Carl rogers Essay

Carl Rogers (1902-1987) was a improveric psychologist who agreed with the main assumptions of Abraham Maslow, hardly added that for a both(prenominal)body to climb, they need an environment that provides them with genuineness (openness and self-disclosure), credence (being seen with un conformational irresponsible look at), and empathy (being listened to and understood). Without these, relationships and healthy mortalalities will not develop as they should, much ilk a tree will not grow without sunlight and water. Rogers believed that e very or soone can turn over their goals, wishes and desires in feeling. When, or rather if they did so, self real(a)ization took place. This was one of Carl Rogers most Copernican contributions to psychology and for a person to reach their potence a number of factors must(prenominal) be satisfied.Self ActualizationThe organism has one basic blockadeeavor and striving to actualize, maintain, and enhance the experiencing organism (Rogers, 1951, p. 487). Rogers rejected the deterministic nature of two psychoanalysis and behaviorism and maintained that we be wee-wee as we do beca example of the way we perceive our situation. As no one else can know how we perceive, we atomic number 18 the best experts on ourselves. Carl Rogers (1959) believed that humans have one basic motive, that is the temperament to self-actualize i.e. to fulfill ones potential and achieve the highest level of human-beingness we can. the corresponding a flower that will grow to its full potential if the conditions ar right, but which is constrained by its environment, so concourse will undulate and reach their potential if their environment is nifty enough. However, unlike a flower, the potential of the individual human is unique, and we ar meant to develop in different ways according to our personality. Rogers believed that mickle argon inhitherntly veracious and creative. They become insalubrious only when a poor self-c oncept or external constraints override the valuing process.Carl Rogers believed that for a person to achieve self-actualization they must be in a advance of congruence. This means that self-actualization make passs when a persons ideal self (i.e. who they would like to be) is congruent with their actual behavior (self-image). Rogers describes an individual who is actualizing as a to the full mathematical process person. The main determinant of whether we will become self-actualized is kidishness experience. The to the full Functioning PersonRogers believed that every person could achieve their goals wishes, and desires in life. When they did so self-actualization took place. For Rogers (1961) people who be able be self-actualize, and that is not all of us, are called fully mental process persons. This means that the person is in touch with the here and now, his or her subjective experiences and feelings, continually growing and changing. In many ways Rogers take car eed the fully functioning person as an ideal and one that people do not ultimately achieve. It is wrong to commemorate of this as an end or completion of lifes journey rather it is a process of always becoming and changing. Rogers identified five characteristics of the fully functioning person 1. Open to experience both positive and negative emotions accepted. ban feelings are not denied, but worked through (rather than resort to ego defending team 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 next (i.e. living for the moment). 3. Trust feelings feeling, instincts and gut-reactions are paid attention to and trusted. battalions own decisions are the right ones and we should trust ourselves to make the right choices. 4. creative thinking creative thinking and risk taking are features of a persons life. Person does not play safe all the time. This involves the qualification 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. For Rogers, fully functioning people are well adjusted, well balanced and interesting to know. lots such people are high achievers in society. Critics claim that the fully functioning person is a product of Western culture. In other cultures, such as Eastern cultures, the achievement of the group is valued more than(prenominal) highly than the achievement of any one person. Personality Development exchange to Rogers personality theory is the notion of self or self-concept. This is defined as the organized, logical set of perceptions and beliefs about oneself. The self is the humanistic term for who we genuinely are as a person. The self is our midland personality, and can be likened to the soul, or Freuds psyche. The self is inf luenced by the experiences a person has in their life, and out interpretations of those experiences. Two primary sources that influence our self-concept are childhood experiences and military rating by others. gibe to Rogers (1959), we want to feel, experience and behave in ways which are consistent with our self-image and which reflect what we would like to be like, our ideal-self. The closer our self-image and ideal-self are to each other, the more consistent or congruent we are and the high our sense of self-worth. A person is said to be in a call down of incongruence if some of the totality of their experience is unacceptable to them and is denied or falsify in the self-image. The humanistic approach states that the self is composed of concepts unique to ourselves.The self-concept includes one-third components Self worth (or self-esteem) what we think about ourselves. Rogers believed feelings of self-worth developed in primeval childhood and were formed from the interacti on of the child with the mother and father. Self-image How we see ourselves, which is important to good mental 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 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 mid-twenties etc. Self Worth and Positive RegardCarl Rogers (1951) viewed the child as having two basic needs positive regard from other people and self-worth. How we think about ourselves, our feelings of self-worth are of fundamental importance both to psychological health and to the likelihood that we can achieve goals and ambitions in life and achieve self-actualization. Self-worth whitethorn be seen as a con tinuum 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. A person with low self-worth may avoid challenges in life, not accept that life can be painful and unhappy at times, and will be defensive and guarded with other 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. 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 mixer interaction. Rogers made a distinction between unconditional positive regard and conditional positive regard. Unc onditional positive regard is where parents, significant others (and the humanist therapist) accepts and loves the person for what he or she is. Positive regard is not draw back if the person does something wrong or makes a mistake.The consequences of unconditional positive regard are that the person feels free to try things out and make mistakes, pull down though this may lead to getting it worse at times. People who are able to self-actualize are more likely to have current unconditional positive regard from others, especially their parents in childhood. Conditional positive regard is 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 incessantly seeks approval from other people is likely only to have experienced conditional positive re gard as a child. CongruenceA persons ideal self may not be consistent with what actually happens in life and experiences of the person. Hence, a difference may dwell 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. The training 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.According to Rogers, we want to feel, experience and behave in ways which are consistent with our self-image and which reflect what we would like to be like, our ideal-self. The closer our self-image and ideal-self are to each other, the more consistent or congruent we are and the higher our sense of self-worth. A person is said to be in a state of incongruence if some of the totality of their experience is unacceptable to them and is denied or distorted in the self-image. Incongruence is a discrepancy between the actual experience of the organism and the self-picture of the individual to that extent as it represents that experience. As we prefer to see ourselves in ways that are consistent with our self-image, we may use defense mechanisms like denial or repression in order to feel less threatened by some of what we consider to be our undesirable feelings. A person whose self-concept is incongruent with her or his real feelings and experiences will defend because the truth hurts. Carl Rogers QuotesWhen I look at the world Im pessimistic, but when I look at people I am optimistic. The very essence of the creative is its novelty, and accordingly we have no standard by which to judge it (Rogers, 1961, p. 351). I have gradually come to one negative conclusion about the good life. It seems to me that the good life is n ot any fixed state. It is not, in my estimation, a state of virtue, or contentment, or nirvana, or happiness. It is not a condition in which the individual is adjusted or fulfilled or actualized. To use psychological terms, it is not a state of drive-reduction, or tension-reduction, or homeostasis (Rogers, 1967, p. 185-186). The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a caution not a destination (Rogers, 1967, p. 187). ReferencesRogers, C. (1951). Client-centered Therapy Its Current Practice, Implications and possibleness. 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. bracing York McGraw Hill. Rogers, C. R. (1961). On Becoming a Person-A Psychotherapists View of Psychotherapy. 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.