Rogers Powerpoint for simple crash course in Theories of Personality PDF

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Rogers Powerpoint for simple crash course in Theories of Personality...

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Rogers: Person-Centered Theory ● He wanted to be a farmer ● Quite shy and lacking in social skills ● Sensitive boy, he was easily hurt by the teasing of his classmates ● Family moved to a farm and developed close ties with one another ● Reading the Bible, working hard, and taking care of farm animals and plants occupied much of his time ● His parents cared for their children but were quite controlling in their child-rearing practices ● As a result, the children grew up in a home with no social life and an abundance of hard work (dancing and playing were not allowed) ● In this environment, he developed a scientific attitude towards farming -> “necessary and sufficient” conditions for optimal growth ● Changed his life goal from agriculture to ministry to psychology ● He was first a scientist, then a therapist, then a personality theorist Overview of Client-Centered Theory ● Rogers developed a humanistic theory of personality that grew out of his experiences as a psychotherapist ● Unlike Freud who was primarily a theorist and secondarily a therapist, Rogers was the opposite ● Rogers was more concerned with helping people than with discovering why they did what they did ● He continually called for empirical research to support both his personality theory and his therapeutic approach ● Helper of people > constructor of theories ● To him, theories seemed to make things too cold and external

Biography of Carl Rogers

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Carl was closer to his mother than to his father who was often away from home working as a civil engineer Walter and Julia Rogers were both religious and Carl became interested in the Bible since preschool He learned the value of hard work from his parents Trip to China to attend a student religious conference made him a more liberal thinker and gave him more self-confidence in social relationships Attended a lecture by Adler who shocked Rogers with his contention that an elaborate case history was unnecessary for psychotherapy Rogers was strongly influenced by Otto Rank Rank’s lectures provided Rogers with the notion that therapy is a emotional growth-producing relationship nurtured by the therapist’s emphatic listening and unconditional acceptance of client In his therapy, Rogers minimized the causes of disturbances and the identification and labeling of disorders He emphasized the growth within the patient His personal life was marked by change and openness to experience He was extremely shy (it restricted his experiences with women) but he had an active fantasy life -> “schizoid” Despite problems with interpersonal relationships, he was the leading proponent of the notion that the relationship between two individuals is a powerful ingredient that cultivates psychological growth Co-winner of the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award b  y the APA: satisfying to Rogers because it highlighted his skill as a researcher (a skill he learned as a farm boy)

Person-Centered Theory ● During his early years, his approach was known as “nondirective”

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Was then termed “client-centered”, “person-centered”, student-centered”, “group-centered”, and “person to person” Client-centered: R  ogers’ therapy  ogers’ theory Person-centered: R Roger’s person-centered theory comes closest to the if-then f ramework (if therapeutic change occurs, then the client will experience more acceptance)

Basic Assumptions 1. Formative tendency 2. Actualizing tendency Formative Tendency o There is a tendency for all matter (organic and inorganic) to evolve from simpler to complex forms o A creative process instead of a disintegrative one is in operation o Ex: crystals form from water vapor Actualizing Tendency o Tendency within all humans (animals and plants) to move toward completion or fulfillment of potentials; though only humans can be self-actualized o This tendency it the only motive people possess o Examples: the need to satisfy hunger drive, express deep emotions, and accept the self o Tendencies to maintain and to enhance the organism o Maintenance need - is like Maslow’s lower steps (basic needs and safety, but includes the tendency to resist change and seek the status quo) ✓ Expressed in people’s desire to protect their current, comfortable self-concept ✓ People fight against new ideas; they find change painful and growth frightening o Enhancement need – need to become more, to develop, and to achieve growth

✓ Is seen in people’s willingness to learn things that aren’t immediately rewarding ✓ Curiosity, playfulness, friendship ✓ People have the creative power to solve their problems; they do not need to be directed or controlled o A human’s actualization tendency is realized only under certain conditions: ✓ People must be involved in a relationship with a partner who is congruent/authentic, a nd who demonstrates empathy and unconditional positive regard * These three are both necessary and sufficient conditions for becoming a fully functioning or self-actualizing persons

The Self and Self-Actualization ● Infants begin to develop a vague concept of self when an experience is personalized (as “I” or “me” experiences) -> what tastes good/bad to them ● Because nourishment is a requirement for actualization, infants value food and devalue hunger ● Sleep, fresh air, physical contact are needed for actualization as well ● Self-actualization – is a subset of the actualization tendency & not synonymous with it o Actualization tendency – refers to organismic experiences of an individual; it refers to the whole person (conscious/unconscious, physiological/cognitive, rational/emotional)

