Chapter 10- Rogers: Person-Centered Theory Flashcards
This theorist’s theory underwent several change the name, from nondirective, client centered, person centered, student centered, group centered. The theory follows an if-then framework
Carl Rogers’ person-centered theory
Rogers person-centered theory rests on two basic assumptions:
The formative tendency and the actualizing tendency
According to Rogers, this tendency states that all matter, both organic and inorganic, tends to evolve from simpler to more complex forms. Human consciousness evolves from a primitive unconsciousness to a highly organized awareness.
Formative tendency
According to Rogers, this tendency suggests that all living things, including humans, tend to move toward completion, or fulfillment of potentials.
Actualizing tendency. For people to become actualized, certain conditions must be present and for person this includes a relationship with another person who is genuine, or congruent, and who demonstrates complete acceptance and empathy for that person.
According to Rogers, this need is similar to lower steps on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It includes such basic needs as food, air, and safety and also the tendency to resist change and to seek the status quo
The need for maintenance
According to Rogers, this is the need to become more, to develop, and to achieve growth
The need for enhancement
According to Rogers, this is a subsystem of the actualization tendency and refers to the tendency to actualize a self as perceived in awareness
Self-actualization
According to Rogers, the self has two subsystems:
The self-concept and the ideal self
According to Rogers, this self subsystem includes all those aspects of one’s identity that are perceived in awareness
The self-concept
According to Rogers, this self subsystem is defined as one’s view of self as one wishes to be
The ideal self
According to Rogers, a wide gap between the ideal self and the self-concept indicates:
Incongruence and various levels of psychopathology
According to Rogers, this is the symbolic representation of some portion of our experience. He was the term synonymously with both consciousness and symbolization
Awareness
Rogers saw people’s having experiences on three levels of awareness:
1) those that are experienced below the threshold of awareness and are either ignored or denied
2) those that are distorted or reshaped to fit into an existing self-concept
3) those that are consistent with the self-concept and thus are accurately symbolized and freely admitted to the self-structure
According to Rogers, many people have difficulty excepting genuine compliments and positive feedback, even when deserved. Compliments may be distorted because the person just stressed to give her, or they may be denied because the recipient does not feel deserving of them. This is called:
Denial of positive experiences
According to Rogers, this is the need to be loved, like, or excepted by another person:
The need for positive regard
According to Rogers, this is the experience of prizing are valuing oneself. Receiving positive regard from others is necessary for this, but once established it becomes independent of the the continual need to be loved
Positive self regard
According to Rogers, this is when a person feels that they are loved and accepted only when and if they meet the conditions set by others
Conditions of worth
According to Rogers, our perceptions of other people’s view of us
External evaluations
According to Rogers, when we fail to recognize our organismic experiences as self experiences, when we do not accurately symbolize organismic experiences into awareness because they appear to be inconsistent with our emerging self-concept, this is called:
Incongruence. Incongruence between our self-concept and organismic experiences is the source of psychological disorders. Conditions of worth that we received during early childhood lead to a somewhat false self concept based on distortions and denials.
According to Rogers, people are
________ when they are unaware of the discrepancy between their organismic self and their significant experience
Vulnerable
According to Rogers, ______ exists whenever the person becomes dimly aware of the discrepancy between organismic experience and self-concept. ________ is experienced whenever the person becomes more clearly aware of this incongruence.
Anxiety, threat
According to Rogers, this is the protection of the self-concept against anxiety and threat by the denial or distortion of experiences inconsistent with it
Defensiveness
According to Rogers, this is when we misinterpret an experience in order to fit it into some aspect of our self-concept
Distortion
According to Rogers, this is when we refused to perceive and experience in awareness, or at least we keep some aspect of it from reaching symbolization
Denial
Which person is best known as the founder of client centered therapy and also developed an important theory of personality that underscores his approach to therapy. He was an accomplished therapist but only a reluctant theorist.
