Personality Theories in Psychology: Carl Rogers

  • Jul 26, 2021
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Personality Theories in Psychology: Carl Rogers

Karl Ramson Rogers, better known as Carl rogers, was a pioneering psychologist in the United States humanistic therapeutic approach (along with Abraham Maslow). Rogers is considered one of the most influential psychologists in the history of mankind.

We can characterize the following author as a psychologist with great vital optimism and with ideas very focused on the freedom and well-being of human beings at all levels. In this Psychology-Online article, we will talk about the great contribution he made Carl rogers in the Personality Theories in Psychology. In addition, we will also summarize his biography, theory, and his person-centered therapy.

You may also like: Carl Rogers Approach to Psychotherapy

Index

  1. Carl Rogers biography
  2. Carl Rogers: Humanist Theory
  3. Free will and the beginnings of humanist theory
  4. Carl Rogers Person Centered Therapy
  5. Incongruence, neurosis and the self according to Rogers
  6. Personality theories: the defenses of our mind
  7. Defense mechanisms according to Carl Rogers
  8. The whole Functional person - Theories of humanism
  9. Famous Quotes by Carl Rogers
  10. Carl Rogers: Books

Biography of Carl Rogers.

Carl Rogers was born on January 8, 1902, in Oak Park, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, the fourth of six children. His father was a successful civil engineer and his mother was a housewife and a devout Christian. His education began directly in second grade, as he could read even before entering kindergarten.

When Carl was 12 years old, his family moved 30 miles west of Chicago, and it was here that he would spend his teens. With a strict upbringing and many duties, Carl would be rather lonely, independent, and self-disciplined.

He went to the University of Wisconsin him to study agriculture. Later, he would switch to religion to practice faith. During this time, he was one of the 10 chosen to visit Beijing for the "World Student Christian Federation Conference" for 6 months. Carl tells us through his biography that this experience broadened his thinking so much that he began to doubt some basic aspects of his religion.

After graduation, he married Helen Elliot (against the wishes of his parents), moved to New York, and began attending Union Theological Seminary, a famous liberal religious institution. Here, he took an organized student seminar called "Why am I entering the ministry?"

It is important to note that unless one wants to change careers, they should never attend a seminar with such a title. Carl tells us that most of the participants "thought of immediately leaving religious work".

The loss in religion would be, of course, the gain of psychologyRogers switched to the clinical psychology program at Columbia University and received her PhD from him in 1931. However, Rogers had already begun his clinical work at the Rochester Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. In this clinic, he would learn the theory and therapeutic applications of Otto Rank, who would encourage him to take the path of developing his own theory.

Carl Rogers Theory and Books

In 1940, he was offered the full professorship in Ohio. Two years later, he would write his first book "Counseling and Psychotherapy".(All the titles of his books in Spanish, we will place it at the end of the chapter). Later, in 1945, he was invited to establish an assistance center at the University of Chicago. In this place, in 1951, he published his greatest work, Client Centered Therapy, where he would talk about the central aspects of his theory.

In 1957, he returned to teaching at his alma mater, the University of Wisconsin. Unfortunately, at that time there were serious internal conflicts in the Department of Psychology, which caused Rogers to become very disillusioned with higher education. In 1964, he happily accepted a research position in La Jolla, California. There he attended therapies, gave many lectures and wrote, until his death in 1987. Today, Carl Rogers is recognized as one of the pioneers and fathers of humanism.

Personality Theories in Psychology: Carl Rogers - Carl Rogers Biography

Carl Rogers: Humanist Theory.

Next, we are going to make a detailed analysis of the theory proposed by the American psychologist.

Rogers theory can be defined as clinical since it is based on years of experience with patients. Rogers shares this characteristic with Freud, for example, as well as being a particularly rich and mature (well thought out) and logically constructed theory with wide application.

However, he has nothing to do with Freud in the fact that Rogers regards people as basically good or healthy, or at least not bad or sick. In other words, he views mental health as the normal progression of life, and understands the mental illness, crime and other human problems, such as trend distortions natural. Furthermore, he also has nothing to do with Freud in that Rogers theory is in principle simple.

