Carl rogers Essay

Carl Rogers (1902-1987) was a human-centered psychologist who agreed with the main assumptions of Abraham Maslow, moreover added that for a mortal to larn, they charter an environment that provides them with genuineness (openness and egotism-importance-disclosure), acceptance (being suss outn with overbearing arrogant regard), and empathy (being listened to and understood). Without these, relationships and healthy soulalities forget not build as they should, much same(p) a shoetree willing not grow without sunlight and water. Rogers believed that e genuinely person skunk get to their goals, wishes and desires in deportment. When, or rather if they did so, egotism actualization took place. This was wizard of Carl Rogers most important contributions to psychology and for a person to reach their possible a number of factors must be satisfied.Self ActualizationThe being has wholeness basic tendency and striving to actualize, maintain, and enhance the experiencing organism (Rogers, 1951, p. 487). Rogers jilted the deterministic nature of some(prenominal) psychoanalysis and behaviorism and maintained that we coif as we do because of the way we perceive our situation. As no sensation else can know how we perceive, we be the best experts on ourselves. Carl Rogers (1959) believed that humans ingest one basic motive, that is the tendency to ego-importance-actualize i.e. to fulfill ones potential drop and achieve the high schoolest level of human-beingness we can. Like a flower that will grow to its full potential if the conditions are right, but which is constrained by its environment, so people will flourish and reach their potential if their environment is earnest enough. However, unlike a flower, the potential of the individualist human is unique, and we are meant to develop in different ways according to our personality. Rogers believed that people are inherently good and creative. They become destructive only when a poor self-con cept or external constraints override the valuing process.Carl Rogers believed that for a person to achieve self-actualization they must be in a fix of congruence. This means that self-actualization occurs when a persons saint self (i.e. who they would like to be) is congruent with their actual behavior (self-image). Rogers describes an individual who is actualizing as a fully functioning person.The main determinant of whether we will become self-actualized is churlhood run through. The Fully Functioning PersonRogers believed that every person could achieve their goals wishes, and desires in life. When they did so self-actualization took place. For Rogers (1961) people who are able be self-actualize, and that is not all of us, are called fully functioning persons. This means that the person is in tweak with the here and now, his or her subjective make loves and feelings, continually evolution and changing. In m some(prenominal) ways Rogers regarded the fully functioning perso n as an ideal and one that people do not ultimately achieve. It is misemploy to think of this as an end or completion of lifes journey rather it is a process of always becoming and changing. Rogers set five characteristics of the fully functioning person 1. Open to escort both irresponsible and blackball emotions accepted. Negative feelings are not denied, but worked with (rather than resort to ego defence mechanisms). 2. Existential living in touch with different experiences as they occur in life, avoiding prejudging and preconceptions.Being able to start and fully appreciate the present, not always looking at back to the historic or forward to the future (i.e. living for the moment). 3. Trust feelings feeling, instincts and gut-reactions are salaried attention to and corporate trusted. Peoples own decisions are the right ones and we should trust ourselves to make the right choices. 4. Creativity creative thinking and risk victorious are features of a persons life. Perso n does not view safe all the time. This involves the ability to adjust and change and seek impudent experiences. 5. Fulfilled life person is happy and satisfied with life, and always looking for invigorated challenges and experiences. For Rogers, fully functioning people are swell up adjusted, well balanced and interesting to know. Often such people are high achievers in society. Critics claim that the fully functioning person is a harvesting of Western culture. In other cultures, such as Eastern cultures, the motion of the group is valued much highly than the achievement of any one person. Personality DevelopmentCentral to Rogers personality theory is the notion of self or self-concept. This is defined as the organized, consistent set of perceptions and beliefs astir(predicate) oneself. The self is the humanistic term for who we really are as aperson. The self is our inner personality, and can be likened to the soul, or Freuds psyche. The self is modeld by the experiences a person has in their life, and out interpretations of those experiences. Two primary sources that influence our self-concept are childhood experiences and evaluation by others. According to Rogers (1959), we want to feel, experience and behave in ways which are consistent with our self-image and which reflect what we would like to be like, our ideal-self. The at hand(predicate) our self-image and ideal-self are to each other, the more consistent or congruent we are and the higher our sense of self-worth. A person is verbalize to be in a state of incongruence if some of the contributeity of their experience is unacceptable to them and is denied or distorted in the self-image. The humanistic approach states that the self is composed of concepts unique to ourselves.The self-concept includes three components Self worth (or self-esteem) what we think about ourselves. Rogers believed feelings of self-worth actual in early childhood and were formed from the interaction of the child with the breed and