Chapter 10: Person-Centered Theory (Rogers) Flashcards
He wanted to be a farmer, a scientific farmer who cared about plants and animals and how they grewand developed.
Carl Rogers
Unlike Freud, who was primarily a theorist and secondarily a therapist, Rogers was a consummate therapist but only a reluctant theorist. He was more concerned with _____ than with discovering why they behaved as they did.
helping people
Even though he formulated a rigorous, internally consistent theory of personality, Rogers did not feel comfortable with the notion of _____.
theory
Rogers had intended to become a farmer, and after he graduated from high school, he entered the University of Wisconsin as an agriculture major. However, he soon became less interested in farming and more devoted to _____.
religion
He was the first president of the American Association for _____ and helped bring that organization and the American Psychological Association (APA) back together.
Applied Psychology
During the early years, his approach was known as _____ an unfortunate term that remained associated with his name for far too long. Later, his approach was variously termed “client-centered,” “person-centered,” “student-centered,” “group-centered,” and “person to person.”
“nondirective,”
If the therapist is congruent and communicates _____ and accurate empathy to the client, then therapeutic change will occur; if therapeutic change occurs, then the client will experience more self-acceptance, greater trust of self, and so on.
unconditional positive regard
Formative Tendency Actualizing Tendency The Self and Self-Actualization The Self-Concept The Ideal Self Awareness Levels of Awareness Denial of Positive Experiences Becoming a Person
9 Rogers Basic Assumptions
Rogers believed that there is a tendency for all matter, both organic and inorganic, to evolve from simpler to more complex forms.
Formative Tendency
This tendency is the only motive people possess. Tendencies to maintain and to enhance the organism are subsumed within the actualizing tendency.
Actualizing Tendency
The actualization tendency refers to organismic experiences of the individual; that is, it refers to the whole person—conscious and unconscious, physiological and cognitive.
On the other hand, self-actualization is the tendency to actualize the self as perceived in awareness.
The Self and Self-Actualization
The self-concept includes all those aspects of one’s being and one’s experiences that are perceived in awareness (though not always accurately) by the individual.
The Self-Concept
The second subsystem of the self is the _____, defined as one’s view of self as one wishes to be.
Ideal Self
“The symbolic representation (not necessarily in verbal symbols) of some portion of our experience”.
Without _____ the self-concept and the ideal self would not exist.
Awareness
- Ignored or denied.
- Accurately symbolized
- Perceived in a distorted form
Rogers recognized three levels of awareness.
Level of Awareness: An _____ can be illustrated by a woman walking down a busy street, an activity that presents many potential stimuli, particularly of sight and sound. Because she cannot attend to all of them, many remain ignored.
Ignored experience
Levels of Awareness: For example, if a pianist who has full confidence in his piano-playing ability is told by a friend that his playing is excellent, he may hear these words, _____ them, and freely admit them to his self-concept.
Accurately symbolized
Levels of Awareness: If the gifted pianist were to be told by a distrusted competitor that his playing was excellent, he might react very differently than he did when he heard the same words from a trusted friend.
Perceived in a distorted form
They may be distorted because the person distrusts the giver, or they may be denied because the recipient does not feel deserving of them; in all cases, a compliment from another also implies the right of that person to criticize or condemn, and thus the compliment carries an implied threat.
Denial of Positive Experiences
First, an individual must make contact—positive or negative—with another person. This contact is the minimum experience necessary for becoming a person.
Becoming a Person
The person develops a need to be loved, liked, or accepted by another person, a need that Rogers referred to as _____.
positive regard
Positive regard is a prerequisite for _____, defined as the experience of prizing or valuing one’s self.
positive self-regard
- Conditions of Worth
- Incongruence
- Defensiveness
- Disorganization
4 Barriers to Psychological Health
Barriers to Psychological Health: Instead of receiving unconditional positive regard, most people receive conditions of worth; that is, they perceive that their parents, peers, or partners love and accept them only if they meet those people’s expectations and approval.
Conditions of Worth
Our perceptions of other people’s view of us are called _____. These evaluations, whether positive or negative, do not foster psychological health but, rather, prevent us from being completely open to our own experiences.
external evaluations
Psychological disequilibrium begins when we fail to recognize our organismic experiences as self-experiences: that is, when we do not accurately symbolize organismic experiences into awareness because they appear to be inconsistent with our emerging self-concept.