In this sense, the principle is not only simple, but even Elegant.

In its entirety, Rogers' theory is built from a single "life force" that he calls the updating trend. This can be defined as an innate motivation present in all forms of life aimed at developing its potentials to the highest possible limit. We are not talking here only of survival: Rogers understood that all creatures seek to make the best of their existence, and if they fail in their purpose, it will not be due to lack of desire.

Carl Rogers personality theory

Rogers summarizes in this single great need or motive all the other motives that the other theorists mention. Asks us, Why do we need water, food and air?; Why do we seek love, security, and a sense of competition? Why, in fact, do we seek to discover new drugs, invent new sources of energy, or make new artistic works?

Rogers responds: because it is own of our nature as living beings do the best we can.

It is important at this point to keep in mind that unlike how Abraham Maslow uses the term, Rogers applies the life force or updating trend to all living creatures. In fact, some of its earliest examples include algae and mushrooms!

Let us think carefully: Is it not surprising to see how the vines seek life to get between the stones, breaking everything in their path; or how do animals survive in the desert or the frozen north pole, or how grass grows between the stones we step on?

Updating trend application: examples from the theory

Also, the author applies the idea to ecosystems, saying that an ecosystem like a forest, with In all its complexity, it has much greater potential for updating than a simple corn. If a simple bug were to go extinct in a forest, other creatures would emerge that would adapt to try to fill the space; on the other hand, an epidemic that attacks the corn plantation will leave us a deserted field. The same is applicable to us as individuals: if we live as we should, we will become increasingly more complex, such as the forest and therefore more flexibly adaptable to any disaster, be it small or big.

However, people, in the course of actualizing their potentials, created society and culture. In itself this does not seem like a problem: we are social creatures; it is in our nature. But, in creating the culture, it developed a life of its own. Instead of staying close to other aspects of our natures, culture can become a force in its own right. Even if, in the long run, a culture that interferes with our actualization dies, in the same way we will die with it.

Let's understand each other, culture and society are not inherently bad. It's a bit like the Papua New Guinea birds of paradise. The striking and colorful plumage of the males apparently distracts predators from females and youngsters. Natural selection has led these birds to more and more elaborate wings and tails, so that in some species they cannot even lift off the ground. In this sense and up to this point, it does not seem that being very colorful is so good for the male, does it? In the same way, our elaborate societies, our complex cultures, incredible technologies; those that have helped us to prosper and survive, can at the same time serve to harm us and possibly even destroy us.

Personality Theories in Psychology: Carl Rogers - Carl Rogers: Humanist Theory

Free will and the beginnings of humanist theory.

Rogers tells us that organisms know what is good for them. Evolution has provided us with the senses, the tastes, the discriminations that we need: when we are hungry, we find food, not just any food, but one that tastes good to us. Food that tastes bad tends to be harmful and unhealthy. Here's what bad and good flavors are - our evolutionary lessons make that clear! We call this organismic value.

  • Rogers grouped under the name of positive view to issues such as love, affection, care, upbringing and others. It is clear that babies need love and attention. In fact, you could very well die without this. Certainly, they would fail to prosper; To be all that they could be
  • Another issue, perhaps exclusively human, that we value is the positive self reward, which includes self-esteem, self-worth, and a positive self-image. It is through the positive care of others throughout our lives that allows us to achieve this personal care. If this, we feel tiny and helpless and again we do not become all that we could be.

Details of Carl Rogers theory

Like Maslow, Rogers believes that If we leave them to their free will, animals will seek what is best for them; they will get the best food, for example, and consume it in the best possible proportions. Babies also seem to want and like what they need.

However, throughout our history, we have created an environment significantly different from the one we started from. In this new environment we find things as refined as sugar, flour, butter, chocolate and others that our ancestors in Africa never knew.

These things have flavors that seem to please our organismic value, although they are not useful for our updating. Millions of years from now, we'll probably make broccoli seem more appetizing than cheesecake, but by then neither you nor I will see it.

