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Chapter 11 Rogers: Person-Centered Theory

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Overview of Client-Centered Theory Carl Rogers is best known as the founder of client-centered therapy. He was a consummate therapist and only a reluctant theorist. He was more concerned with helping people than with discovering why they behaved as they did. He advocated a balance between tender-minded and hardheaded studies that would expand knowledge of how humans feel and think.

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● Biography of Carl Rogers ●

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Born 1902 in Illinois, the fourth of six children with parents both devoutly religious (Carl learning to read the Bible and other books as as preschool child) Closer to mother since father was often away from home due to work. First intended to become a farmer, then followed became very interested in religion. Interaction with other young religious leaders changed him into a more liberal thinker and made him independent from the religious views of his parents. Interaction with other fellow leaders also gave him more self-confidence in social relationships. As an adolescent, he was extremely shy, had no close friends and sosically incompetent in any but superficial

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contacts, which also restricted his experiences with women. But he did have an active fantasy life, which he believed would have been diagnosed as schizoid. Entered a seminary to become a minister; enrolled in psychology and education courses at a university where he was influenced by the progressive education movement of John Dewey. Left the seminary because he did not wish to express a fixed set of beliefs but desired more freedom to explore new ideas. Served as a fellow at the new Institute for Child Guidance in New York City where he learned basic Freudian psychoanalysis, applied it on his practice, but was not much influenced by it. Also attended a lecture by Alfred Adler During the early phase of his professional career, Rogers was strongly influenced by the ideas of Otto Rank, who was one of Freud’s closest associates before his dismissal from Freud’s inner circle, who believed that therapy is an emotional growth-producing relationship After establishing a counseling center at the University of Chicago, his therapy evolved from one that emphasized methodology or the nondirective technique, to one in which the sole emphasis was on the client-therapist relationship. Along with his students and colleagues, he produced groundbreaking research on the process and effectiveness of psychotherapy. After his failure to unite the professions of psychiatry and psychology, he became interested in encounter groups.

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Along with others, he formed the Center for Studies of the Person. He extended his person-centered methods to education and to international politics. Among his honors include being the first president of the American Association for applied Psychology, helped re-fuse the association with the American Psychological Association (APA), where he served as its president. He was also the first president of the American Academy of Psychotherapists. He was a cowinner of the first Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from APA.

Person-Centered Theory Roger’s approach was variously termed client-centered, person-centered, student-centered, group-centered, and person to person. Basic assumptions: 1) Formative tendency 2) Actualizing tendency Formative Tendency  - a tendency for all matter to evolve from simpler to more complex forms. For the universe, a creative process, rather than a disintegrative one, is in operation. Eg, snowflakes from vapor, complex organisms from single cells, highly organized awareness of human consciousness from primitive unconsciousness.

Actualizing tendency  - a tendency within all humans, including other organisms, to move toward completion or fulfillment of potentials. This is the only motive that people possess. It involves the whole person because each person operates as one complete organism. Eg, the need to satisfy a hunger drive, express emotions felt, etc… Tendencies to maintain and enhance the organism are subsumed within the actualizing tendency the need for maintenance includes  basic needs as food, air, and safety but also includes the tendency to resist change and to seek the status quo. The need to become more, to develop, and to achieve growth is called enhancement. It is seen in people’s willingness to learn things that are not immediately rewarding. People are willing to face threat and pain because of a biologically based tendency for the organism to fulfill its basic nature. It is expressed in a variety of forms as curiosity, playfulness, self-exploration, friendship, and confidence that one can achieve psychological growth because they possess the creative power to solve problems, to alter self-concepts, and become increasingly self-directed. Actualization tendency is realized only when people are involved in a relationship with a partner who is congruent or authentic, and who demonstrates empathy and unconditional positive regard. The Self and Self-Actualization Infants begin to develop a vague concept of self when a portion of their experience becomes personalized and differentiated in awareness as I or me experiences. Self-actualization is a subset of the actualization tendency; it is the tendency to actualize the self as perceived

in awareness. Actualization tendency refers to organismic experiences of the individual. Two self-subsystems 1) Self-concept 2) Ideal self The Self-Concept  - includes all those aspects of one’s being and one’s experiences that are perceived in awareness (though not always accurately) by the individual. It is not identical with the organismic self. Portions of the organismic self may be beyond a person’s awareness or simply not owned by that person. Eg, the stomach, a part of the organismic self, is not likely to be part one’s self-concept unless it malfunctions and causes concern. Similarly, certain aspects of their selves such as experiences of dishonesty can be disowned by people when such experiences are not consistent with their self-concept. Once people form their self-concept, they find change and significant learnings quite difficult. Experiences that are inconsistent with their self-concept usually are either denied or accepted only in distorted forms. An established self-concept makes change difficult but not impossible. Change most readily occurs in an atmosphere of acceptance by others which allows a person to reduce anxiety and threat and to take ownership of previously rejected experiences. The Ideal Self - is the view of one’s self as one wishes to be; it contains all those attributes, usually positive, that people aspire to possess.

