Theories of Personality Rogers: Person-Centered Theory

Chapter 11

Outline

• Overview of Person-Centered Theory• Biography of Rogers• Person-Centered Theory• Psychotherapy• The Person of Tomorrow• Philosophy of Science

Outline

• The Chicago Studies• Related Research • Critique of Rogers• Concept of Humanity

Overview of Person-Centered Theory

• Grew Out Experiences as a Psychotherapist

• Called for Empirical Research to Support Personality Theory

• Not Comfortable with Notion of Theory• Never Systematically Reformulated

Theory of Personality

Biography of Rogers

• Born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1902• Fourth of six children of upper-middle

class, devoutly religious parents• Briefly attends seminary, intending to

become a minister in 1924• Turned to psychology and earned his

Ph.D. from Columbia in 1931

Biography (cont’d)

• Influenced by Otto Rank• Spent nearly a dozen years working as a clinician

in Rochester• Published The Clinical Treatment of the Problem

Child in 1939.• Took a position at Ohio State University in 1940,

where he elucidated his views on therapy• President of American Psychological Association

in 1946-1947• Published Client-Centered Therapy in 1951• In 1964, moves to California and helps found

Center for Studies of the Person• Died in 1987 following surgery on broken hip

Person-Centered Theory

• Basic Assumptions– Formative Tendency– Actualizing Tendency

• The Self and Self-Actualization– The Self-Concept– The Ideal Self

• Awareness– Levels of Awareness– Denial of Positive Experiences

Person-Centered Theory

• Becoming a Person• Barriers to Psychological Health

– Conditions of Worth– Incongruence– Defensiveness– Disorganization

Psychotherapy

• Conditions– Counselor congruence– Unconditional positive regard– Empathic listening

• Process– Stages of therapeutic change– Theoretical explanation for therapeutic

change

• Outcomes

The Person of Tomorrow

• Psychologically healthy people are:– More adaptable– Open to their experiences– Live fully in the moment

• Existential living

– Harmonious relations with others– More Integrated (conscious and unconscious)– Basic trust of human nature– Greater richness in life

Philosophy of Science

• Science begins and ends with subjective experience

• Scientists must be involved with phenomena being studied

• Scientists perceive patterns among phenomena

• Scientists communicate findings, but this communication is subjective

The Chicago Study

• 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, that is, more self-accepting and more accepting of others

The Chicago Study (cont’d)

• Method– To measure adjustment, they used the Q

sort technique (congruence between real & ideal selves)

– 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.

The Chicago Study (cont’d)

• Findings– The therapy group—but not the control

group—showed a lessening of the gap between real self and ideal self

– Clients who improved during therapy—but not those rated as least improved—showed changes in social behavior, as noted by their friends

The Chicago Study (cont’d)

• Summary of Results– Therapy group did demonstrate growth and

retained improvement during follow-up, but they did not attain the level of psychological health in the control group

Related Research

• Self-Discrepancy Theory– Higgins (1987)

• Real-ideal discrepancy leads to dejection-related emotions; real-ought discrepancy leads to agitation-related emotions

– Phillips & Silvia (2005)• High self-awareness condition led to feeling negative emotion

at self-discrepancies– Wolfe & Maisto (2000)

• Real-ideal self-discrepancy and negative mood were negatively correlated with alcohol consumption

• Motivation and Pursuing one’s Goals– Sheldon et al. (2003)

• Supports Rogers’ theory s that people do have an OVP• Intrinsically fulfilling goals become more important over time

while materialistic goals become less importantSchwartz & Waterman (2013)• The OVP directs us toward fulfilling pursuits

Critique of Rogers

• Rogers’ Theory Is:– Very High on Practicality and Internal

Consistency– High on Falsifiability, Parsimony, and

Organizing Knowledge– Moderate on Generating Research

Concept of Humanity

• Free Choice over Determinism• Optimism over Pessimism• Teleology over Causality • Uniqueness over Similarity• Conscious over Unconscious• Social Influence over Biology