Rogers

Rogers

• Part of the “Third Force” in Psychology-human potential

• Theory of personality change.• Rogers doesn’t have a stage model of

development.• Personality growth can occur through out lifetime

of the individual. Individual is always in “act of becoming.”

• When people are functioning well, Rogers says people will feel free to act. Will behave as if they are free. But it is a struggle to be yourself.

Meaning of Third Force

• Anti-deterministic- (-) unconscious and environmental forces. Humans have freedom of choice

• Ant-reductionistic- Stimulus-response approaches don’t appreciate complexity of humans.

• Anti-mechanistic- (-) control by drives, schedules of reinforcement.

Underpinnings of Theory• Humanism- Humanism comes in many forms. For our purposes in

discussing Rogers it is defined as having creative freedom to make choices.

• Actualizing Tendency: Rogers sees human nature is as basically positive and humans are growth oriented. Natural predisposition to strive for enhancement.

• Phenomenology: stresses the importance of individual’s immediate conscious experience in determining reality

• Concept of Freedom: Rogers felt that determinism was an important concept in science and scientific analysis but that the notion of freedom was important in the arena of interpersonal functioning. So he said regarding the latter-It is important for person to understand that his/her behavior is being influenced by conditions around him. Only then can one make the best “free choice.” So in essence Rogers was a “fence sitter” on this topic.

Rogers

• Chapters 1 and 2, 3 and 8 Rogers talks about the parameters of the counseling relationship and the foundation of his ideas about therapeutic change and “becoming the self that one truly is.”

What he discussed…

Counseling Relationship

• Counseling and the Counseling Relationship-Rogers stresses the uniqueness of counseling relationship the therapist forms with each client. For Rogers, the relationship is more important than specific techniques. The relationship becomes a means for the person to “self actualize.” Can only actualize under certain conditions.

• Self actualization is the primary motive for humans-not sex and aggression or consequences as behaviorists would say. Single most basic drive.

Sources of Data/Approach

• Developed ideas in the context of work with his clients.

• Used term client rather than patient because it emphasizes person’s active, voluntary participation, and responsibility for participation. Avoid the idea that person is sick. Rogers was more interested in normal spectrum of human behavior. Conscious over unconscious.

• Rogers does not offer advice to clients or “set them straight.”

• Rogers compares himself to a “midwife” helping the individual give birth to themselves

Client-Centered Approach

• Rogers talks about his approach being client centered. The individual has the innate drive to actualize; the client knows what is best; the therapist is merely there to facilitate. Therapist is best off being non-directive (doesn’t offer advice). Not counselor’s job to“set them straight.”

• Used term client rather than patient because it emphasizes person’s active, voluntary participation, and responsibility for participation. Avoid the idea that person is sick.

• There are also Humanistic philosophical ideas behind this non-directive, client-centered approach- again person has freedom and responsibility for making choices

Three Attitudes Necessary for Change

• Out of personal experience with clients; however, Rogers developed three notions about what he had to provide clients in the therapy relationship to help them to change and grow… He talks about these attitudes on the famous “Gloria” tape and in Chapter 1.

1)Therapist has to be congruent or genuine

2) By accepting my feelings( being real), I can be better at letting client be who he is. I can then better prize or care for client-accept the client. Close to the notion of unconditional positive regard

3) Try to understand the inner world of client-empathy

Techniques Employed to Study Clients

• Rogers studied his clients by using tape recordings (with permission).

• By using this technique, he discovered that derogatory self-comments diminished and self-accepting comments increased as therapy sessions went on.

• He also used Q-sort technique (see page 102)

Self-Actualizing Tendency

• Single most basic human motive. Striving for enhancement and maximum potential.

• Forward movement can only occur however if conditions are favorable as we have said.

• Person is moving toward self-actualization

Actualization

• Actualizing is different for each person although there are some common features.

*Flexibility rather than rigidity *Openness rather than defensiveness *Automomy (self-control) rather than control by

others *Immediacy of emotions over remote emotions *Capable of experiencing in here-and-now-

moving from fear of relating to comfort with it *willingness to explore personal attitudes more

deeply

Self-Theory

• Self-concept- refers to the way a person sees him/herself. Most important factor in predicting future behavior. How is this different than Skinner?

