Carl Rogers: The Humanistic Approach Two Basic Human Needs  Self Actualization: the need to fulfill all of one’s potential.  Positive Regard: the need to receive acceptance, respect, and affection from others. Positive regard often comes with conditions attached (“Conditions of Worth”): We must meet others’ expectations to get it. This is called Conditional Positive Regard.

Basic Human Problem: The two needs are often in conflict. Satisfying one may mean giving up the other. Effect on Personality: We get a false picture of who we are—our interests, motivations, goals, abilities. Our Two Selves Real Self (“Organism”): all our experiences (feelings, wishes, perceptions) Self-Concept: the person we think we are (e.g., “I am...”)

Losing Touch with the Real Self  We have a need for positive self-regard (to like and respect ourselves).  Conditional positive regard from others becomes conditional positive self-regard.  This means we will like and accept only those parts of ourselves that other people like and accept.  The self-concept pulls away from the real self; we get a false picture of who we really are.  This mismatch is called Incongruence.

Person-Centered Therapy: The Goal is Congruence Incongruence has many harmful effects. One is that it prevents self-actualization. You have to know who you are to fulfill your potential. The therapist tries to bring the self-concept closer to the real self: Real Self Self- Concept Congruence

Two Features of Person-Centered Therapy 1.Empathic Understanding: the therapist shows emotions similar to the client’s. 2. Unconditional Positive Regard: the therapist shows respect and acceptance regardless of what the client says; e.g., nods, says “Mm-hmm, I see”. The client wants the therapist’s approval and respect. This is given unconditionally. The client can now respect and like him/herself unconditionally. This allows the self- concept to move closer to the real self.