father. Self-image How we see ourselves, which is important to good psychological health. Self-image includes the influence of our carcass image on inner personality. At a simple level, we force perceive ourselves as a good or bad person, elegant or ugly. Self-image has an affect on how a person thinks feels and behaves in the world. exemplar self This is the person who we would like to be. It consists of our goals and ambitions in life, and is dynamic i.e. forever changing. The ideal self in childhood is not the ideal self in our teens or late twenties etc. Self Worth and arbitrary RegardCarl Rogers (1951) viewed the child as having two basic haves positive regard from other people and self-worth. How we think about ourselves, our feelings of self-worth are of inherent importance both to psychological health and to the likelihood that we can achieve goals and ambitions in life and achieve self-actualization. Self-worth may be seen as a continuum from v ery high to very low. For Carl Rogers (1959) a person who has high self-worth, that is, has say-so and positive feelings about him or her self, faces challenges in life, accepts failure and unhappiness at times, and is open with people. A person with low self-worth may avoid challenges in life, not accept that life can be painful and worried at times, and willbe defensive and guarded with other people. Rogers believed feelings of self-worth developed in early childhood and were formed from the interaction of the child with the mother and father. As a child grows older, interactions with significant others will affect feelings of self-worth. Rogers believed that we need to be regarded positively by others we need to feel valued, respected, treated with sum and love. confirmatory regard is to do with how other people evaluate and prove us in social interaction. Rogers made a distinction between unconditional positive regard and conditional positive regard. Unconditional positive regard is where parents, significant others (and the humanist therapist) accepts and loves the person for what he or she is. Positive regard is not withdrawn if the person does something wrong or makes a mistake.The consequences of unconditional positive regard are that the person feels free to see things out and make mistakes, even though this may lead to acquiring it worse at times. People who are able to self-actualize are more seeming to have received unconditional positive regard from others, oddly their parents in childhood. Conditional positive regard is where positive regard, praise and approval, depend upon the child, for example, behaving in ways that the parents think correct. Hence the child is not loved for the person he or she is, but on condition that he or she behaves only in ways approved by the parent(s). At the extreme, a person who constantly seeks approval from other people is likely only to have experienced conditional positive regard as a child. CongruenceA persons ideal self may not be consistent with what actually happens in life and experiences of the person. Hence, a difference may exist between a persons ideal self and actual experience. This is called incongruence. Where a persons ideal self and actual experience are consistent or very similar, a state of congruence exists. Rarely, if ever does a total state of congruence exist all people experience a certain amount of incongruence. The development of congruence is dependent on unconditional positive regard. Carl Rogers believed that for a person to achieve self-actualization they must be in a state of congruence.According to Rogers, we want to feel, experience and behave in ways which are consistent with our self-image and which reflect what we would like to be like, our ideal-self. The closer ourself-image and ideal-self are to each other, the more consistent or congruent we are and the higher our sense of self-worth. A person is said to be in a state of incongruence if some o f the totality of their experience is unacceptable to them and is denied or distorted in the self-image. Incongruence is a discrepancy between the actual experience of the organism and the self-picture of the individual insofar as it represents that experience. As we prefer to see ourselves in ways that are consistent with our self-image, we may use defence mechanisms like denial or repression in order to feel little threatened by some of what we consider to be our undesirable feelings. A person whose self-concept is incongruent with her or his real feelings and experiences will defend because the uprightness hurts. Carl Rogers QuotesWhen I look at the world Im pessimistic, but when I look at people I am optimistic. The very essence of the creative is its novelty, and hence we have no standard by which to judge it (Rogers, 1961, p. 351). I have gradually come to one negative conclusion about the good life. It seems to me that the good life is not any fixed state. It is not, in my estimation, a state of virtue, or contentment, or nirvana, or happiness. It is not a condition in which the individual is adjusted or fulfilled or actualized. To use psychological terms, it is not a state of drive-reduction, or tension-reduction, or homeostasis (Rogers, 1967, p. 185-186). The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination (Rogers, 1967, p. 187). ReferencesRogers, C. (1951). Client-centered Therapy Its flow Practice, Implications and Theory. London Constable. Rogers, C. (1959). A Theory of Therapy, Personality and Interpersonal Relationships as actual in the Client-centered Framework. In (ed.) S. Koch, Psychology A Study of a Science. Vol. 3 Formulations of the Person and the Social Context. New York McGraw Hill. Rogers, C. R. (1961). On Becoming a Person-A Psychotherapists ensure of Psychotherapy. Rogers, C. R., Stevens, B., Gendlin, E. T., Shlien, J. M., & Van Dusen, W. (1967).Person to person The problem of being human A new trend in psychology.Lafayette, CA Real People Press.