Rogers ( )

Human Nature RogersFreud 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 field  phenomenological 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 values  Conditions 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 contact 2. The client is in a state of incongruence 3. The therapist is congruent or integrated in the relationship 4. 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