Rogerian Applications Flashcards
Julian Baggini
“We are our experiences”
Self-Experience Discrepancy
An incongruence between the Self and experiences
Self and Experiences for a psychologically healthy person:
Is able to assimilate experiences into their self-structure (beliefs) – good and bad
Is open to experience (actions) rather than reacting to experience in a defensive manner
Self and Experiences for a psychologically unhealthy person:
Incongruent experiences are either denied completely or distorted
This creates a discrepancy with actual experience and the Self’s awareness of the experience (self-experience discrepancy)
We create defences against this
Self-Experience Discrepancy Defences:
Rationalization
Fantasy
Projection
Rationalization
Rationalize the experience to maintain congruence between the self and experience
E.g.,
Reality: I got a C on the essay because I procrastinated
Self-talk: I prioritised what I could do with the little time I had, I studied as much as I could
Fantasy
Create a fantasy world to maintain congruence
E.g.,
I may think I’m extremely valued by others (incongruent view of reality; narcissism, histrionic)
I may think I’m extremely unvalued by others (incongruent view of reality; depression)
In both, I may feel no or little self-experience discrepancy as it has become pervasive
Projection
Project your incongruent desires/thoughts onto someone else
Conditions necessary for ROGERIAN therapeutic change:
Non-directive approach
Person(client) centred therapy
Therapeutic climate
Non-directive approach
Allow clients to reflect on thoughts, feelings, and behavior
Person-centred therapy
Emphasizes an active role of the therapist; individualized therapy
Therapeutic climate
Client and Therapist equality. “Therapeutic Alliance”
Three therapist-centred conditions necessary for good therapeutic climate/environment:
1. Genuineness
2. Unconditional positive regard
3. Empathic understanding
Therapeutic climate: Genuineness
Therapist is themselves
Open and transparent
Speaks honestly (non-distortive)
Inter-logic (an absolute truth; “never tell a lie”) vs
Consequential (a truth that would hurt the person; “white lie”)
Therapeutic climate: Unconditional positive regard
Therapist communicates a deep and genuine
caring for the client as a person
Therapeutic climate: Empathic understanding
Therapist strives to understand how the client
perceives the world through active listening and
empathetic concern
Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT) Premise
humans do not get emotionally disturbed by unfortunate circumstances but by how they construct their views of these circumstances, based on their language, evaluative beliefs, meanings and philosophies about the world, themselves and others
I.e. The way people feel is largely influenced by the way that they think.
Hopelessness
Self-worth and value judgements effected by negative thinking patterns and irrational beliefs
Ideal Self
Who we aim to be.
Distress occurs when there is a large discrepancy (difference) between the Self and the ideal Self
Therapy must bring these two selves closer together
Carl Rogers was the first to…
open psychotherapy up to systematic investigation
Evaluating client-centred therapy
Used Q-Sort before and after therapy
Can correlate scores given to actual and ideal self ratings
Correlation, r, (similarity between actual and ideal) should be higher after therapy
Indicates greater congruence between actual and ideal self
Perfect correlation is +1 and worst is -1 (opposite) (0 means no relationship)
Butler & Haigh (1954) - Correlation (similarity between actual and ideal)
Therapy scenario: Subjects that were psychologically distressed…
Before therapy r = 0 (no relationship)
After therapy r = 0.34 (“moderate” positive relationship)
6-month follow-up r = 0.31 (showed consistency and sustainability)
Subjects that were not psychologically distressed? r = 0.58
Human Potential Movement
(positive growth):
Inner perception of external experience (e.g., REBT)
People have the capacity to move forward and realize their potentials (Murphy, 1958)
Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
People are good or neutral, rather than evil (e.g., not made up of unconscious crude drives)
Psychopathology results from a twisting or hindering of our natural growth as an organism bysocial structures (critique of the superego)
People should be free to be themselves and express themselves
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Self-actualization
Esteem needs
Belonging and love needs
Safety needs
Physiological needs
Maslow: Existential influence
we have personal responsibility due to our free will (choice)
Psychological needs are our personal responsibilities
… people need us and rely on us to fulfil our responsibilities (belonging)
… this brings about esteem
… bringing purpose, meaning to our lives (and others), hence self-actualization
HPM: Self-actualizing individuals…
Accept themselves and others for who they are (acceptance)
Can be concerned for themselves and others (compassion and empathy)
Respond to the uniqueness of situations, not mechanically (psychological flexibility)
Can form intimate relationships with at least a few people (intimacy)
Spontaneous and creative (open to experience)
Resist conformity and be assertive while responding to the demands of reality (authentic)
According to Maslow, insight into personality comes from studying:
abnormal people - persons who are unusually high functioning, self-actualizing individuals
Positive Psychology Movement
Martin Seligman (leader)
- interested in the nature of human strengths/ virtues
What are human strengths – how do we identify them?
It is an enduring quality that is beneficial in a variety of domains
e.g. wisdom, compassion, honesty, integrity, etc.
Parents and society foster these “strengths” in children, and, if developed, it is celebrated by one’s community (e.g. wise-man vs. “the fool”)
The strength is valued in almost all cultures in the world…
PPM: Flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990)
Positive state of consciousness with the following characteristics:
A perceived match between personal skills + environmental challenge (congruence)
Perception the task is challenging but achievable
High level of focused attention
Lack of distractions and irrelevant thoughts
Intrinsic enjoyment in the activity
Loss of self-consciousness (self-un-aware; time flies)
Existentialism
Overarching concern with existence
Emphasis on the human condition, having consciousness, existing; thesignificance of the individual
It involves the search for meaning in human existence…
What is the purpose of life?
