Chapter 10 Rogers: Person-Centered Theory

Chapter 10
Rogers: Person-Centered Theory
Learning Objectives
After reading Chapter10, you should be able to:
1.

Identify the formative and actualizing tendencies.

2.

Discuss Rogers' concept of self and its development.

3.

State the basic needs of individuals according to person-centered theory.

4.

Distinguish among self, self-actualization, self-concept, and ideal self.

5.

List and describe Rogers' necessary and sufficient conditions for psychological
growth.

6.

Discuss the concept of the person of tomorrow and its implications for future
humanity.

7.

Discuss Rogers' philosophy of science.

8.

Discuss the methods, procedures, and results of Rogers' research on the

effectiveness of client-centered therapy.

9.

Discuss research on Rogers' facilitative conditions in situations outside the

therapeutic relationship.

10.

Critique Rogers' person-centered theory on the six criteria of a useful theory.

I.

II.

Overview of Rogers's Person-Centered Theory

Although Carl Rogers is best known as the founder of client-centered therapy,
he also developed an important theory of personality that underscores his
approach to therapy.
Biography of Carl Rogers
Carl Rogers was born into a devoutly religious family in a Chicago suburb in
1902. After the family moved to a nearby farm, Carl became interested in
scientific farming and learned to appreciate the scientific method. When he
graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Rogers intended to become a
minister, but he gave up that notion and completed a PhD in psychology from
Columbia University in 1931. In 1940, after nearly a dozen years away from
an academic life working as a clinician, he took a position at Ohio State
University. Later, he held positions at the University of Chicago and the
University of Wisconsin. In 1964, he moved to California, where he helped
found the Center for Studies of the Person. He died in 1987 at age 85.

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Chapter 10 Rogers: Person-Centered Theory

III.

Person-Centered Theory
Rogers carefully crafted his person-centered theory of personality to meet his
own demands for a structural model that could explain and predict outcomes
of client-centered therapy. However, the theory has implications far beyond
the therapeutic setting.
A. Basic Assumptions
Person-centered theory rests on two basic assumptions: (1) the formative
tendency that states that all matter, both organic and inorganic, tends to evolve
from simpler to more complex forms and (2) an actualizing tendency, which
suggests that all living things, including humans, tend to move toward
completion, or fulfillment of potentials. However, in order for people (or
plants and animals) to become actualized, certain identifiable conditions must
be present. For a person, these conditions include a relationship with another
person who is genuine, or congruent, and who demonstrates complete
acceptance and empathy for that person.
B. The Self and Self-Actualization
A sense of self or personal identity begins to emerge during infancy, and once
established, it allows a person to strive toward self-actualization, which is a
subsystem of the actualization tendency and refers to the tendency to actualize
the self as perceived in awareness. The self has two subsystems: (1) the selfconcept, which includes all those aspects of one's identity that are perceived in
awareness, and (2) the ideal self, or our view of our self as we would like to be
or aspire to be. Once formed, the self concept tends to resist change, and gaps
between it and the ideal self result in incongruence and various levels of
psychopathology.
C. Awareness
People are aware of both their self-concept and their ideal self, although
awareness need not be accurate. For example, people may have an inflated
view of their ideal self but only a vague sense of their self-concept. Rogers
saw people as having experiences on three levels of awareness: (1) those that
are symbolized below the threshold of awareness and are ignored, denied, or
not allowed into the self-concept; (2) those that are distorted or reshaped to fit
it into an existing self-concept; and (3) those that are consistent with the selfconcept and thus are accurately symbolized and freely admitted to the selfstructure. Any experience not consistent with the self-concepteven positive
experienceswill be distorted or denied.
D. Needs
The two basic human needs are maintenance and enhancement, but people also
need positive regard and self-regard. Maintenance needs include those for
food, air, and safety, but they also include our tendency to resist change and to
maintain our self-concept as it is. Enhancement needs include needs to grow
and to realize one's full human potential. As awareness of self emerges, an
infant begins to receive positive regard from another person, that is, to be
loved or accepted. People naturally value those experiences that satisfy their
needs for positive regard, but unfortunately, this value sometimes becomes
more powerful than the reward they receive for meeting their organismic

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Chapter 10 Rogers: Person-Centered Theory

IV.

