Carl Rogers

1902-1987

By: Natii Q.

Biography• Carl Rogers was born on January 8, 1902 in Oak

Park, Illinois and was the fourth of six children. His father was a civil engineer and his mother a housewife. He started his education in second grade because he could already read before kinder. Carl was isolated, independent, and self-discipline. He went on to the University of Wisconsin as an agriculture major. Later, he switched to religion to study for the ministry. After his graduation he married Helen Elliot, moved to New York, and began attending the Union Technological Seminary. He later switched to the clinical psychology program of Columbia University. At this clinic he learned about Otto Rank’s theory and therapy techniques, which started him on the road to developing his own approach.

• Rogers provided therapy, gave speeches, and wrote until his death.

Continuation…• His contributions are

outstanding in the fields of education, counseling, psychotherapy, peace, and conflict resolution. A founder of humanistic psychology, he has profoundly influenced the world through his empathic presence, his research, his authorship of sixteen books and more than 200 professional articles.

Theory• The theory of Carl Rogers is considered to be humanistic and

phenomenological. His theory is based on the “phenomenal field” personality theory of Combs and Snygg. Carl wrote 16 books and many journal articles describing his theory. His theory is based on nineteen propositions of which five of them are listed below:

1. all individuals exist in a continually changing world of experience of which

are the centre.

2. The organism reacts to the field as it is experienced and perceived. This

perceptual field is "reality" for the individual.

3.The organism reacts as an organized whole to this phenomenal field.

4. A portion of the total perceptual field gradually becomes differentiated as

the self.

5. Behavior is basically the goal directed attempt of the organism to satisfy

its needs as experienced, in the field as perceived.

Development of Personality

• With regard to development, he described principles rather than stages. The main issue is the development of a self concept and the progress from an undifferentiated self to being fully differentiated.

• In the development of the self concept he saw conditional and unconditional positive regard as key. Those raised in an environment of unconditional positive regard have the opportunity to fully actualize themselves. Those raised in an environment of conditional positive regard only feel worthy if they match conditions that have been laid down by others.

Self Concept…

• ... the organized consistent conceptual gestalt composed of perceptions of the characteristics of 'I' or 'me' and the perceptions of the relationships of the 'I' or 'me' to others and to various aspects of life, together with the values attached to these perceptions. It is a gestalt which is available to awareness though not necessarily in awareness. It is a fluid and changing gestalt, a process, but at any given moment it is a specific entity

The Fully Functioning Person

• Rogers was interested in describing the healthy person. His term is “fully-functioning,” and it involves the following qualities:

1.Openness to experience. The opposite of defensiveness. It means being able to accept reality including one's feelings.  Feelings are such an important part of openness because if you cannot be open to your feelings, you cannot be open to actualization.  The hard part, of course, is distinguishing real feelings from the anxieties brought on by  conditions of worth.

2. Existential living.  This is living in the here-

and-now.  Rogers, as a part of getting in touch with reality, insists that we not live in the past or the future -- the one is gone, and the other isn't anything at all, yet!  The present is the only reality we have.  That doesn't mean we shouldn't remember and learn from our past.  Neither does it mean we shouldn't plan or even day-dream about the future.  Just recognize these things for what they are:  memories and dreams, which we are experiencing here in the present.

3. Organismic trusting. We should trust ourselves, do what feels right, what comes natural. People say, sure, do what comes natural -- if you are a sadist, hurt people; if you are a masochist, hurt yourself; if the drugs or alcohol make you happy, go for it; if you are depressed, kill yourself....  This doesn't sound like great advice.  In fact, many of the excesses of the sixties and seventies were blamed on this attitude.  But Rogers meant trust your real self, and you can only know what your real self has to say if you are open to experience and living existentially.

• 4. Experiential freedom.  Rogers felt that it was irrelevant whether or not people really had free will.  We feel very much as if we do.  This is not to say, of course, that we are free to do anything at all. It means that we feel free when choices are available to us.  Rogers says that the fully-functioning person acknowledges that feeling of freedom, and takes responsibility for his choices.

5. Creativity.  If you feel free and responsible, you will act accordingly, and participate in the world.  This can be through creativity in the arts or sciences, through social concern and parental love, or simply by doing one's best at one's job. 

Therapy• Carl Rogers was best known for his contributions to

therapy. He felt that a therapist in order to be effective, must have 3 very special qualities:

• Congruence : genuineness, honesty with the client.

• Empathy : the ability to feel what the client feels.

• Respect : acceptance, unconditional positive regard towards the client.

Contributions to Psychology

• Carl Rogers emphasis on human potential had an

enormous influence on both psychology and education.

Beyond that, Carl is considered by many to be the most

influential psychologist of the 20th century. More

therapists cite Rogers as their primary influence than

any other psychologist. As described by his daughter

Natalie Rogers, he was "a model for compassion and

democratic ideals in his own life, and in his work as an

educator, writer, and therapist."

“In my early professional years I was asking the question: How can I treat, or cure, or change this person? Now I would phrase the question in this way: How can I provide a relationship which this person may use for his own personal growth?”-Carl Rogers

Bibliography

• http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/

authors/c/carl_rogers.html

• http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/rog

ers.html

• http://psychology.about.com/od/profil

esofmajorthinkers/p/bio_rogers.htm

• http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Roge

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