CHAPTER 16
ROGERS: PERSON-CENTERED THEORY
I. Overview of Rogers’s Person-Centered Theory
Although
Carl Rogers is perhaps best known as the founder of client-centered therapy, he
also developed a theory of personality that, more than any other, follows an
if/then format. For example, Rogers stated that if certain therapeutic conditions are present, then predictable changes can be expected in clients.
II. Biography of Carl Rogers
Carl
Rogers was born in a Chicago suburb in 1902, the fourth of six children of
upper-middle class, devoutly religious parents. When the family moved to a farm
near Chicago, Carl became interested in scientific farming and learned to
appreciate the scientific method. When he graduated from the University of
Wisconsin, Rogers intended to become a minister. To realize that goal, he
attended the Union Theological Seminar in New York, but he gave up this aspiration
after attending education and psychology classes at neighboring Columbia
University. From that point forward, he devoted his life to education and
psychology. He completed a Ph.D. in 1931 and spent nearly a dozen years away
from an academic life working as a clinician. In 1940, he took a position at
Ohio State University, where he first elucidated his views on psychotherapy. He
spent his most productive years at the University of Chicago, from 1945 to
1957. Next, he returned to the University of Wisconsin, but his stay there was
less satisfying. Finally, in 1964, he moved to California, where he helped
found the Center for Studies of the Person. He died in 1987 at age 85.
III. Person-Centered Theory
Rogers’s
person-centered personality theory, which followed from and was based on his client-centered approach to
psychotherapy, is perhaps the only personality intentionally stated in an if-then framework. For example, Rogers
proposed that if people experience
certain conditions, then they will
grow in a predictable manner.
A. Basic Assumptions
Person-centered
theory rests on two basic assumptions—the formative
tendency and the actualizing tendency.
1. Formative
Tendency
The
formative tendency assumes that all matter, both organic and inorganic, tends
to evolve from simpler to more complex forms.
2. Actualizing
Tendency
The
actualizing tendency holds that all living things, including humans, tend to
move toward completion, or fulfillment of potentials. However, in order for
people (or plants and animals) to become actualized, certain identifiable
conditions must be present. For humans, these conditions include a relationship
with another person who is genuine and who demonstrates complete acceptance and
empathy.
A sense
of self or personal identity begins to emerge during infancy, and, once
established, it allows a person to strive toward self-actualization, which is a subsystem of the actualization
tendency and which refers to the tendency to actualize the self as perceived in
awareness. The self has two subsystems: the self-concept and the ideal self.
1. The Self-Concept
The
self-concept includes all those aspects of one’s identity that are perceived in
awareness. Once formed, the self-concept tends to resist change, which makes
psychological growth difficult.
2. The Ideal Self
The
ideal self is our view of our self as we would like to be or aspire to be. Gaps
between the ideal self and the self-concept result in incongruence and various
levels of psychopathology.
C. Awareness
People
are aware of both their self-concept and their ideal self, although their
awareness is not always accurate or at a high level.
1. Levels of
Awareness
Rogers
saw people as having experiences on three levels of awareness: (1) experiences
that are subceived; that is,
experiences symbolized below the threshold of awareness that are either ignored or denied and not allowed into the self-concept; (2) distorted perceptions of events, as when
a person reshapes an experience to fit it into an existing self-concept; and
(3) accurately symbolized experiences
that are consistent with the self-concept and hence freely admitted into the
self-structure.
2. Denial of Positive
Experiences
Any
experience not consistent with the self-concept—even positive experiences—will
be distorted or denied. Thus, positive comments from another person may be
neutral or even threatening to the person receiving the compliments.
The two
basic human needs are maintenance and enhancement, but people also need
positive regard and positive self-regard.
1. Maintenance
Maintenance
needs include those for food, air, and safety, but they also include our
tendency to resist change and to maintain our self-concept as it is.
2. Enhancement
In
addition to maintenance, people have a need to enhance the self, to grow, and
to realize their full human potential.