• Self begin to differentiate after birth- the I-ness or me-ness of the infant, so-called self-experiences.

• Once the self emerges , the self-actualizing tendency gets in to gear. It is a general outgrowth of the general thrust to maintain yourself.

Q-sort

• A method he employed to study the changes in client’s concept of him/herself before during and after therapy.

• Assumption: At start of therapy there will be a large difference between clients perception of what they are like (the self) and what they feel they should be or want to be.

• Q-sort measures this difference.• Client asked to sort 100 or so statements on cards (I am

lazy, I feel guilty a lot) into piles ranging along a continuum “very characteristic of me”…”not at all characteristic of me.”

Q-sort

• Typically client can use 9-11 piles and might be told a certain number of statements have to be placed in each pile to increase discriminations.

• Sort first according to the way they see themselves (self-sort).

• Sort a second time according to how they would like to be (ideal-sort).

• Correspondence between two sorts can be computed using correlation coefficient technique.

• Any discrepancy should decrease as client-centered therapy progresses.

Unconditional Positive Regard and Organismic Valuing Process

• Organismic Valuing Process: the innate ability of human beings to choose what is good for them.

• Supplements the actualizing tendency. Although people have an actualizing potential, this is not enough to insure growth.

• Unconditional Positive Regard needed.

Conditions of Worth

• Conditions of worth are stipulations on which sense of self-worth depends.

Performing behaviors others think are good; refraining from engaging in behaviors others think are bad.

• Unconditional + regard: total caring or prizing of individual for what s/he is. No reservations; no conditions of worth; acceptance of positive and negative feelings.

Gloria Film

• Carl Rogers's session with Gloria in the training film titled Three Approaches to Psychotherapy (Shostrom, 1965a) is among the most written about in the history of counseling and continues to be used as an instructional model for the helping professions (Glauser & Bozarth, 2001).

Presenting Problem

• In this session, Gloria, a 30-year-old recently divorced woman, presented an initial problem about "having men to the house," wondering "how it affects the children." Specifically, Gloria wanted to know if she should be truthful with her daughter about having sex since the divorce or if such honesty would cause her daughter emotional harm.

Gloria’s Comment• There were several indicators that this session was meaningful and

life changing for Gloria despite its short duration. She later wrote that…

• Something happened in those few short minutes which has stayed with me ever since. He simply helped me to recognize my own potential--my value as a human being. All the words couldn't possibly express the importance of that for me. (Dolliver, Williams, & Gold, 1980, p. 141)

• Gloria attended a weekend conference in 1965 featuring the film's debut and maintained a written correspondence with Rogers and his wife Helen until Gloria's death in 1979 (Rogers, 1984; Weinrach; 1990). Rogers (1984) described himself as "awed" by the session's significance.

Assessment of Rogers Film

Assuming the “3 conditions for change” in relationship are met, Rogers expects…

• Client to explore attitudes more deeply• Come to know aspects of self, s/he was previously unaware of• Senses realness in me, becomes more real• Feeling prized by therapist, comes to prize self • Manner of expression moves from being remote to greater

immediacy of experience• Move from self-disapproval to self-acceptance• Go from fear of relating to comfort• Locus of evaluation moves from outside to inside• Begins to view things in shade of gray rather than black and white

Issues from Film• Should Gloria lie to her daughter to get her acceptance? Discuss

this solution from a Rogerian perspective?• Rogers offers no advice. What is the theoretical reasoning behind

not providing advice?• Was Gloria suffering from incongruence?• Rogers makes the statement in the film, “Its an awful risky thing to

live.” Was this just a throw away statement or can it be tied to his theory?

• What does Rogers do to make Gloria aware of her the internal conflict and choices?

• Did Gloria experiencing a “positive transference” toward Rogers? Do you think he would see it this way?

• Do you see any problems with using this counseling appraoch with clienmts in 2003.

• Any legitimate diagnosis for Gloria?