needs. This sets up the condition of incongruence, which is experienced when

basic organismic needs are denied or distorted in favor of needs to be loved or
accepted. As a result of experiences with positive regard, people develop the
need for self-regard which they acquire only after they perceive that someone
else cares for them and values them. Once established, however, self-regard
becomes autonomous and no longer dependent on another person's continuous
positive evaluation.
E. Conditions of Worth
Most people are not unconditionally accepted. Instead, they receive conditions
of worth; that is, they feel that they are loved and accepted only when and if
they meet the conditions set by others.
F. Psychological Stagnation
When the organismic self and the self-concept are at variance with one another,
a person may experience incongruence, anxiety, threat, defensiveness, and even
disorganization. The greater the incongruence between self-concept and the
organismic experience, the more vulnerable that person becomes. Anxiety
exists whenever the person becomes dimly aware of the discrepancy between
organismic experience and self-concept, whereas threat is experienced
whenever the person becomes more clearly aware of this incongruence. To
prevent incongruence, people react with defensiveness, typically in the forms of
distortion and denial. With distortion, people misinterpret an experience so
that it fits into their self-concept; with denial, people refuse to allow the
experience into awareness. When people's defenses fail to operate properly,
their behavior becomes disorganized or psychotic. With disorganization,
people sometimes behave consistently with their organismic experience, and
sometimes in accordance with their shattered self-concept.
Psychotherapy
For client-centered psychotherapy to be effective, six conditions are necessary:
(1) A vulnerable client must (2) have contact of some duration with a counselor
who is (3) congruent and who demonstrates (4) unconditional positive regard
and who (5) listens with empathy to a client. In addition, the client must (6)
perceives the congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathy. If these
conditions are present, then the process of therapy will take place and certain
predictable outcomes will result.
A. Conditions
Three of these conditions are crucial to client-centered therapy, and Rogers
called them the necessary and sufficient conditions for therapeutic growth. The
first is counselor congruence, or a therapist whose organismic experiences are
matched by an awareness and by the ability and willingness to openly express
these feelings. Congruence is more basic than the other two conditions
because it is a relatively stable characteristic of the therapist, whereas the other
two conditions are limited to a specific therapeutic relationship. Unconditional
positive regard exists when the therapist accepts and prizes the client without
conditions or qualifications. Empathic listening is the ability of the therapist to
sense the feeling of a client and also to communicate these perceptions so that

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Chapter 10 Rogers: Person-Centered Theory

V.

VI.

the client knows that another person has entered into his or her world of
feelings without prejudice, projection, or evaluation.
B. Process
Rogers saw the process of therapeutic change as taking place in seven stages:
(1) clients are unwilling to communicate anything about themselves; (2) they
discuss only external events and other people; (3) they begin to talk about
themselves, but still as an object; (4) they discuss strong emotions that they
have felt in the past; (5) they begin to express present feelings; (6) they freely
allow into awareness those experiences that were previously denied or
distorted; and (7) they experience irreversible change and growth.
C. Outcomes
When client-centered therapy is successful, clients become more congruent,
less defensive, more open to experience, and more realistic. The gap between
their ideal self and their true self narrows and as a consequence, clients
experience less physiological and psychological tension. Finally, clients'
interpersonal relationships improve because they are more accepting of self and
others.
The Person of Tomorrow
If people receive the three necessary and sufficient conditions for psychological
health person, then they will grow toward becoming the "fully functioning
person" or the "person of tomorrow." Rogers listed seven characteristics of the
person of tomorrow. First, persons of tomorrow would be more adaptable and
more flexible in their thinking. Second, they would be open to their
experiences, accurately symbolizing them in awareness rather than denying or
distorting them. Persons of tomorrow would listen to themselves and hear
their joy, anger, discouragement, fear, and tenderness. A third characteristic
would be a tendency to live fully in the moment, experiencing a constant state
of fluidity and change. They would see each experience with a new freshness
and appreciate it fully in the present moment. Rogers (1961) referred to this
tendency to live in the moment as existential living. Fourth, persons of
tomorrow would remain confident of their own ability to experience
harmonious relations with others. They would feel no need to be liked or loved
by everyone, because they would know that they are unconditionally prized and
accepted by someone. Fifth, they would be more integrated, more whole, with
no artificial boundary between conscious processes and unconscious ones.
Because they would be able to accurately symbolize all their experiences in
awareness, they would see clearly the difference between what is and what
should be. Sixth, persons of tomorrow would have a basic trust of human
nature. They would experience anger, frustration, depression, and other
negative emotions, but they would be able to express rather than repress these
feelings.
Finally, because persons of tomorrow are open to all their
experiences, they would enjoy a greater richness in life than do other people.
They would live in the present and thus participate more richly in the ongoing
moment.
Philosophy of Science