Emphasis on:
Life as Suffering:
limited capabilities in a world of infinite complexity
Life is finite, death anxiety
Beliefs (and the opposite Nihilism – Nietzsche’s “god is dead”)
Reduce suffering through action/meaning → having purpose
Balance Chaos (unknown) and Order (known)
Phenomenology perspective: Understanding the unique experience of others as sentient beings
Jean-Paul Sartre: Consciousness, Nothingness, Freedom and Responsibility
Humans differ from animals in that we are free from simple deterministic drives
We have conscious (and abstract) action
We can imagine alternatives (non-reality; scenarios; predictions)
and we can imagine things not existing – “nothingness” (space and matter)
Because we have freedom of alternatives – we have the freedom to choose actions
“With freedom comes responsibility”
“I had no choice”… (no, we must take responsibility for our actions)
Morality and incongruence
Nothingness
“Nothingness is really like the nothingness of space, which contains the whole universe.” – Alan Watts. (1915 – 1973)
Without space we can’t have solids (i.e., matter)
Solid and Space are inseparable
We know things only by comparison…
So, first, if we have conscious thought then we must have unconscious thought
What does this mean for you and your personality?
How am I defining my Self as a comparison… and if I am… then am I truly being me, or the alternative/comparison of what I don’t want to be? Or what I think I should be based on my comparisons… now what if your comparisons are limited by your experience …which they are ;
Mortality salience
tests the hypothesis that the more death anxiety one faces
the more one will commit to one’s cultural and political beliefs
Increases in mortality salience (aka the fear of death) produce:
Greater fondness for members of one’s own ‘group’ and rejection of
members of different groups
Greater anxiety about blasphemous attitudes towards one’s own groups’ cultural ‘group’ icons
Greater physical aggression towards those that attack ones ‘group’
Increased donations to charities that benefit one’s ‘group’
Terror Management Theory (TMT)
(1) people’s desire to live
(2) people’s awareness that death is inevitable
How do we cope with knowing we are going to die?
Once life’s fragility becomes a personal truth instead of a philosophical concept that
happens to “other people,” we become more capable of celebrating whatever days and
experiences remain to us instead of focusing on everyday hassles.
Discrepancies amongst parts of self
Specific research looking at discrepancies not between ideal and actual but among parts of the self
Ideal self and the “ought” self
Ideal self concerned with hopes, ambitions and desires
Ought self concerned with duties, responsibilities and obligations
“Things I ought to do”
Discrepancies with the actual self:
Ideal: leads to disappointment, sadness, depression (e.g., cant live up to ideal – perfectionism video)
Ought: leads to fear, threat, anxiety; avoidance and social isolation → neg. reinforcement + incr.control)
Research shows discrepancies between:
Actual - Ideal (leads to depression) (feelings of hopelessness?)
Actual - Ought (leads to anxiety disorders) (feelings of global anxiety?)
Phenomenological Theory: Scientific Observation
The Database
Some data based on clinical observations …but made these open to public scrutiny
Allowed himself to be put under the spotlight; judged
Rogers and colleagues sought objectivity
Q-Sort technique
Semantic Differential
Only used explicit methods, e.g. self-report
No implicit (unconscious) measures (e.g. dream analysis, symbolism, free-association,etc.)
Lack of cultural diversity
Phenomenological Theory: Systematic?
Little systematic theorising in general.
However, parts are logical and systematic
Formal personality theory is cogent and logical
Parent-child interactions and how those influence the development of a self-concept
Rogers didn’t like to theorise
Thought he was too subjective
Thought his theory was immature
Would have liked a model that would stand mathematic rigour
Overall it is systematic, but perhaps less so than others we will cover
Phenomenological Theory: Testable?
Some aspects of the Rogerian theory are testable
Particularly the actual and ideal self concept (but self report)
Overall the “self-concept” is testable
Necessary and sufficient conditions for psychological change are among the very
best in psychotherapy and are still used today
But Self is often derived through Trait theory – Big 5 factor model for example.
However,
A universal motive towards self-actualisation?
Another way to think about “actualisation” is that we are moving towards our
actual-ideal Self
…and the pursuit of an ought, should-ideal (i.e, perfectionism) or ought-ideal
(societies “perfection”) is dropped
Only the path (aiming with purpose) to a “true” Self is taken
Phenomenological Theory: Applications?
Simply Profound.
(1) Interpersonal relationship between therapist and client
Therapeutic alliance (contemporary terminology)
Most important element
(2) Developed methods to objectively test effectiveness of therapy (the first!)
(3) Person-centred approach
Empowered clients to improve their own lives
It was up to them in the end – aim was to instil and support a sense of personal
responsibility in the client
Only you can self actualise you and there is no manual for that…
You are your internal thoughts and the only thing you are in control of is what
you do with them
Major Contributions
Rogerian theory and the Client-Centred approach:
Strengths:
Focuses on aspects of human existence that are neglected by most
The self concept and human potential for growth
Provides concrete therapeutic strategies and settings
First person to do this and the strategies remain today
Brought scientific objectivity to personality psychology
Limitations:
Does not attend to phenomena that lies outside conscious experience (…but?)
Little attention to cross-cultural differences and situational differences