3. Positive Regard
As
awareness of self emerges, infants begin to receive positive regard (love and
acceptance) from parents and others. As with other people, infants naturally
value those experiences that satisfy their needs for positive regard, but,
unfortunately, this value sometimes becomes more powerful than the reward they
receive for meeting their organismic needs. This sets up the condition of incongruence, which is experienced when
basic organismic needs are denied or distorted in favor of needs to be loved
or accepted.
4. Positive
Self-Regard
As a
result of their experiences with the frustration or the satisfaction of their
positive regard needs, people develop the need for self-regard. People acquire feelings of positive self-regard only after they perceive that someone else
cares for them and values them. Once established, however, self-regard becomes
autonomous and no longer dependent on other people’s continuous positive
evaluation.
Unfortunately,
most people are not unconditionally accepted. Instead, they receive conditions of worth. People experience conditions
of worth when they feel that other people love and accept them only on the
condition that they live up to the expectations of those other people.
When the
organismic self and the self-concept are at variance with one another, a person
may experience incongruence, including vulnerability, threat, defensiveness,
and even disorganization.
1. Incongruence
Incongruence,
or a discrepancy between self-concept and organismic experience, is the source
of psychological maladjustment. This incongruence occurs because people
experience conditions of worth, which lead to a self-concept based on
distortions and denials. The greater the incongruence, the more vulnerable people become; that is, the
more they are unaware of the discrepancy between their self-concept and their
organismic experience. Anxiety
exists whenever people become dimly aware of the discrepancy between their
organismic experience and their self-concept, whereas threat is experienced whenever people become more clearly aware of
this incongruence.
2. Defensiveness
To
prevent incongruence, people react with defensiveness, typically in the form of
distortion and denial. With distortion, people misinterpret an experience so
that it fits into the self-concept; with denial, people refuse to allow the
experience
into awareness.
3. Disorganization
When
people’s defenses fail to operate properly, their behavior becomes disorganized
or psychotic. With disorganization, people sometimes behave consistently with
their organismic experience and sometimes in accordance with their shattered
self-concept.
IV. Psychotherapy
In order
for client-centered psychotherapy to be effective, certain conditions are
necessary: A vulnerable client must have contact of some duration with a
counselor who is congruent, and who demonstrates unconditional positive regard
and listens with empathy to a client. The client, in turn, must perceive the
congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathy of the therapist. If
these conditions are present, then
the process of therapy will take
place and certain predictable outcomes will
result.
A. Conditions
Although
these conditions are required, three are more specifically crucial to
client-centered therapy. Rogers called these core conditions the necessary and sufficient conditions for
therapeutic growth.
1. Counselor
Congruence
The
first necessary and sufficient condition is counselor congruence, or a
therapist whose organismic experiences are matched by an awareness and by the
ability and willingness to openly express these feelings. Congruence is more
basic than the other two conditions because it is a relatively stable
characteristic of the therapist. In contrast, the other two conditions are
limited to a specific therapeutic relationship.
2. Unconditional
Positive Regard
Unconditional
positive regard exists when the therapist accepts the client without conditions
or qualifications. The therapist does not evaluate or criticize but has a warm
caring for the totality of the client.
3. Empathic
Listening
Empathic
listening is the therapist’s ability to sense the feelings of a client and also
to communicate these perceptions so that the client knows that another person
has entered into his or her world of feelings without prejudice, projection, or
evaluation.
If the
conditions of therapist congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathy
are present, then the process of therapeutic change will occur.
1. Stages of
Therapeutic Change
Rogers saw
the process of therapeutic change as taking place in seven stages: (1) clients
are unwilling to communicate anything about themselves; (2) they discuss only
external events and other people; (3) they begin to talk about themselves, but
still as an object; (4) they discuss strong emotions that they have felt in the
past; (5) they begin to express present feelings; (6) they freely allow into
awareness those experiences that were previously denied or distorted; and (7)
they experience irreversible change
and growth.
2. Theoretical
Explanation for Therapeutic Change
Rogers
believed that when people experience themselves as prized and unconditionally
accepted, they will realize that they are lovable. This realization leads to
self-acceptance, unconditional positive self-regard, congruence, and the
freedom to listen with empathy to their own feelings. In other words, these
people have become their
own therapist.