Our society also redirects us with its conditions of worth. As we grow older, our parents, teachers, family members, the "average" and so on only give us what we need when we show that we "deserve" it, rather than because we need it. We can only drink after class; we can eat a candy only when we have finished our plate of vegetables and, most importantly, they will love us only if we behave well.

Achieving positive care over "one condition" is what Rogers calls conditional positive reward. Since all of us actually need this reward, these conditions are very powerful and we end up being very determined subjects not by our organismic values ​​or by our actualizing tendency, but by a society that does not necessarily take into account our real interests. A "good boy" or a "good girl" is not necessarily a happy boy or girl.

As time passes, this conditioning in turn leads us to have a conditional positive self-worth. We begin to love each other if we meet the standards that others apply to us, rather than if we follow our update of individual potentials. And since these standards were not created with individual needs in mind, it is each more and more frequently that we cannot satisfy these demands and therefore, we cannot achieve a good level of self-esteem.

Personality Theories in Psychology: Carl Rogers - Free Will and the Beginnings of Humanist Theory

Carl Rogers Person Centered Therapy.

Carl Rogers is best known for his contributions to therapy. His therapy has changed its name a couple of times throughout his evolution: he initially called her non-directive, since he believed that the therapist should not guide the patient, but should be there while he himself carried the course of his therapeutic process.

The person-centered approach

As he matured in experience, Carl realized that the more "non-directive" he was, the more he influenced his patients precisely through that stance. In other words, patients looked to the therapist for guidance and found it even though the therapist tried not to guide them. So he changed the name to patient-centered(also called client-centered therapy).

Rogers still believed that the patient was the one who should say what was wrong, find ways to improve, and determine what was wrong. conclusion of therapy (although his therapy was "patient-centered," he acknowledged the therapist's impact on the patient). This name, unfortunately, was a slap in the face for other therapists: Weren't most therapies "patient-centered"?

Currently, even though the terms "non-directive" and "patient-centered" remain, most people simply call it rogerian therapy. One of the phrases that Rogers uses to define his therapy is "supportive, not reconstructive" and relies on the analogy of learning to ride. by bike to explain: when you help a child learn to ride a bike, you just can't tell him how, he has to bring it up himself same. And you can't hold him down forever, either. There comes a point where you just stop holding him. If he falls, he falls, but if you always catch him, he will never learn.

It is the same in therapy. If independence (autonomy, freedom with responsibility) is what you want a patient to achieve, he will not achieve it if she remains dependent on you as a therapist. Patients should experience their insights for themselves, in everyday life, outside of their therapist's office. An authoritarian approach to therapy seems great in the first part of therapy, but ultimately it only creates a dependent person.

Person-Centered Therapy: The Reflex Technique

There is only one for which the Rogerians and the humanist school are known: the reflection. The reflection is the image of emotional communication:

  • If the patient says "I feel like shit!", the therapist can reflect this back by saying something like"Already. Life treats you bad, doesn't it?"By doing this, the therapist is communicating to the patient that they are indeed listening and caring enough to understand.

Also the therapist is allowing the patient to realize what he himself is communicating. Usually, people who suffer say things they don't mean because they make them feel better by taking them out.

However, the reflection should be used carefully. Many novice therapists use it without feeling or thinking, parroting the phrases that come out of their patients' mouths. They then believe that the client does not realize it, when in fact the stereotype of Rogerian therapy has become in the same way that sex and the mother have done it in Freudian therapy. The reflection must come from the heart (genuine, congruent).

This leads us to the famous requirements that according to Rogers a therapist must present. To be a special therapist, to be effective, a therapist must have three special qualities:

  • Congruence. Be genuine; be honest with the patient.
  • Empathy. The ability to feel what the patient feels.
  • I respect. Acceptance, unconditional positive concern towards the patient.

Rogers says these qualities are "necessary and sufficient": If the therapist shows these three qualities, the patient will improve, even if "special techniques" are not used. If the therapist does not show these three qualities, the improvement will be minimal, no matter how many techniques are used. Now this is a lot to ask of a therapist! They are simply human, and often far more "human" than others. It's like being more human within the practice than we normally are. These characteristics must be seen in the therapeutic relationship.