*A wide gap between the ideal self and the self-concept indicates incongruence and an unhealthy personality. Awareness It is defined as the symbolic representation of some portion of our experience. Roger used the term synonymously with consciousness and symbolization. Levels of Awareness 1) Some events are experienced below the threshold of awareness and are either ignored or denied. Eg for ignored - the many stimuli presented while a person is walking down the street but which remains unnoticed/. Eg for denied - a mother who never wanted children might become overly solicitous to her children; her anger at having children would never reach consciousness but would color her conscious behavior toward them. 2) Some experiences are accurately symbolized and freely admitted to the self-structure. These experiences are both non threatening and consistent with the existing self-concept. Eg. a pianist fully confident of his piano-playing ability is told that his playing is excellent. 3) Experiences that are perceived in a distorted form. Experiences that are not consistent with our view of self are reshaped or distorted so that it can assimilated into an existing self-concept. Eg, when the pianist is told by a distrusted competitor that his playing was

excellent, he might hear the remarks but would distort their meaning because he feels threatened.

Denial of Positive Experiences The difficulty of accepting genuine compliments and positive feedback even when deserved. A compliment from another person implies the right of that person to criticize or condemn, and thus the compliment carries an implied threat. Becoming a Person 1) An individual must make contact, positive or negative, with another person 2) An individual develops a need to be loved, liked, or accepted by another person called positive regard 3) An individual has the experience of prizing or valuing oneself called positive self-regard. Once positive self-regard is established, it becomes independent of the continual need to be loved. The source of positive self-regard lies in the positive regard received from others. Barriers to Psychological health 1) Conditions of worth 2) Incongruence 3) Defensiveness 4) Disorganization Conditions of Worth - people’s perception that parents, peers, or partners love and accept them only if they meet those

people’s expectations and approval. A condition of worth arises when the positive regard of a significant other is conditional, when the individual feels that in some respects he is prized and in others not. It becomes the criterion by which experiences are rejected or accepted. The attitudes we perceive others expressing toward us are gradually assimilated into the self-structure and in time, experiences are evaluated based on this basis. The perceptions of other people’s view on a person are called external  evaluations and whether positive or negative, do not foster psychological health but rather prevent a person from being completely open to his experiences. Other people’s values can be assimilated only in distorted fashion or at the risk of creating disequilibrium and conflict within the self. Eg, rejecting pleasurable experiences because other people disapprove of them. Incongruence - the presence of a variance between the self-concept and organismic experience. Psychological disequilibrium begins when we fail to recognize our organismic experiences as self-experiences; that is, when we do not accurately symbolize organismic experiences into awareness because they appear to be inconsistent with the emerging self-concept. It is a source of psychological disorders as it leads to discrepant and seemingly inconsistent behaviors. Vulnerability - people become vulnerable when they are unaware of the discrepancy between their organismic self and their significant experience. They often behave in ways that are incomprehensible not only to others but also to themselves. The greater the incongruence, the more vulnerable people are.

Anxiety and Threat - people experience anxiety and threat as they become aware of incongruence within the self. However, it represents steps toward psychological health because they signal the inconsistency between organismic experience and self-concept. Anxiety is a state of uneasiness or tension whose cause is unknown. Threat  is  an awareness that our self is no longer whole or congruent. Defensiveness - is the protection of the self-concept against anxiety and threat by the denial or distortion of experiences inconsistent with it. It occurs when one of our experiences is inconsistent with one part of our self-concept. Its two chief defenses are distortion and denial. Distortion is the misinterpretation of an experience in order to fit into some aspect of the self-concept. Denial is  the refusal to perceive an experience in awareness or the keeping of some aspect of the experience from reaching symbolization. It is not as common as distortion as most experiences can be twisted or reshaped to fit the current self-concept. Both defenses aim to keep perception of organismic experiences consistent with the self-concept. Disorganization - occurs when the incongruence between perceived self and organismic experience is either too obvious or occurs too suddenly to be denied or distorted. Disorganization can occur suddenly or it can take place gradually over a long period of time. In this state, people sometimes behave consistently with their organismic experience and sometimes in accordance with their shattered self-concept. Eg, a prudish woman suddenly begins using explicitly sexual language.

(Rogers remained uncomfortable with the terms neurotic and psychotic, preferring instead to speak of defensive and disorganized behaviors.) Psychotherapy The client-centered approach holds that in order for vulnerable or anxious people to grow psychologically, they must come into contact with a therapist who is congruent and whom they perceive as providing an atmosphere of unconditional acceptance and accurate empathy. (The qualities of congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathic understanding are not easy for a counselor to attain). The approach of the theory can be stated in an if-then fashion. If the conditions required of a therapist is present, then the process of therapy will transpire. If the process takes place, , then certain outcomes can be predicted. Terms of Rogerian therapy 1) Conditions 2) Process 3) Outcomes Conditions a) An anxious or vulnerable client must come into contact with a congruent therapist who also possesses empathy and unconditional positive regard for that client b) The client must perceive these characteristics in the therapist

