Lecture 7: Rogers Flashcards
What is/are the main emphasis of the Humanistic tradition by Carl rogers?
Main emphasis:
- Conscious awareness of needs, choices, and personal responsibility
- Human need for growth and realizing one’s full potential
- Human nature is positive and life-affirming
(approach is counter response to psychoanalytic/behavioural traditions
What is a brief biography of Carl rogers?
- Born in Illinois, Chicago
- Large family, moved to farm
- Isolated childhood, shy and lacking in social skills (surrounded by nature and did not have many interpersonal relationships. He developed a tendency to scientifically examine everything out of boredom)
- Wanted to be a priest, went to an exchange program in China. When he came back he was changed, social and confident (gave him openness to move away from teachings of the church)
- Started studying psychology and education
- Controlling parents (deeply religious)
- Controlled Artistic expression (no dancing, going to the movies, no drinking soft drinks)
What Carl rogers believe the only way to pursue knowledge is?
- Only way to pursue knowledge is: science
- No objective truth (drastic deviation from religious rogers)
What points did his person centered theory emphasize?
- Identify the conditions for personality change (necessary features that need to be present in someone’s environment)
- Theory of personality is derived from the theory of the person. Through therapy –> growth and development
- Ultimate goal: being a fully functioning person (achieved through therapy)
- Through the theory, we can delineate other areas of functioning that lead to the fully functioning person (Interpersonal relations, family, education)
What were the main assumptions of Rogers’ person centered theory?
- Formative tendency: We evolve, change and become different. Natural tendency for all organic and inorganic matter.
- Actualizing tendency: fulfillment happens when we satisfy needs. We become fulfilled when we attend to physiological, intellectual and emotional needs.
- Balance between maintenance and enhancement
- Conditions for actualization
- Authenticity (or congruence. The same person inside as you are outside, thoughts feeling and motivations)
- Empathy (in touch with emotions that allow you to connect with others)
- Unconditional positive regard (need to be loved, respected and treated with kindness)
- When these three conditions are met a person can achieve psychological growth. This psychological growth is called self actualization.
What is the self concept and how did Rogers measure it?
- The self concept: experiences of the self (roles and current manifestation of who you are)
- Measuring self concept: the Q technique (100 therapy cards with written phrases on them, might say I am a hard worker, I am insecure etc. Instructed to make piles and the first pile they were instructed to put the ones that described them best and the last one was things they don’t agree with. He would take these and create distributions.
What is the ideal self and what happens when there is a large gap between our ideal self and our real self?
- The ideal self: the self concept that we would like to possess (the self that you want to be/ what you want to achieve. In people who are congruent or authentic the gap between real and ideal self is very small but if people experience a gap between who they are and who they want to be it caused stress, anxiety and dysfunction)
- Incongruence = anxiety
What are all children born with a need for, according to Rogers?
- As we develop, we experience things: self experience
- Development of the need for positive regard
- Positive self regard: liking and accepting who we are
- All children are born with a need for positive regard (accepted and loved)
- Conditions of worth thwart this need (I don’t like you when you do that vs. I don’t like what you did, although I still like you)
What are conditions of worth and how does it affect people as they grow?
- Many parents & significant others place conditions of worth
- Conditional positive regard= obstacle to growth
- BUT, key to development of unconditional positive self-regard and moving toward self actualization is receipt of unconditional positive regard from parents and significant others
- Anxiety results when people get off track in pursuit of self actualization (off their own personal path and are trying to please others)
What happens when the self and self concept are at odds?
- Disequilibrium
- Conditions of worth will cause this e.g., I am a bad person for doing this, thinking this, for feeling this.
- Psychological imbalance
What is vulnerability?
- unaware of the discrepancy (tends to happen when the sense of self is still developing; adolescence & early adulthood)
- Cant understand why we do the things we do
What do anxiety and threat signal?
- when we start to realize incongruence
- When were afraid that is when we start the journey towards psychological growth, because they start to cultivate the awareness that there is a discrepancy
- All of this to say, anxiety and threat are a good thing. They are messengers of the beginning of the journey
What is defensiveness?
protect against anxiety and threat
What is disorganization?
- when incongruence becomes too obvious
- Not enough time to defend/distort/protect
What is the theory of psychotherapy and the 3 conditions for therapeutic process ?
- Rogers approach to therapy (client centered therapy) is designed to get a person back on path toward self actualization
- Three conditions for therapeutic progress
1) Therapist must create atmosphere of genuine acceptance of the client (counselor congruence)
2) Therapist must express unconditional positive regard for the client (no judgement, not telling them what to do, they are there to help, not be a crutch)
3) Empathetic understanding: client must feel that the therapist understands him or her (empathetic listening)