C. Outcomes
When
client-centered therapy is successful, clients become more congruent, less defensive,
more open to experience, and more realistic. The gap between their ideal self
and their true self narrows, and, as a consequence, they experience less
physiological and psychological tension. Finally, their interpersonal
relationships improve because they are more accepting of self and others.
V. The Person of Tomorrow
Rogers was vitally
interested in the psychologically healthy person, called the “fully functioning
person” or the “person of tomorrow.” He listed seven characteristics of the
person of tomorrow. The person of tomorrow (1) is able to adjust to change, (2)
is open to experience, (3) is able to live fully in the moment, (4) is able to
have harmonious relations with others, (5) is more integrated with no
artificial boundaries between conscious and unconscious processes, (6) has a
basic trust of human nature, and
(7) enjoys a greater richness in life.
VI. Philosophy of Science
Rogers
insisted that a scientist must care
about and be involved in the phenomena
being studied and that psychologists should limit their objectivity and
precision to
their methodology, not to the creation of hypotheses or to the communication of
research findings.
VII. The Chicago Study
While at
the University of Chicago, Rogers and his associates conducted a sophisticated
and complex study on the effectiveness of psychotherapy. The purpose of the
Chicago study was to investigate both the process and the outcomes of
client-centered therapy.
A. Hypotheses
The Chicago studies tested
several broad hypotheses: (1) clients will become more aware of their feelings
and experiences; (2) the gap between the real self and the ideal self will
lessen as a consequence of therapy; (3) clients’ behavior will become more
socialized
and mature; and (4) clients will become both more self-accepting and more
accepting
of others.
B. Method
To
assess change from an external view, the researchers used the Thematic
Apperception Test, the Self-Other Attitude Scale, and the Willoughby Emotional
Maturity Scale. To measure change from the client’s view, they used the Q sort technique, which asks people to
sort cards according to how they see themselves or others. Participants were adults who sought therapy at the University of
Chicago counseling center. Experimenters asked half the participants to wait 60
days before receiving therapy. In addition, they tested a control group of
“normals” who were matched with the therapy group. This control group was also
divided into a wait group and a non-wait group.
C. Findings
Rogers
and his associates found that the therapy group—but not the control
group—showed a lessening of the gap between real self and ideal self. They also
found that clients who improved during therapy—but not those rated as least
improved—showed changes in social behavior, as noted by their friends.
D. Summary of Results
Although
client-centered therapy was successful in changing clients, it was not
successful in bringing them to the level of the fully functioning person or
even to the level of “normal” psychological health.
VIII. Related Research
Other researchers have investigated
Rogers’s facilitative conditions both outside therapy and within therapy.
A. Facilitative
Conditions Outside Therapy
In the United Kingdom, Duncan Cramer
(1989, 1990a, 1990b, 1994) has conducted a series of studies investigating the
therapeutic qualities of Rogers’s facilitative conditions in interpersonal
relationships outside of therapy. In general, Cramer found positive
relationships between self-esteem, as measured by the Rosenberg Self-Esteem
Scale, and the four facilitative conditions that make up the Barrett-Lennard
Relationship Inventory—level of regard, unconditionality of regard, congruence,
and empathy. Moreover, the direction of the relationship strongly suggested
that Rogers’s facilitative conditions precede the acquisition of higher levels
of self-esteem.
B. Facilitative Conditions
and Couples Therapy
In Belgium, Alfons Vansteenwegen (1996) used
a revised form of the Barrett-Lennard to determine if Rogers’s facilitative
conditions related to success during couples therapy. He found that
client-centered couples therapy can bring about positive changes in couples,
and that some of these changes lasted for at least seven years after therapy.
IX. Critique of Rogers
Rogers’s
person-centered theory is one of the most carefully constructed of all
personality theories, and it meets quite well each of the six criteria of a
useful theory.
It rates very high on internal consistency and parsimony, high on its ability
to be falsified and to organize knowledge, and high-average on its ability to
serve as a guide
to the practitioner.
X. Concept of Humanity
Rogers
believed that humans have the capacity to change and grow—provided that certain
necessary and sufficient conditions are present. Therefore, his theory rates
very high on optimism. In addition, it rates high on free choice, teleology,
conscious motivation, social influences, and the uniqueness of the individual.