 1959).

• The "self" : is a central construct in this theory. It develops through interactions with others and involves awareness of being and functioning. The self-concept is "the organized set of characteristics that the individual perceives as peculiar to himself/herself" (Ryckman, 1993). It is based largely on the social evaluations he/she has experienced.

• 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.

Congruence and Incongruence

• Congruence :A person’s ideal self and actual self experience are consistent or very similar, a state of congruence exists.

• 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

• The development of congruence is dependent on unconditional positive regard. Carl Rogers believed that for a person to achieve self-actualization they must be in a state of congruence.

• Rarely, if ever does a total state of congruence exist; all people experience a certain amount of incongruence.

Congruence and Incongruence

Fully Functioning Person

Fully Functioning Person: Roger’s term for self actualization for developing all facets of life.

Rogers identified five characteristics of the fully functioningperson1. Open to experience2. Existential living3. Trust feelings4. Creativity5. Fulfilled life.

1.Open to experience : both positive and negative emotions accepted. Negative feelings are not denied, but worked through (rather than resort to ego defence mechanisms).

2. Existential living: in touch with different experiences as they occur in life, avoiding prejudging and preconceptions. Being able to live and fully appreciate the present, not always looking back to the past or forward to the future (i.e. living for the moment).

3. Trust feelings: feeling, instincts and gut-reactions are paid attention to and trusted. People’s own decisions are the right ones and we should trust ourselves to make the right choices.

4. Creativity: creative thinking and risk taking are features of a person’s life. Person does not play safe all the time. This involves the ability to adjust and change and seek new experiences.

5. Fulfilled life: person is happy and satisfied with life, and always looking for new challenges and experiences.

Assessment in Roger’s theory

• Person centered therapy• Encounter groups• Q-sort technique

• Person centered therapy:Roger’s approach to therapy in which the client is assumed to be responsible for changing his or her personality

• Encounter groups: A group therapy technique in which people learn about their feelings and about how they relate to one another.

• Q-sort technique: A self report technique for assessing aspects of the self-concept

Summary

• As a result of his work as a psychotherapist, Carl Rogers developed his theory of personality and that is for individuals to become "Fully Functioning" persons. The "Fully Functioning" person according to Rogers is psychologically healthy, open to new experiences and aware of their own feelings and those of others. They live in the now, fully immersed in their experience and not restricted by conditions of worth or self-concepts. They are not afraid to make decisions based on their own experiences, and they trust their own feelings of doing what is right and will accept the consequences. They accept that life changes and they welcome the opportunity to use their creativity in adapting to the new changes.

Existential Perspective• Focuses on concerns rooted in existence

• From the Latin word “existere” meaning “to stand out””or “emerge”.

• Existential perspective is a philosophical method that focuses on free will, self determination and search for meaning.

• As a philosophy, existentialism began in the 19th century with the writings of Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche.

• Both philosophers emphasized freedom of choice and personal responsibility, of men and women having the right to delve into their own ideas and concepts of what gives meaning and passion to their lives, and forming a “self” based on those personal beliefs.

Responsibility meant owning and living with the decisions one made in living out those beliefs.

• Studied and expanded by a number of other philosophers

• Existentialism eventually became an early 20th century movement

• Existentialism understands the human to be challenged by the reality of temporary existence, and the view that life has no inherent meaning; meaning had to be constructed. 

• Authentic human beings were those who could face existential pointlessness and yet still go on to construct a meaningful life.  The existential perspective could be understood thus:

All existence ends in deathTherefore, what is the point?

The human challenge:Descend into nothingnessor have the courage to be?

• Existentialism represents the philosophical root of the phenomenological approach to personality.

• After WWII this philosophy gained a large following in Europe. 

• The key issue for existential psychology is: All existence ends in death. Therefore, what is the point? The human challenge: Do we descend into nothingness or have the courage to be? All we have is existence. So existential psychology is about helping people to BE and helping people take responsibility for their lives.

• The existential perspective was introduced into the US by Rollo May.

Rollo Reese May

BIOGRAPHY• Rollo May was born April 21, 1909, in Ada, Ohio. • Grew up in a family that did not value education• His childhood was not particularly pleasant:  His parents didn’t

get along and eventually divorced, and his sister had a psychotic breakdown.

• Lonely childhood

• After a brief time at Michigan State (he was asked to leave because of his involvement with a radical student magazine), he attended Oberlin College in Ohio, where he received his bachelors degree.

• After graduation, he went to Greece, where he taught English at Anatolia College for three years.  During this period, he also spent time as an roaming artist and even studied briefly with Alfred Adler.