We agree with Rogers, although these qualities are quite demanding. Some of the research suggests that techniques are not as important as the personality of the therapist, and that, at least to some extent, therapists are "born", not "made."

Personality Theories in Psychology: Carl Rogers - Carl Rogers Person Centered Therapy

Incongruence, neurosis and the self according to Rogers.

The part of us that we find in the updating trend, followed by our valuation organismic, needs and positive rewards reception for oneself, is what Rogers would call the true me. This is the real "you" that, if all goes well, you will achieve.

On the other hand, since our society is not synchronized with the actualizing trend and that we are forced to live under conditions of worth that do not belong to the organismic valuation, and finally, that we only receive conditional positive rewards, then we have to develop a ideal of oneself (ideal of the self). In this case, Rogers refers to the ideal as something not real; as something that is always out of reach; what we will never achieve.

The space between the true self and the ideal self; of the "I am" and the "I should be" is called incongruity. The greater the distance, the greater the incongruity. In fact, incongruity is what Rogers essentially defines as neurosis: being out of sync with your own self. If this all sounds familiar, it is because it is precisely what he talks about! Karen horney!

Personality theories: the defenses of our mind.

When you find yourself in a situation where there is an incongruity between your image of yourself and your immediate experience of yourself (between your ego ideal and your ego) you may find yourself in a threatening situation.

For example, if you have been taught to feel uncomfortable when you do not get a good grade in all your exams, and you are not even that wonderful student your parents want you to be, then special situations like exams will bring out that incongruity; the exams will be very threatening.

When you perceive a threatening situation, you feel anxiety. Anxiety is a signal that there is a potential danger that you should avoid. One way to avoid the situation is, of course, to take "powder" and take refuge in the mountains. Since this should not be a very frequent option in life, instead of running physically, we flee psychologically, using the defenses.

Next, we describe the defense mechanisms defined by Carl Rogers.

Personality Theories in Psychology: Carl Rogers - Personality Theories: The Defenses of Our Mind

Defense mechanisms according to Carl Rogers.

The Rogerian idea of ​​defense is very similar to that described by the defense mechanisms of Anna FreudExcept that Rogers encompasses it in a perceptual point of view, so that even memories and impulses are forms of perception. Fortunately for us, Rogers defines only two defenses: denial and perceptual distortion.

The denial

it means something very similar to what it means in Freudian theory: you completely block the threatening situation. An example would be that of someone who never takes an exam, or who never asks for grades, so that he does not have to face final grades (at least for a while). Rogers' denial also includes what Freud called repression: if we keep a memory out of our consciousness or impulse (we refuse to receive it), we will be able to avoid the threatening situation (again, at least for the moment).

The perceptual distortion

it is a way of reinterpreting the situation in a way that is less threatening. It is very much like Freud's rationalization. A student who is threatened by grades and exams may, for example, blame the teacher that he teaches very poorly, or is an "edge," or whatever. (Projection would also intervene here as a defense - according to Freud - as long as the student does not believe he is capable of passing exams due to personal insecurity)

The fact that there are indeed bad teachers makes the distortion more effective and we puts in a bind to be able to convince this student that the problems are his, not his teacher. There could also be a much more perceptual distortion such as when one "sees" the rating better than it actually is. Unfortunately, for the poor neurotic (and indeed, for most of us), every time he uses a defense, he creates a greater distance between the real and the ideal. It is becoming more and more incongruous, finding itself more and more in threatening situations, developing higher levels of anxiety and using more and more defenses... it becomes a vicious cycle that will eventually be impossible to break out of it, at least by itself.

Psychosis

Rogers also provides a partial explanation for the psychosis: this arises when "the cauldron overflows"; when defenses are oversaturated and the very sense of self (one's own sense of identity) it is "scattered" in different pieces disconnected from each other. His own behavior has little consistency and stability accordingly. We see him how he has "psychotic episodes"; bizarre behavior episodes. His words seem to make no sense. His emotions are often inappropriate. He may lose his ability to differentiate self from non-self and become disoriented and passive.

Personality Theories in Psychology: Carl Rogers - Defense mechanisms according to Carl Rogers

The Functional person in full - Theories of humanism.

