(1902 - 1987)
Founder of Client-Centered Therapy
Briefly attended Seminary
Counseled abused children early in his career
In 1942 he wrote Counseling and Psychotherapy
In 1945 set up a counseling center at the University of Chicago
In 1951 he published his major work,
Client-Centered Therapy
Developed Encounter Group Therapy
Treated Clients extensively throughout his life
Two Basic Assumptions of person-centered
therapy
The universe is constantly expanding.
Conditions which encourage psychological growth :
We must have a relationship with someone who is :
Genuine, can demonstrate empathy, and can show us unconditional positive regard.
These conditions within a relationship will encourage our own psychological
growth.
Carl Rogers theory
Rogers sees people as basically good or healthy
Mental health is the normal progression of life
actualizing tendency: The single "force of life", the built in motivation in every life form to develop to their full potential Rogers believes that all creatures strive to make the very best of their existence
society and culture are natural byproducts of the actualizing tendency
organismic valuing: Placing value on things which assist the actualizing tendency. When we hunger, we find food -- not just any food, but food that tastes good. Food that tastes bad is likely to be spoiled, rotten, unhealthy.
positive regard: love, affection, attention, and nurturing.
positive self-regard: self-esteem, self-worth, positive self-image.
Parents must show Unconditional positive regard toward their children.
Mental illness and criminality result from a distortion in the actualizing tendency.
Real Self : The you which is founded in the actualizing tendency, follows organismic valuing, and needs and receives positive regard and self-regard.
Ideal self : Rogers is suggesting something that is always out of our reach, the standard we can’t meet.
Incongruity is the gap between the Real and Ideal Self, and is the cause of neurosis.
The Ideal Self develops due to:
conditions of worth: As we grow up, our parents, teachers, peers, the media, and others, only give us what we need when we show we are "worthy," rather than just because we need it.
conditional positive regard: Because of societies expectations and rules, people may behave in ways which do little to encourage positive self-regard. A good little boy or girl may not be a psychologically healthy boy or girl!
conditional positive self-regard : We begin to like ourselves only if we meet up with the standards others have applied to us, rather than if we are truly actualizing our potentials.
Incongruity and Anxiety leads to the use of psychological Defenses
Threatening situations: For example, if you have been taught to feel unworthy if you do not get A's on all your tests, and yet you aren't really all that great a student, then situations such as tests are going to be very threatening.
Anxiety is the minds way of indicating potential trouble, allowing you to avoid the situation if possible.!
Denial: You block out the threatening situation altogether. An example might be the person who never picks up his test or asks about test results, so he doesn't have to face poor grades (at least for now!).
Perceptual distortion: Reinterpreting the situation so that it appears less threatening. (Causes less incongruity)
Using these defenses leads to greater incongruity
psychosis: Psychosis occurs when a person's defense
are overwhelmed, and their sense of self becomes "shattered" into little
disconnected pieces. We see episodes of bizarre behavior.
Seven Stages of Rogerian Functioning :
Stage One : The client is very defensive, and extremely resistant to change.
Stage Two : Client becomes slightly less rigid, and will talk about external events or other people.
Stage Three : Client talks about her/himself, but as an object. Avoids discussion of present events.
Stage Four : Client begins to talk about deep feelings and develops a relationship with the therapist.
The next three stages represent substantial growth in the person's journey of self-actualization
Stage Five : Client can express present emotions, and are beginning to rely more on their own decision making abilities and increasingly accept more responsibility for their actions.
Stage Six : The client shows rapid growth toward congruence, and begin to develop unconditional positive regard for others. This stage signals the end for the need for formal therapy
Stage Seven : The client is a fully functioning, self actualized individual who is empathic and shows unconditional positive regard for others. This individual can relate their previous therapy to present day real-life situations.
A stage seven person can be fully involved in existential living : living in the moment, Rogers refers to these people as People of Tomorrow.
Although stage seven actualization is the goal of Rogerian therapy, studies indicate that Stage four or five is much more commonly reached.
Examined Whether :
A. Desire to improve psychologically was a primary determinant in regaining psychological help.
B. Rogerian treatment could be effective at increasing psychological health
C. How much of an improvement could therapy make ?
The Chicago Study (continued)
They split the therapy group (people who would receive client centered therapy ) into two groups :
One group received treatment immediately.
2nd group had to wait 60 days before treatment.
The Q-sort was used as the dependent variable to measure whether people's concepts of themselves or others changed as a result of treatment (or waiting)
Q-sort : 100 self-referent cards (I am a good person) are sorted into nine piles, from least like me up to most like me . In the Chicago study, we have everybody do the Q-sort for a. Self, and b. Ideal-Self
If from time A to time B, the discrepancy
between the self and the ideal-self decreases, than psychological functioning
has been improved.
Answer to question A : Does motivation alone produce psychological growth ? : No, not in the Chicago study.
No psychological Growth seen in the waiting treatment group before treatment began.
The Chicago Study (continued
pg. 3)
Does Client Centered Therapy work at all ?
Yes, the discrepancy in the Q-sort task between the Self and the Ideal Self shrunk during treatment, for both treatment groups.
Moreover, 6 and 12 month follow up still showed this reduced discrepancy.
How well does Rogerian Therapy work, on average ?
Compared to "normal" controls, Clients who had undergone client centered therapy still showed a greater congruence and higher emotional maturity than the treatment group at all times during the study.
With Rogerian treatment, it is very difficult to end up with a fully functioning, Person of Tomorrow.
Stage three or Stage four functioning
is more likely.
The fully-functioning person
1. Openness to experience. This is the opposite of defensiveness. It is the accurate perception of one's experiences in the world, including one's feelings. It also means being able to accept reality, again including one's feelings.
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.
3. Organismic trusting. We should trust ourselves, do what feels right, what comes natural.
4. Experiential freedom. Rogers felt that it was irrelevant whether or not people really have free will, since we behave as if we do. Rogers says that the fully-functioning person acknowledges that feeling of freedom, and takes responsibility for his choices.
5. Creativity. A fully-functioning person, in
touch with actualization, will feel obliged by their nature to contribute
to the actualization of others, even life itself. This can be expressed
in the arts or sciences, through social concern and parental love, or simply
by doing one's best at one's job.
Rogerian Therapy
Carl Rogers is best known for his contributions to therapy.
Originally called it non-directive, because he felt that the therapist should not lead the client, but rather be there for support while the client directs the progress of the therapy.
Client-centered: He felt that the client was the one who should say what is wrong, find ways of improving, and determine the conclusion of therapy, even while he acknowledged the impact of the therapist.
Rogerian therapy "supportive, not reconstructive,"
If independence (autonomy, freedom with responsibility) is what you are helping a client to achieve, then they will not achieve it if they remain dependent on the therapist.
Rogers developed the therapeutic technique of:
Reflection: the mirroring of emotional communication
If the client says "I feel horrible!" the therapist may reflect this back to the client by saying something like "So, life's getting you down, huh?" The therapist is communicating to the client that she is indeed listening and cares enough to understand.
Rogers felt that a therapist must have three necessary and sufficient qualities:
1. Congruence -- genuineness, honesty with the client.
2. Empathy -- the ability to feel what the client feels.
3. Respect -- acceptance, unconditional positive regard towards the client.
Some research done does suggest that techniques don't matter nearly
as much as the therapist administering the technique.