Theories of Personality Rogers: Person-Centered Theory Chapter 11

Outline Overview of Person-Centered Theory Biography of Rogers Person-Centered Theory Psychotherapy The Person of Tomorrow Philosophy of Science

Outline The Chicago Studies Related Research Critique of Rogers Concept of Humanity

Overview of Person-Centered Theory Grew Out Experiences as a Psychotherapist Called for Empirical Research to Support Personality Theory Not Comfortable with Notion of Theory Never Systematically Reformulated Theory of Personality

Biography of Rogers Born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1902 Fourth of six children of upper-middle class, devoutly religious parents Briefly attends seminary, intending to become a minister in 1924 Turned to psychology and earned his Ph.D. from Columbia in 1931

Biography (cont’d) Influenced by Otto Rank Spent nearly a dozen years working as a clinician in Rochester Published The Clinical Treatment of the Problem Child in Took a position at Ohio State University in 1940, where he elucidated his views on therapy President of American Psychological Association in Published Client-Centered Therapy in 1951 In 1964, moves to California and helps found Center for Studies of the Person Died in 1987 following surgery on broken hip

Person-Centered Theory Basic Assumptions –Formative Tendency –Actualizing Tendency The Self and Self-Actualization –The Self-Concept –The Ideal Self Awareness –Levels of Awareness –Denial of Positive Experiences

Person-Centered Theory Becoming a Person Barriers to Psychological Health –Conditions of Worth –Incongruence –Defensiveness –Disorganization

Psychotherapy Conditions –Counselor congruence –Unconditional positive regard –Empathic listening Process –Stages of therapeutic change –Theoretical explanation for therapeutic change Outcomes

The Person of Tomorrow Psychologically healthy people are: –More adaptable –Open to their experiences –Live fully in the moment Existential living –Harmonious relations with others –More Integrated (conscious and unconscious) –Basic trust of human nature –Greater richness in life

Philosophy of Science Science begins and ends with subjective experience Scientists must be involved with phenomena being studied Scientists perceive patterns among phenomena Scientists communicate findings, but this communication is subjective

The Chicago Study Hypotheses: 1.Clients will become more aware of their feelings and experiences 2.The gap between the real self and the ideal self will lessen as a consequence of therapy 3.Clients’ behavior will become more socialized, that is, more self-accepting and more accepting of others

The Chicago Study (cont’d) Method –To measure adjustment, they used the Q sort technique (congruence between real & ideal selves) –Participants were adults who sought therapy at the University of Chicago counseling center –Experimenters asked half the participants to wait 60 days before receiving therapy. In addition, they tested a control group of “normals” who were matched with the therapy group.

The Chicago Study (cont’d) Findings –The therapy group—but not the control group—showed a lessening of the gap between real self and ideal self –Clients who improved during therapy—but not those rated as least improved—showed changes in social behavior, as noted by their friends

The Chicago Study (cont’d) Summary of Results –Therapy group did demonstrate growth and retained improvement during follow-up, but they did not attain the level of psychological health in the control group

Related Research Self-Discrepancy Theory –Higgins (1987) Real-ideal discrepancy leads to dejection-related emotions; real-ought discrepancy leads to agitation-related emotions –Phillips & Silvia (2005) High self-awareness condition led to feeling negative emotion at self-discrepancies –Wolfe & Maisto (2000) Real-ideal self-discrepancy and negative mood were negatively correlated with alcohol consumption Motivation and Pursuing one’s Goals –Sheldon et al. (2003) Supports Rogers’ theory s that people do have an OVP Intrinsically fulfilling goals become more important over time while materialistic goals become less important Schwartz & Waterman (2013) The OVP directs us toward fulfilling pursuits

Critique of Rogers Rogers’ Theory Is: –Very High on Practicality and Internal Consistency –High on Falsifiability, Parsimony, and Organizing Knowledge –Moderate on Generating Research

Concept of Humanity Free Choice over Determinism Optimism over Pessimism Teleology over Causality Uniqueness over Similarity Conscious over Unconscious Social Influence over Biology