Carl Rogers
According to Rogers, when the incongruence between peoples perceived self and their organismic experience is either too obvious or occurs too suddenly to be denied or distorted, their behavior becomes:
Disorganized. With this organization, people sometimes behave consistently with their organismic experience, and sometimes in accordance with their shattered self-concept
According to Rogers, for client-centered psychotherapy to be effective, six conditions are necessary:
1) an anxious or vulnerable client
2) must come into contact with a therapist
3) The therapist must be congruent
4) The therapist must demonstrate unconditional positive regard
5) and listen with empathy to the client
6) and the patient must perceive the congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathy
If these conditions are present, then the process of therapy will take place, and certain predictable outcomes will result
Rogers believe that three of the six conditions are crucial to client centered therapy, he called them of the necessary and sufficient conditions for therapeutic growth:
Congruence, unconditional positive regard, empathic listening
According to Rogers, this is the first necessary and sufficient condition for therapeutic change and exists when a person’s organismic experiences are matched by an awareness of them and by an ability and willingness to openly express these feelings. It means to be real or genuine, to be whole or integrated, to be what one truly is
Congruence. Congruence is a relatively stable characteristic of the therapist
When the need to be liked, priced, or excepted by another person exists without any conditions or qualifications, it is called:
Unconditional positive regard. Means that therapists except and prize their clients without any restrictions or reservations and without regard to the clients’ behavior
According to Rogers, this is the ability of the therapist to sense the feelings of a client and also to communicate these perceptions so that the client knows that the another person has entered into his or her world of feelings without prejudice, projection, or evaluation
Empathic listening
Roger saw the process of therapeutic change as taking place in seven stages, this is the process. Can be placed on a continuum from most defensive to most integrated:
1) clients are unwilling to communicate anything about themselves
2) they discuss only external events and other people
3) they begin to talk about themselves, but still as an object
4) they discuss strong emotions that they have felt in the past
5) they begin to express present feelings
6) The freely allow into awareness those experiences that were previously denied or distorted. They experience dramatic growth and an irreversible movement toward becoming self actualizing
7) The experience irreversible change and growth. They become fully functioning persons of tomorrow
If the process of therapeutic changes set in motion, then certain observable ______ can be expected. The most basic ______ of successful client-centered therapy is a client who is less ________, more open to experience, and more realistic
Outcomes, outcome, defensive
The gap between their ideal self and their true self narrows and as a consequence, clients experience less physiological and psychological tension and their interpersonal relationships improve because they are more accepting of their self and others
According to Rogers, if people receive the three necessary and sufficient conditions were psychological health, then they will grow toward becoming the ____ ______ _____, or the ____ __ _______.
Fully functioning person, person of tomorrow
Rogers listed seven characteristics of the person of tomorrow:
1) more adaptable and more flexible in their thinking
2) Open to their experiences, accurately symbolizing them in awareness rather than denying or distorting them. They trust in their organismic selves and hear their joy, anger, discouragement, fear, and tenderness
3) they live fully in the moment, experiencing a constant state of fluidity and change. Would see each experience with a new freshness. Rogers referred to this tendency to live in the moment as existential living
4) would remain confident of their own ability to experience harmonious relations with others. Would feel no need to be liked or loved by everyone, because they would know that they are unconditionally prized and accepted by someone
5) be more integrated, more hole, with no artificial boundary between conscious processes and unconscious ones. Would see clearly the difference between what is and what should be
6) have a basic trust of human nature. They would experience anger, frustration, depression, and other negative emotions, but they would be able to express rather than repress these feelings
7) would enjoy a greater richness in life because they are open to all their experiences. They would live in the present and thus participate more richly in the ongoing moment
Rogers agreed with Maslow that scientists must ____ about the phenomena they study and that psychologist should limit their objectivity and precision to their _______, not to the creation of hypotheses or to the communication of research findings
Care, methodology
When Rogers taught at the University of Chicago and again at the University of Wisconsin, him along with other colleagues conducted an experimental investigation on the effectiveness of
Psychotherapy
Rogers study at the University of Chicago tested for broad hypotheses. As a consequence of therapy:
1) clients will become more aware of their feelings and experiences
2) The gap between the real self and the ideal self will lessen
3) clients behavior will become more socialized
4) clients will become both more self-accepting and more accepting of others
In the Chicago studies by Rogers, half of the participants who sought therapy were asked to wait 60 days before receiving therapy, and the other half begin receiving therapy, and in addition they tested a control group of normals were matched with the therapy group. Rogers and his associates found that the therapy group, but not the wait group, showed:
A lessening of the gap between real self and ideal self. They also found that clients to improve during therapy showed changes and social behavior, as reported by their friends
In the Chicago studies, Rogers summary of results found that client-centered therapy was successful in changing clients, but it was not successful in bringing them to the level of ____ _______ _____the or even to the level of normal psychological health
Fully functioning persons
Research about self discrepancy sparked by Rogers theory done by Tori Higgins hypothesized that individuals with high levels of self discrepancy were most likely to experience high levels of negative affect in their lives, such as anxiety and depression and that discrepancies would be greatest when people are more self-aware or self focused. Their hypothesis was supported by their findings when they compared participants completing their questionnaires in front of a _____ to participants without a ______
Mirror
Research sparked by Rogers theory found that real-auto discrepancies, but not real-ideal, predicted chronic social self consciousness in ______ but not _____
Females, but not males
Rogers proposed that we all have a natural instinct guiding us toward the most fulfilling pursuits, he called this an:
Organismic valuing process
Research sparked by Rogers organismic valuing process done by Ken Sheldon and colleagues, explored the existence of an OVP in college students. They found that if people have an organismic valuing process, overtime they will rate more inherently fulfilling goals as more______ than materialistic goals
Desirable
Rogers person-centered theory is one of the most carefully constructed of all personality theories, and it meets quite well each of the six criteria of a useful theory:
Rates high on internal consistency, parsimony, falsifiability, it’s ability to generate research, it’s ability to organize knowledge, and to serve as a guide to the practitioner
What six concepts of humanity does Rogers theory rate high on?
Optimism, free choice, teleology, conscious motivation, social influences, and the uniqueness of the individual
