The phenomenological perspective: lecture 3 Flashcards
core tenant of Rogerian System
actualize, maintain, and enhance the experiencing organism
* total organismic sensing
phenomenal field
totality of experience accessible to person (all thoughts, feelings, memories, beliefs, ect.)
organism
neuropsychological entity that experiences (physical being)
the self
socially determined aspects of phenomenal field to which one may attach the terms “I” or “me”
actualizing tendency
organisms biological drive to fulfill inherent potentialities (what you want to do)
Self-actualizing tendency
pressure to develop, behave, and experience consistently with self (what you’re pushed to do)
self
social construct created at a young age
organismic valuing process OVP
process that determines whether experience facilitates or thwarts the actualizing tendency
need for positive regard
learned need to receive approval, nurturance, attention and acceptance from others
conditions of worth
those things that elicit positive regard from others
need for positive self-regard
internalized need for self-acceptance ad approval
conditional positive self-regard
learned tendency to value in ourselves only those things that meet internalized conditions of worth
How anxiety and depression develop
when actualizing tendency and self-actualizing tendency don’t line up
anxiety tells you
warning that self-structure is threatening to disintegrate or shatter
Defenses
- distortion of experience
- denial
distortion of experience
rationalizations that make apparent incongruency appear congruent
denial
refuse to acknowledge threatening experiences that aren’t part of self structure
The maladaptive person
- defensive
- conforming
*lives according to a preconceived plan - is not creative
fully functional person
received unconditional positive regard and accepts all that is valued by the OVP
Characteristics of the fully functioning person
*openness to experience
* organismic trusting
*existential living
*experiential living
*creativity
openness to experience
receptive to experiences and dictates of OVP
*open to feelings of fear and discouragement and pain
*courage and tenderness and care
organismic trusting
has faith that experiences openly received and processed by OVP will result in optimal life-satisfaction (trusts gut)
existential living
living in the moment and allowing self to emerge from experience rather than vise-versa
experiential living
a feeling that one is free to do as one choses and claiming responsibility for those choices
creativity
genuinely benefit the self and others through new, flexible, and effective thinking and acting
Shimel et al.
*Rogerian hypothesis: if experience unconditional positive regard, self-structure will be healthy and less defensive. If received praise based upon “conditions of worth” will be more defensive
* Method: described either their most revealing intrinsic qualities or accomplishments then judged on self or given no feedback. They then provided counterfactual statements to past negative events in their life
Results:
Those who received positive feedback on their true, intrinsic selves generated fewer downward counterfactuals
Cohen et al.
found that affirmation of important values led generally to more openness to others’ ideas and more flexibility in negotiations
Schlegel et al.
Knowing that one was satisfied with a decision led one to feel that he or she truly knew the self; and putting one in touch with a true self led to more satisfying decisions
