Rogers (1902-1987)

Human Nature

Rogers Freud

Humans are inherently good

Humans are inherently destructive

Control not needed Society must control humans

Negative actions come from fear and defensiveness, but are not natural

Negative actions are to be expected

Early Insights

Psychoanalytic approach often failed Authorities disagreed about what was the

best treatment Client usually knew “what’s wrong,” far

better than the therapist Looking at the present circumstances of

the client often provided more relevant information than the past

Self-actualization The force for growth and development

that is innate in all organisms Master motive, with all other biological

drives subsumed under it “the forward thrust of life”

Fulfilling that motive provides a source of energy

organismic valuing process

inner sense within a person which guides him or her in the directions of growth and health

the inner vague feeling that choosing a certain career, or a certain love partner, would be wrong for you, even if everyone else approves of that choice

Definition:

Examples:

Phenomenological Reality

A person’s subjective world

Experience All of the events of which a person could be aware

Awareness Events that have been symbolized and have therefore

entered consciousness

phenomenological fieldphenomenological field

The Self

Babies born with undifferentiated phenomenological field

Over time a self develops, in which child sees themselves as separate from other events

Need for positive regard:wanting to feel prized by people important to person

Conditions of worth:the expectations that a person must live up to before receiving respect and love

Need for self-regard:wanting to feel good about themselves

Unconditional positive regard: accepting and valuing a person without

requiring particular behaviors as a prerequisite

Being accepted and loved even if your grades are low, your weight is wrong, and your attitude is questionable

Examples:

Incongruency

Failure to use organismic valuing process to guide behavior and evaluate experiences

Introjected valuesConditions of worth that have replaced the

organismic valuing process

Incongruence is the cause of all human adjustment problems.

Results of Incongruency

Subception detection of an experience before it enters

consciousness

Anxiety Person subduces that a new experience is

incompatible with his/her perceived self

Defense Editing of experiences to make consistent with self-

structure, by either denial or distortion

Goal of therapy

Reduce incongruencies

Develop positive self-regard

Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for Therapeutic Progress

1. Psychological contact2. The client is in a state of incongruence3. The therapist is congruent or integrated in the

relationship4. The therapist shows unconditional positive

regard for the client.5. The therapist experiences an empathic

understanding of the client’s internal frame of reference

Results of successful therapy Client expresses feelings with increasing

freedom Client becomes more accurate in describing

experiences Client detects incongruencies, and can work

through them with unconditional positive regard

Concepts of self are reorganized Self-structure begins to agree with experiences Clients feel increasing amount of positive self-

regard

Q-sort technique

Self-sort real self

Ideal-sort ideal self

After therapy:

Real self matches ideal self

People nurture others' growth in these ways:

(applies to therapists, friends, family, etc.) being genuine (open with feelings; self-

disclosing) being accepting (offering unconditional

positive regard) being empathic (sharing and mirroring our

feelings; reflecting our meanings)

The Fully Functioning Person

(Rogers’s term for a mentally healthy person)

Openness to Experience

Free to explore new options

Creativity

Spontaneity to new experiences

Organismic Trusting

Trust their inner feelings

Used as basis for how to judge self

Positive Self-Regard

unconditional

Peace with Others

Reciprocal unconditional positive regard

Humanistic Education

person-centered facilitator of education (not "teacher") pays attention to feelings as well as the intellect

Business

relationships based on genuineness, acceptance, and empathic understanding

instead of traditional authority

shared power and decision making

Criticisms of Rogers’s Theory

Overly optimistic about human nature Failure to credit influences of other

theorists Some aspects of personality not discussed