Carl Rogers (1902- 1987), theory is described as a humanistic personality theory, that there is always an emphasis on personal growth. Rogers believed that all living organisms are born well and that they are motivated to grow and develop in a positive way (Atkinson, 1981). A concise description in this essay will explain Rogers’s theory of personality, and the difference approaches that he uses to define between a fully functioning individual and low functioning individual. It will then describe the approaches Rogers used in his client-centered –therapy. Rogers gives a detailed account of what he thought to be the most beneficial part of therapy, which is the relationship between client and therapist. It will give an account of both strengths and weaknesses found in both his theory and therapy. Carl Rogers’s theory of personality is a clinical theory based on years of dealing with clients (Pecitelli, 1996). In Rogers opinion the core of a “man’s nature is essentially positive”, and he is a “trustworthy organism” (Pecitelli, 1996). These beliefs are reflected in his theory of personality. His entire theory is built on a “single force of life”, in which he calls the actualising tendencies. It can be defined as the built in motivation present in every life form to develop its potentials to the fullest extent possible. The tendency is constructive, directional and is present in every living being (Atkinson, 1981). The key structural concept of his theory is the self. The self concept consists of all the ideas, perceptions, and values that charactorise “I” or “me”. It also includes the awareness of “what I am” and “what I can do” (Rogers, 2007). It is the conscious drive of being and functioning and establishes through interaction with other individuals. Rogers believed that the actualising tendencies is related to the self and is the self actualising tendencies. It can be seen as a push to experience oneself in a way that is consistent with one’s conscious of what one is (Atkinson, 1981). In the course of pursuing self, actualising, tendencies the person engages in what Rogers called organismic, valuing, tendencies. These are experiences that are perceived as enhancing to oneself and are valued as good and are therefore sought after (Pecitelli, 1996). Rogers described this as that people know what they want to self actualise. The concept of an organismic valuing process (O.V.P) is central to the idea of a real or true and unique self. A persons O.V.P relates to the amount of experience and the placing of values on those experiences in terms of its ability to satisfy the self actualising tendencies (Messer, 2006). The need for positive regard from others and the need for positive self regard lead to a favouring of behaviour that is consistent with the persons self concept. The self concept does not always reflect a reality (Pecitelli, 1996). A person may be highly successful and respected but still view him or herself as a failure. This need for positive self regard then leads to people acquiring conditions of worth (C.O.W), which is when we evaluate the impact that our behaviour is likely to have on others. The concept of C.O.W is important because it means that the individual develops a second valuing process, the first being O.V.P (Atkinson, 1981). It is in this second valuing process that the individual , however , has a false awareness in regard to this second valuing process, the decisions based on it are in fact based on his organismic valuing process (Atkinson, 1981) . A weakness in this theory is that Rogers did not specify precisely how much unconditional positive regard qualifies as a significant amount; he is very vague about this but the presumption is not enough (Maltby, 2007). As a consequence we all have some C.O.W. Individuals with fewer C.O.W are classified as high functioning people and those with fewer are classified as low functioning people (Maltby, 2007). Rogers used the term fully functioning person for someone who is self actualising. Rogers believed that to be able to be a fully functioning person that people should trust their real self and they can only know what their real self has to say, if they are open to working and experiences and living existentially.