c) The contact between client and therapist must be of some duration Congruence is more basic than either unconditional positive regard or empathic listening. Congruence is a general quality possessed by the therapist whereas the other two conditions are specific feelings or attitudes that the therapist has for the client. A.1 Counselor congruence - a complete human being with feelings of joy, anger, frustration, confusion, ...which are neither denied nor distorted but flow easily into awareness and are freely expressed. They are not passive, aloof, nor nondirective. They are not static; they accept organismic experiences into awareness which contributes to their psychological growth. They were no mask, no pleasant facade, and avoid pretensions of friendliness and affection when not felt. They are able to match feelings with awareness and both with honest expression. Since congruence involves feelings, awareness, and expression, incongruence can arise from either of the two points dividing these three experiences: 1) a breakdown between feelings and awareness eg, feeling angry but unaware of the feeling 2) discrepancy between awareness of an experience and the ability or willingness to express it to another eg, feeling bored but do not verbalize boredom to avoid being thought as a not good therapist. However, a therapist need not be absolutely congruent in order to facilitate some growth within a client, nor is it necessary for the therapist to be congruent in all relationships

outside the therapeutic process. Different degrees of congruence exist. Congruence exists when a person’s organismic experiences are matched by an awareness of them and by an ability and willingness to openly express these feelings. To be congruent means to be real or genuine, to be whole or integrated, to be what one truly is. A.2 Unconditional positive regard - when therapists experience a warm, positive and accepting attitude (an attitude without possessiveness, without evaluations, and without reservations) toward what is the client. A therapist will show a nonpossessive warmth and acceptance and not an effusive, effervescent persona. He would care about the client without smothering or owning the client. Therapists accept and price their clients without regard to clients’ behavior. Their positive regard remains constant and unwavering. Therapists do not accept one action and reject another for to do so would lead to clients’ defensiveness and prevents psychological growth. Positive regard is the need to be liked, prized, or accepted by another person. Unconditional positive regard is  the need to be liked, prized or accepted by another person without any conditions or qualifications. Regard means that there is a close relationship and that the therapist sees the client as an important person. Positive indicates that the direction of the relationship is toward warm and caring feelings. Unconditional suggests that the positive regard is no longer dependent on specific client behaviors and does not have to be continually earned.

A.3 Empathic listening - it exists when therapists accurately sense the feelings of their clients and are able to communicate these perceptions so that clients that another person has entered their world of feelings without prejudice, projection, or evaluation. A therapist sees things from the client’s point of view and that the client feels safe and unthreatened. A therapist checks the accuracy of their sensings by trying them out on the client. Empathy does not involve interpreting clients’ meanings or uncovering their unconscious feelings, procedures that would entail an external frame of reference and a threat to clients. Empathy is effective because it enables clients to listen to themselves and, in effect, become their own therapists. It should not be confused with sympathy. Empathy connotes a feeling “with” a client while sympathy suggests a feeling “for” a client. Empathy also does not mean that a therapist has the same feelings as the client eg, sexual attraction. Rather, a therapist is experiencing the depth of the client’s feeling while permitting the client to be a separate person. A therapist has an emotional as well as a cognitive reaction to a client’s feelings, but the feelings belong to the client. The therapist does not take ownership of a client’s experiences but is able to convey to the client an understanding of what it means to be the client at that particular moment. Process B. 1 Stages of Therapeutic Change Stage 1 - characterized by an unwillingness to communicate anything about oneself. They do not ordinarily seek help but if for some reason they come to therapy, they are extremely rigid

and resistant to change. They do not recognize any problems and refuse to own any personal feelings or emotions. Stage 2 - clients become slightly less rigid. They discuss external events and other people but still disowns or fails to recognize their own feelings. They may talk about personal feelings but as an objective phenomena Stage 3 - talks more freely about self although still as an object. They talks about feelings and emotions in the past or future tense and avoid present feelings. They refuse to accept their emotions,only vaguely perceive that they can make personal choices, and deny individual responsibility for most of their decisions. Stage 4 - begins to talk of deep feelings but not ones presently felt. When they do express present feelings, they are usually surprised by this expression. They deny or distort experiences but they may have some dim recognition that they are capable of feeling emotions in the present. They begin to question values that have been introjected from others and they start to see the incongruence between their perceived self and their organismic experience. They accept more freedom and responsibility and begin to tentatively allow themselves to become involved in a relationship with the therapist. Stage 5 - undergo significant change and growth. They can express feelings in the present although they have not yet accurately symbolized those feelings. They begin to make fresh and new discoveries about themselves and rely on an internal locus of evaluation for their feelings. They begin to make their own decisions and accept responsibility for their choices. Stage 6 - dramatic growth and an irreversible movement toward becoming fully functioning or self-actualizing. They

freely allow into awareness previously denied or distorted experiences. They become more congruent and able to match present experiences with awareness and with open expression. They now rely on their organismic self as the criterion for evaluating experiences rather than fro...