Chapter 10 - Rogers - Person-Centered Theory Flashcards
What is meant by ‘formative tendency’?
Formative tendency is the idea that all matter tends to progress from simpler to more complex forms.
What is meant by ‘actualization tendency’?
Actualization tendency is the idea that humans and other animals have a predisposition to move toward completion or fulfilment.
What did Rogers mean by ‘self-actualization’?
Self-actualization develops after people evolve a self-system and refers to the tendency to move toward becoming a fully functional person.
What is the role of a caretaker?
An individual becomes a person by making contact with a caregiver whose positive regard for that individual fosters positive self-regard.
What are some barriers to psychological growth?
Barriers to psychological growth exist when a person experiences conditions of worth, incongruence, defensiveness, and disorganization.
What results from a person experiencing conditions of worth?
Conditions of worth and external evaluation lead to vulnerability, anxiety, and threat and prevent people from experiencing unconditional positive regard.
What leads to development of incongruence?
Incongruence develops when the organismic self and the perceived self do not match.
How do people react to incongruence?
When the organismic self and perceived self are incongruent, people will become defensive and use distortion and denial as attempts to reduce incongruence.
How do people become ‘disorganized’?
People develop a disorganized state when distortion and denial are insufficient to deal with incongruence.
How does incongruence affect vulnerable people?
Vulnerable people tend to become anxious and feel threatened as a result of incongruence, and respond defensively.
How can therapy help a vulnerable person?
When vulnerable people come in contact with a therapist who is congruent and who has unconditional positive regard and empathy, the process of personality change begins.
How does the process of therapy proceed?
This process of therapeutic personality change ranges from extreme defensiveness, or an unwillingness to talk about self, to a final stage in which clients become their own therapists and are able to continue psychological growth outside the therapeutic setting.
What is the basic outcome of therapy?
The basic outcome of therapy is a congruent client who no longer has a need for defensiveness and is open to their experiences.
What is the ultimate (theoretical) reuslt of therapy?
Ultimately, the client could become a ‘person of tomorrow’, or fully functioning person.