Incongruence
This incongruence between our self-concept and our organismic experience is the source of _____.
psychological disorders
The greater the incongruence between our perceived self (self-concept) and our organismic experience, the more _____ as we are.
Vulnerability
Whereas vulnerability exists when we have no awareness of the incongruence within our self, _____ are experienced as we gain awareness of such an incongruence.
anxiety, and threat
_____ and threat can represent steps toward psychological health because they signal to us that our organismic experience is inconsistent with our self-concept.
Anxiety
In order to prevent this inconsistency between our organismic experience and our perceived self, we react in a _____ manner.
Defensiveness
_____ is the protection of the self-concept against anxiety and threat by the denial or distortion of experiences inconsistent with it.
Defensiveness
Distortion and Denial.
The two chief defenses.
Distortion and Denial.
The two chief defenses.
Most people engage in defensive behavior, but sometimes defenses fail and behavior becomes disorganized or psychotic.
In a state of _____, people sometimes behave consistently with their organismic experience and sometimes in accordance with their shattered self-concept.
disorganization
Conditions Counselor Congruence Unconditional Positive Regard Empathic Listening Process Stages of Therapeutic Change Outcomes The Person of Tomorrow The Chicago Studies
Psychotherapy of Carl Rogers
The _____ approach holds that in order for vulnerable or anxious people to grow psychologically, they must come into contact with a therapist who is congruent and whom they perceive as providing an atmosphere of unconditional acceptance and accurate empathy.
client-centered
- An anxious or vulnerable client must come into contact with a congruent therapist who also possesses empathy and unconditional positive regard for that client.
- The client must perceive these characteristics in the therapist
- The contact between client and therapist must be of some duration.
Conditions for therapeutic growth to take place
A _____ counselor, then, is not simply a kind and friendly person but rather a complete human being with feelings of joy, anger, frustration, confusion,
congruent
Rogers stated that _____ will be more effective if they communicate genuine feelings, even when those feelings are negative or threatening.
therapists
_____ is a deleterious attitude that threatens a positive self-concept and creates disequilibrium within the self-structure.
Self-pity
If the conditions of therapist congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathy are present, then the _____ of therapeutic change will be set in motion
process
Stage 1: Unwillingness to communicate anything about oneself. They do not recognize any problems and refuse to own any personal feelings or emotions.
Stage 2: Clients become slightly less rigid. They discuss external events and other people, but they still disown or fail to recognize their own feelings.
Stage 3: They freely talk about self, although still as an object. “I’m doing the best I can at work, but my boss still doesn’t like me.”
Stage 4: Talk of deep feelings but not ones presently felt. “I was really burned up when my teacher accused me of cheating.”
Stage 5: Begun to undergo significant change and growth. They can express feelings in the present, although they have not yet accurately symbolized those feelings.
Stage 6: Experience dramatic growth and an irreversible movement toward becoming fully functioning or self-actualizing. They freely allow into awareness those experiences that they had previously denied or distorted.
Stage 7: Occur outside the therapeutic encounter. They become fully functioning “persons of tomorrow”.
7 Stages of Therapeutic Change
Congruent client who is less defensive, more open to experience, clearer picture of themselves, more realistic, accurate view of potentials, less physiological and psychological tension, less vulnerable, less anxiety, more accepting of others, fewer demands, and allow others to be themselves.
Outcomes
If the three necessary and sufficient therapeutic conditions of congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathy are optimal, then what kind of person would emerge?
The Person of Tomorrow
_____ Studies demonstrated that people receiving client-centered therapy generally showed some growth or improvement.
The Chicago
_____ therapy is effective, but it does not result in the fully functioning person.
Client-centered
Self-Discrepancy Theory
Motivation and Pursuing One’s Goals
Related Research
The _____ states that individuals compare their “actual” self to internalized standards or the “ideal/ought self”.
self-discrepancy theory
Intrinsically motivated activities generally make people happier and more fulfilled. Intrinsic motivation and fulfillment are connected because intrinsically motivated activities represent the ideal self.
If you engage in experiences that are part of your ideal self, you will be led to pursuits that are more engaging, enriching, interesting, and rewarding.
Motivation and Pursuing One’s Goals