Self- actualization – the tendency to actualize the self as perceived in the awareness o When the organism and perceived self are in harmony = the two actualization tendencies are nearly identical; if not, there is conflict and inner tension 2 self subsystems: o self concept a nd the ideal self o

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The Self-Concept ● Includes all aspects of one’s being and experiences that are perceived in awareness (not always accurately) ● Not identical with the organismic self o Parts of the organismic self may be beyond a person’s awareness or simply not owned by that person o Stomach is part of the organismic self but unless it malfunctions and causes concern, it’s not part of the self-concept o People can disown certain aspects, like experiences of dishonesty, when such experiences are not consistent with their self-concept ● Experiences that are inconsistent with the self-concept are either denied or accepted in distorted form ● An established self-concept does not make change impossible, just difficult ● Change most readily occurs in an atmosphere of acceptance, where the person can reduce anxiety/threat and take ownership of rejected experiences The Ideal Self ● One’s view of self as one wishes to be ● Contains all attributes usually positive that people aspire to possess ● Incongruence – wide gap between the ideal self and self-concept -> unhealthy personality

Awareness ● Without awareness, the self-concept and ideal self would not exist ● Rogers: “the symbolic representation (not necessarily in verbal symbols) of some portion of our experience” ● Term was used synonymously with consciousness and symbolization Levels of Awareness 1. Some events are experienced below the threshold of awareness and are either ignored or denied o Ex: A woman walking down a busy street (many sight & sound stimuli). Because she can’t attend to all of them, many remain ignored. o Ex: A mother who never wanted children but because of guilt, shows care for them (denied) 2. Some experiences are accurately symbolized a nd freely admitted to the self-structure o Such experiences are nonthreatening and consistent with the self-concept o Ex: A confident pianist accurately symbolizes and admits to his self-concept compliments by a friend 3. Experiences that are perceived in a distorted form o Experiences that are not consistent with the view of self are distorted to allow for assimilation in the existing self-concept Denial of Positive Experiences ● Many people have difficulty accepting genuine compliments and positive feedback ● Genuine compliments seldom have a positive influence on one’s self-concept ● May be denied because the person distrusts the giver or feels undeserving (the compliment may carry an implied threat) Becoming a Person

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A person first must make contact (positive/negative) with another person -> contact is the minimum experience necessary Positive regard – our need to be loved, liked, accepted by another person; it is a prerequisite for positive self regard Positive self-regard – the experience of prizing and valuing one’s self o Rogers believed that receiving positive self regard from others is necessary for positive self-regard, but once it is established, it becomes independent of the continual need to be loved

Barriers to Psychological Health 1. Conditions of worth 2. Incongruence 3. Defensiveness 4. Disorganization 1. Conditions of Worth ● Instead of receiving unconditional positive regard, most people receive conditions of worth ● They perceive that their parents, peers, or partners love and accept them if they meet their expectations and approval ● If we perceive that some of our behaviors are approved and some disapproved, then we see our worth as conditional ● External evaluations – our perceptions of other people’s view of us o These evaluations (whether positive or negative) do not foster psychological health but rather prevent us from being open to our own experiences

Incongruence between our self-concept and organismic experience is the source of psychological disorders o Vulnerability - the greater the incongruence, the more vulnerable people are; they are unaware of the discrepancy; Lacking awareness, they behave in ways that are incomprehensible to self and others – o Anxiety and Threat are experienced when we are aware of the incongruence anxiety – a state of uneasiness or tension whose cause is unknown threat – as we become more aware of the discrepancy, anxiety becomes threat. It is awareness that our self is no longer whole or congruent ●

3. Defensiveness (Rogers defense mechanism) ● The protection of the self-concept against anxiety and threat by the denial or distortion of experiences inconsistent with it o Distortion – we misinterpret an experience in order to fit it into our self-concept; we perceive the experience in awareness but fail to understand its true meaning o Denial – we refuse to perceive an experience in awareness or we keep an aspect of it from reaching symbolization

● 2. Incongruence ● Psychological disequilibrium begins when we fail to recognize our organismic experiences as self experiences ● Happens when we do not accurately symbolize organismic experiences into awareness because they appear inconsistent with our self-concept

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4. Disorganization o It can occur suddenly or gradually over a long period of time o People are particularly vulnerable to disorganization during therapy Rogers had a disdain for using diagnostic labels to describe people Classifications in the DSM-IV have never been part of the person-centered theory “neurotic” “psychotic”...