Carl Ransom Rogers

January 8, 1902 February 4,

1987

Subtitle

C R Rogers Humanist and

Psychologist

Believed if an individual attained self-actualisation they would be a fully

functioning person living "the good life

In addition to agreeing with the main assumptions of Abraham Maslow, he also

believed in order for a person to "grow", they needed an environment that
provide them with genuineness (openness and self-disclosure), acceptance
(being seen with unconditional positive regard), and empathy (being listened
to and understood).

Advocated that people knew the causes of the psychological imbalance in their
lives as well as the objectives to regain their balance or self-actualisation to
become fully functioning.

Supported psychotherapy as the assisting changing agent in people to reclaim

balance and achieve their potential or self-actualisation.

Self-Actualization
"The organism has one basic tendency and striving - to actualize, maintain, and enhance the
experiencing organism (Rogers, 1951, p. 487).

Humans are born with a desire to be the best they can.

Self-actualisation is the motivating force to achieving this so called full potential.

A flower for example will grow to its full potential if the conditions are right, environmental influence
will impact on this. However an individuals potential is unique, our personalities determine our
development. People will flourish and reach their potential if their environment allows this

People are inherently good and creative, they become destructive only when a poor self-concept or
external constraints override the valuing process.

To achieve self-actualization individuals must be in a state of congruence.

Self-actualization occurs when a persons ideal self (i.e. who they would like to be) is congruent with
their actual behaviour (self-image).

The Fully Functional Person

Rogers identified five characteristics of the fully functioning person:

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

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).

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

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

Fulfilled life: person is happy and satisfied with life, and always looking for new challenges and
experiences.
Rogers identified fully functioning people as well adjusted, well balanced and interesting to know,
often high achievers in society

Personality Development Self

concept
The

self-concept includes three components:

Self

worth(orself-esteem) what we think about ourselves. Emotional state 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, important to psychological health. Self-image 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 Who we would like to be - involves our objectives and ambitions in life, and is dynamic
forever changing - ideal self in childhood is not the ideal self in our teens or adulthood

If

the individual experiences conditional positive regard from their parents, the individual develops
their parent's values and conditions of worth. As with the opposite, when the individual does
something wrong they feel less loved.

Self-concept

and conditions are linked and serves as guidelines as to how people behave towards
others because people value their opinion of themselves above their own.

Conditions

of worth reduce people's self-confidence, trust in their own feelings and can affect their
potential towards self-actualisation (Rogers 1986).

Self worth and positive regard

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.

Unconditional positive regard- an individual is accepted and loved for the person
for what he or she is. The significances of unconditional positive regard is that the
person is free to attempt anything and make mistakes. People who are able to
self-actualize are more likely to have received unconditional positive regard from
others, especially their parents in childhood.

Conditional positiveregard - where positive regard, praise and approval, depend

upon the child, for example, behaving in ways that the parents think correct.
Hence the child is not loved for the person he or she is, but on condition that he or
she behaves only in ways approved by the parent(s). At the extreme, a person
who constantly seeks approval from other people is likely only to have experienced
conditional positive regard as a child.

Congruence
A persons ideal self may not be
consistent with what actually
happens in life and experiences
of the person. Hence, a
difference may exist between a
persons ideal self and actual
experience. This is called
incongruence.
Where a persons ideal self and
actual experience are consistent
or very similar, a state of
congruence exists. Rarely, if ever
does a total state of congruence
exist; all people experience a
certain amount of incongruence.

References
Rogers, C. (1951).Client-centered therapy: Its current practice, implications and theory. London:
Constable.
Rogers, C. (1959). A theory of therapy, personality and interpersonal relationships as developed in
the client-centered framework. In (ed.) S. Koch,Psychology: A study of a science. Vol. 3:
Formulations of the person and the social context. New York: McGraw Hill.
Rogers, C. R. (1961). On Becoming a person: A psychotherapists view of psychotherapy. Houghton
Mifflin.
Rogers, C. R., Stevens, B., Gendlin, E. T., Shlien, J. M., & Van Dusen, W. (1967).Person to person:
The problem of being human: A new trend in psychology.Lafayette, CA: Real People Press.
McLeod, S. A. (2007). Carl Rogers available from http://
www.simplypsychology.org/carl-rogers.html accessed 8 February 2015
The Person Centred Approach / Carl Rogers - available from http://
www.bapca.org.uk/about/carl-rogers.html accessed on 8 February 2015
Carl Rogers, core conditions and education - available at http
://infed.org/mobi/carl-rogers-core-conditions-and-education/ accessed on 9 February 2015
Carl Rogers Facts available at http://biography.yourdictionary.com/carl-ransom-rogers accessed
on 8 February 2015