Module 5 1B Flashcards
Humanistic and Existential Approaches: Carl Rogers
Carl Rogers - Key Points
Born: 1902, Oak Park, Illinois, 4th of 6 children.
Childhood: Family moved to Wisconsin, influenced by scientific agriculture.
Education: Studied history, then psychology; inspired by Leta Hollingworth.
Career: Developed client-centered therapy after earning his Ph.D. in psychology.
Rogers’ Key Beliefs
People have an innate tendency for growth, influenced by the right environment.
Psychologically healthy individuals have a broad self-concept and inner self-control.
Therapy should help people explore a full range of experiences.
Rogers’ Basic Assumptions
Formative Tendency: Matter evolves from simple to complex forms.
Actualizing Tendency: People strive to fulfill their potential; the main motivator.
Organismic Nature: Involves the whole person.
Maintenance Needs: Preserve stability.
Enhancement Needs: Grow and develop.
Rogers’s Client-Centered Therapy:
Goal: Create an environment that is necessary and sufficient for growth.
Three Key Components:
Genuineness (Congruence): Be open, transparent, and self-disclosing.
Unconditional Positive Regard: Total acceptance without conditions.
Empathy: Understand and reflect others’ feelings and perspectives.
Outcome: Clients show fewer neurotic/psychotic traits and more healthy, well-functioning characteristics.
Applying Rogers’ Conditions for Growth
As a Parent:
Genuineness: Be open and honest with your child.
Empathy: Understand and validate their emotions.
Unconditional Positive Regard: Love them unconditionally.
As a Teacher:
Genuineness: Be authentic with students.
Empathy: Listen and reflect their feelings.
Unconditional Positive Regard: Encourage without judgment.
As a Therapist:
Genuineness: Be honest and build trust.
Empathy: Understand and reflect clients’ experiences.
Unconditional Positive Regard: Accept clients without judgment.
As an Intimate Partner:
Genuineness: Share your true feelings.
Empathy: Support and understand your partner.
Unconditional Positive Regard: Love without conditions.
As a Friend:
Genuineness: Be real with your friend.
Empathy: Listen and understand.
Unconditional Positive Regard: Accept them as they are.
Rogers on Self-Awareness and Self-Actualization
Self-Awareness: Begins in infancy with “I” and “me” experiences.
Development: Children develop preferences and evaluate experiences as good or bad based on their actualizing tendency.
Self-Structure: This valuing of experiences forms a basic self-structure, aiding self-actualization.
Self-Actualization: The process of actualizing the self as perceived in awareness, different from the broader innate actualizing tendency.
See diagram
Rogers on Self-Concept and Ideal Self
Self-Concept: Aspects of the self we are consciously aware of.
Organismic Self: Includes parts beyond awareness (e.g., the stomach).
Change: Difficult if experiences are inconsistent; easier with acceptance from others.
Ideal Self: How we wish to be; a gap between ideal and real self indicates incongruence.
Psychologically Healthy People: Have little gap between ideal self and experience.
Rogers on Awareness and Levels of Awareness
Awareness: The symbolic representation of part of our experience (not always verbal).
Three Levels of Awareness:
Below Threshold: Experiences ignored or denied, often due to competing stimuli.
Accurately Symbolized: Experiences freely admitted to the self-structure (e.g., positive qualities).
Distorted Perception: Experiences distorted when they don’t align with the self-view (e.g., denied anger affecting behavior).
Contact with Others: Interact with others (positive/negative).
Recognizing Regard: People value positive regard when others show they care.
Positive Regard: Need to be accepted by others.
Positive Self-Regard: Acceptance from others leads to valuing oneself.
Autonomy: Positive self-regard promotes independence from others for acceptance.
Conditions of Worth: Acceptance is based on meeting conditions.
Incongruence: Conflict between experiences and self-concept.
False Self-Concept: Childhood conditions of worth create incongruence.
Effects: Leads to distortions, inconsistency, and anxiety.
Defensiveness: Protecting the self-concept by denying or distorting conflicting experiences.
Distortion: Misinterpreting experiences to fit the self-concept.
Denial: Refusing to acknowledge conflicting experiences.
Disorganization: When defenses fail, behavior becomes disorganized or psychotic.
Rogers’ View: Preferred “defensive” and “disorganized” over diagnostic labels, seeing maladjustment as a continuum with potential for change.
Fully Functioning Person:
Behaves optimally when congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathy are present.
Adaptable to changing environments.
Open to experiences without distortion or denial.
Trusts their feelings, perceptions, and others’ emotions.
Experiences life fully in the moment.
Seeks authentic relationships without needing approval.
More integrated, with less distinction between real and ideal selves.
Trusts human nature.
Enjoys emotional and psychological richness.
