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