BIOGRAPHY cont…

• When he returned to the US, he entered Union Theological Seminary and became friends with one of his teachers, Paul Tillich, the existentialist theologian, who would have a profound effect on his thinking.  May received his BD in 1938.

• May suffered from tuberculosis, and had to spend three years in a sanatorium.  This was probably the turning point of his life.  While he faced the possibility of death, he also filled his empty hours with reading.  Among the literature he read were the writings of Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish religious writer who inspired much of the existential movement, and provided the inspiration for May’s theory.

BIOGRAPHY cont…• He went on to study psychoanalysis at White Institute, where

he met people such as Harry Stack Sullivan and Erich Fromm. 

• And finally, he went to Columbia University in New York, where in 1949 he received the first PhD in clinical psychology that institution ever awarded.

• After receiving his PhD, he went on to teach at a variety of top schools.  In 1958, he edited, with Ernest Angel and Henri Ellenberger, the book Existence, which introduced existential psychology to the US. 

• He spent the last years of his life in Tiburon, California, until he died in October of 1994.

Basic concept of Rollo May is Being-in-the-world

• Being-in-the-world Humans can chose their own being.The choices that they make about being are not just concerned with whether or not to commit suicide but are relevant to every instant of their lives.

• Three modes of being in world

1. Umwelt : The natural environment(World around)2. Mitwelt: The world of interrelations(With world)3. Eigenwelt : Our own world(Own world)

Stages of Development

• He is also the only existential psychologist who discusses certain “stages” of development:

1. Innocence 2. Rebellion3. Ordinary4. Creative

• Innocence -- the pre-egoic, pre-self-conscious stage of the infant. The innocent is premoral, i.e. is neither bad nor good.  Like a wild animal who kills to eat, the innocent is only doing what he or she must do.  But an innocent does have a degree of will in the sense of a drive to fulfill their needs.

• Rebellion -- The rebellious person wants freedom, but has as yet no full understanding of the responsibility that goes with it.  The teenager may want to spend their allowance in any way they choose -- yet they still expect the parent to provide the money, and will complain about unfairness if they don't get it.

• Ordinary -- the normal adult ego, conventional and a little boring, perhaps.  They have learned responsibility, but find it too demanding, and so seek refuge in conformity and traditional values.

• Creative -- the authentic adult, the existential stage, beyond ego and self-actualizing.  This is the person who, accepting destiny, faces anxiety with courage.

May’s Major Concepts

• Anxiety• Guilt•  Intentionality• Care, Love, and Will•  Freedom and Destiny• Psychopathology• Psychotherapy

Anxiety

• People experience anxiety when they become aware that their existence or something identified with it might be destroyed. The acquisition of freedom inevitably leads to anxiety, which can be either pleasurable and constructive or painful and destructive.

•A. Normal AnxietyGrowth produces normal anxiety, defined as that which is proportionate to the threat, does not involve repression, and can be handled on a conscious level.

•B. Neurotic AnxietyNeurotic anxiety is a reaction that is disproportionate to the threat and that leads to repression and defensive behaviors. It is felt whenever one's values are transformed into belief. Neurotic anxiety blocks growth and productive action.

GuiltGuilt arises whenever people deny their potentialities, fail to accurately perceive the needs of others, or remain blind to their dependence on the natural world.

IntentionalityThe structure that gives meaning to experience and allows people to make decisions about the future is called intentionality.

Care, Love, and WillCare is an active process that suggests that things matter. Love means to care, to be happy in the presence of another person.Care is also an important ingredient in will, It is defined as a conscious commitment to action.

Freedom and Destiny

Psychologically healthy individuals are comfortable with freedom, able to assume responsibility for their choices, and willing to face their destiny.

• May recognized two forms of freedom: (1) freedom of doing, or freedom of action, which he called

existential freedom, (2) freedom of being, or an inner freedom, which he called

essential freedom.

 Psychopathology Psychopathology is a lack of connectedness and an inability to

fulfill one's destiny.

Assessment in May’s Theory Psychotherapy

The goal of May's psychotherapy was not to cure patients of any specific disorder, but to make them more fully human. May said that the purpose of psychotherapy is to set people free, to allow them to make choices and to assume responsibility for those choices.

Summary

• May viewed people as complex beings, capable of both tremendous good and immense evil. People have become alienated from the world, from other people, and, most of all, from themselves. On the dimensions of a concept of humanity, May rates high on free choice, teleology, social influences, and uniqueness. On the issue of conscious or unconscious forces, his theory takes a middle position.

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