Like Maslow, Rogers is only interested in describing the healthy person. His term is full operation and includes the following qualities:

  • Openness to experience. This would be the opposite of defensiveness. It is the precise perception of one's experiences in the world, including one's own feelings. You also understand the ability to accept reality, again including your own feelings. Feelings are an important part of openness since they lead to organismic assessment. If you can't open up to your own feelings, you won't be able to open up to actualization. The hard part is, of course, distinguishing real feelings from those arising from anxiety subsequent to questions of personal worth.
  • Existential experience. This would correspond to living in the here and now. Rogers, following his tendency to keep in touch with reality, insists that we do not live in the past or the future; the former is gone and the latter doesn't even exist. However, this does not mean that we should not learn from our past, nor that we should not plan or even daydream about the future. We simply must recognize these things for what they are: memories and dreams, which we are experiencing now, in the present.
  • Organismic confidence. We must allow ourselves to be guided by the organismic evaluation or assessment processes. We must trust ourselves, do what we think is good; that which arises naturally. This, as I imagine you can see, has become one of the thorny points of Rogerian theory. People would say: "yes, no problem, do what you want"; that is, if you are a sadist, you harm others; if you are a masochist, hurt yourself; If drugs or alcohol make you happy, go for it; if you are depressed, kill yourself... This certainly does not sound like good advice to us. In fact, much of the excesses of the sixties and seventies were due to this attitude. But what Rogers is referring to is self-confidence; in the real self and the only way you have to know what your self truly is is by opening yourself up to experience and living existentialistically! In other words, the organismic confidence assumes that it is in touch with the actualizing trend.
  • Experiential freedom. Rogers thought it was irrelevant whether or not people had free will. We behave as if we have it. This does not mean, of course, that we are free to do whatever we want: we are surrounded of a deterministic universe, so that even if I flap my wings as much as I can, I won't fly like Superman What it really means is that we feel free when opportunities are given to us. Rogers says that the fully functioning person recognizes that feeling of freedom and takes responsibility for his opportunities.
  • Creativity. If you feel free and responsible, you will act accordingly and participate in the world. A fully functional person in contact with the update will feel compelled by nature to contribute to the update of others. This can be done through creativity in the arts or sciences, through social concern or parental love, or simply by doing your best work. Rogers' creativity is very similar to Erikson's generativity.
Personality Theories in Psychology: Carl Rogers - The Whole Functional Person - Theories of Humanism

Famous Quotes of Carl Rogers.

  • The very essence of creativity is its novelty, and therefore we have no standard to judge it
  • Being empathetic is seeing the world through the eyes of the other and not seeing our world reflected in their eyes
  • Each person is an island unto himself, in a very real sense; and only she can build bridges to other islands if she is willing to be herself first and is allowed to be herself
  • The very essence of creativity is its novelty, and therefore we have no standard to judge it
  • The curious paradox is that when I accept myself as I am, then I can change
  • Everything looks different when you look into your heart

Carl Rogers: Books.

Rogers was a great writer; a real pleasure to read.

  • The greatest exposition of his theories is found in his book Client-centered Therapy (1951).
  • There are two very interesting essay collections: On Becoming a Person (1961) and A Way of Being (1980).
  • Finally, there is a good collection of his work in the The Carl Rogers Reader, edited by Kirschenbaum and Henderson (1989).

The following is a list of Rogers' books in Spanish:

  • ROGERS, C. and Mariam KINGET (1971) Psychotherapy and human relations (two volumes). Madrid: Alfaguara.
  • ROGERS, C. (1972) Client-centered psychotherapy. Buenos Aires: Paidós.
  • ROGERS, C. (1978) Psychological counseling and psychotherapy. Madrid: Narcea.
  • ROGERS, C. (1979) The process of becoming a person. Buenos Aires: Paidós.
  • ROGERS, C. and others (1980) Person to person. Buenos Aires: Amorrortu.
  • ROGERS, C. and C. ROSENBERG (1981) The person as the center. Barcelona: Herder.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Personality Theories in Psychology: Carl Rogers, we recommend that you enter our category of Personality.

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