When a person is self actualised they are in a state of congruity between the actual self and real self (Pecitelli, 1996). The low functioning person however is engaged in a process of self concept actualising, which allows relatively little self actualising based on the organism’s own valuing process (Cain, 2001). Low functioning people have more C.O.W and are consequently less accepting and more judgemental and impose more C.O.W. The outcome of this is that the fully functioning person is able to interact with others and their environment on the basis of largely realistic information, whereas the low functioning person does not have that capacity to do so. This then leads to the low functioning person to be in a state of incongruence between the real and ideal self (Atkinson, 1981). Incongruence forms when a person is dealt with a threatening situation, they then feel anxiety. Anxiety is a signal saying that the person should avoid the situation. Instead of physically running the person psychologically runs (Witty, 2002). The person then uses their defense mechanisms of denial and perceptual distortion to deal with this situation. Rogers believed that every time a person used a defense coping mechanism that it created a greater distances between the real self and ideal self. It is when a person is at this stage that Rogers would suggest his Client- centered- therapy (Bohart, 1991). The theory of personality provides the basis for Rogers’s conception theory of therapy. Client- centered –therapy, which is also known as Rogerian therapy, is an approach to counselling and psychotherapy that places much of the responsibility for the treatment process on the client, with the therapist taking a non directive role (Rogers, 1951). The Rogerian therapy is a way to accept the individual’s perceptual distortions of reality. Non directive assumes that every individual has the motivation and the ability to change, and that the individual is best qualified to decide on the direction that such change should take place (Bohart, 1991). At the beginning of counselling the correalation between the client’s current self concept and ideal self is low. The therapist’s task is to create an atmosphere of complete acceptance and unconditional positive regard. This then influences the self actualising potential and organismic valuing process can safely emerge and the various dimensions of the self can be integrated (Witty, 2002). These concepts are determined more by the therapist’s personal characteristics than by techniques. Rogers specifies three traits that a counsellor must have is that of congruence, unconditional positive regard and have an empathetic understanding of the client (Rogers, 1951). When these three attitudes are conveyed by a therapist, clients can freely express themselves without having to worry about what the therapist thinks of them (Rogers, 1951). Rogers states that to have an empathetic understanding to be the most important out of the three. It is a way of laying aside our own views and values in order to enter anothers world without prejudice. The result is that the client is assisted to explore their inner-selves more profoundly and change is more likely to occur (Newton, 2006). The aim in counselling is to provide a safe environment and experience of a good relationship between client and therapist (Cain, 2001). Rogers believed that this would be sufficient to get in touch with their true organismic self and rediscover their way to self actualisation. It is about finding their true selves (Cain, 2001). Rogerian therapy is successful but also requires a longer time to get through to the client. It is stated that the therapist is not the expert, but that the therapist allows the client to free oneself to change. In therapy Rogers believes that the client wants to need to change in order to successfully change personality ( Bohart, 1991). The strengths of the Rogerian therapy is that it is one of the most humanistic approaches, focusing on the here and now and not the child hood origins of the client’s problems (Rogers, 1965). Rogers’s theory emphasised the counsellors creation of a permissive and non-interventionist climate in which the client is free to move at his /her own pace and direction (Rogers, 1992). It also recognises and values the whole person for who they are and what they want to become. It encourages the client to believe that they have the potential in which they can recognise and develop further. It also fosters a greater self reliance within the person and encourages the self development of the therapist (Rogers, 1951). There are also weaknesses related to the Rogerian therapy as to it is quite time consuming. Many of the measures of improvement are not objectively based but rather they are self reported ratings completed by the therapist and client. If the pair have put a lot of time and money into the sessions they are unlikely to rate the experience as being worthless (Matlby, 2007). It is also recognised that a more objective measures of change in client’s behaviour would be prefereable for measuring effectiveness in therapy. There is also a lack of long term follow up studies to assess how lasting any changes obtained are (Cain, 2001). It has also described as too simple; some critics have said that Rogerian therapy uses a limited repoirtoire of techniques such as attending, listening and reflecting are used (Witty, 2002). It is also argued that it is not effective with non-verbal or poorly educated individuals; but others maintain that it can be successfully adapted to any type of person (Witty, 2002). In conclusion of this essay it conveyed an overall description of Rogers’s theory and how this can be incorporated to living organisms. The use of the self and the actualising tendencies in his theory are the basis and most influential abstracts from his theory. The humanistic approach that Rogers used in his therapy gave a different view on how people understood therapy and methods used that were not of the medical nature. This gave an understanding to people the importance of relationship that both the client and counsellor have, seemed to be the most important aspect in his therapy. Rogers’s theory of personality and therapy both very influential in contemporary psychology, still there are flaws that are observed in certain aspects of his work. Word Count : 1894.