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Chapter 10 Rogers: Person-Centered Theory

Rogers agreed with Maslow that scientists must care about the phenomena
they study and that psychologists should limit their objectivity and precision to
their methodology, not to the creation of hypotheses or to the communication
of research findings.
VII. The Chicago Studies
When he taught at the University of Chicago and again at the University of
Wisconsin, Rogers along with colleagues and graduate students conducted an
experimental investigation on the effectiveness of psychotherapy. These
studies, though now old, remain as some of the best designed and most
sophisticated of all such investigations.
A. Hypotheses
This study at the University of Chicago tested four broad hypotheses. As a
consequence of therapy (1) clients will become more aware of their feelings
and experiences, (2) the gap between the real self and the ideal self will lessen;
(3) clients' behavior will become more socialized; and (4) clients will become
both more self-accepting and more accepting of others.
B. Method
Participants were adults who sought therapy at the University of Chicago
counseling center. Experimenters asked half of them to wait 60 days before
receiving therapy while beginning therapy with the other half. In addition, they
tested a control group of "normals" who were matched with the therapy group.
This control group was also divided into a wait group and a non-wait group.
C. Findings
Rogers and his associates found that the therapy groupbut not the wait
groupshowed a lessening of the gap between real self and ideal self. They
also found that clients who improved during therapy showed changes in social
behavior, as reported by their friends.
D. Summary of Results
Although client-centered therapy was successful in changing clients, it was not
successful in bringing them to the level of the fully functioning persons or even
to the level of "normal" psychological health.
VIII. Related Research
More recently, other researchers have investigated Rogers' facilitative
conditions both outside therapy and within therapy.
A. Self-Ideal, Congruence, and Mental Health: SelfDiscrepancy Theory
In the 1980s, E. Tory Higgins developed a version of Rogers'
model called self-discrepancy theory. Higgins hypothesized
that individuals with high levels of self-discrepancy were
most likely to experience high levels of negative affect in
their lives, such as anxiety and depression. Ann Phillips and
Paul Silvia (2005) predicted that the negative emotion
experienced from either real-ideal or real-ought discrepancies
would be greatest when people are more self-aware or selffocused. Their hypothesis was supported by their findings
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Chapter 10 Rogers: Person-Centered Theory

IX.

X.

when they compared participants completing their

questionnaires in front of a mirror to participants without a
mirror.
Other researchers have found that college students with a
high discrepancy between real and ideal self-perceptions
tended to drink more alcohol in a controlled setting (Wolfe &
Maisto, 2000).
Others applied Higgins self-discrepancy
theory to eating disorders (Veale, Kinderman, Riley, &
Lambrou, 2003), and to general mental health (Liao & Fan,
2003).
In general, these results supported Rogers' notion
that people whose ideal self is at variance with their real self
may turn to unhealthy behaviors as a means of coping with
this discrepancy.
B. Motivation and Pursuit of Goals
Rogers proposed (1951) that we all have an organismic
valuing process (OVP), or a natural instinct guiding us
toward the most fulfilling pursuits.
Ken Sheldon and
colleagues (2003) explored the existence of an OVP in college
students. Their hypothesis that if people have an OVP, over
time they will rate more inherently fulfilling goals as more
desirable than materialistic goals, was supported by their
findings.
Schwartz and Waterman found from their
longitudinal study (2006) that the more self-realizing
experiences people have, the more intrinsic motivation they
are likely to experience, just as Carl Rogers would have
predicted.
Critique of Rogers
Rogers' person-centered theory is one of the most carefully constructed of all
personality theories, and it meets quite well each of the six criteria of a useful
theory. It rates very high on internal consistency and parsimony, high on its
ability to be falsified and to generate research, and high average on its ability
to organize knowledge and to serve as a guide to the practitioner.
Concept of Humanity
Rogers believed that humans have the capacity to change and growprovided
that certain necessary and sufficient conditions are present. Therefore, his
theory rates very high on optimism. In addition, it rates high on free choice,
teleology, conscious motivation, social influences, and the uniqueness of the
individual.

Test Items
Fill-in-the-Blanks

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Chapter 10 Rogers: Person-Centered Theory

1.

Rogers wanted to be a ______________________ after he graduated from the

University of Wisconsin, but he switched to psychology when he went to
Columbia University.

2.

Rogers's system of therapy is called ______________________, and his theory

of personality can be called person-centered.

3.

The ______________________ tendency suggests that all matter tends to

evolve from simpler to more complex forms.

4.

The ______________________ tendency suggests that people tend to move

toward completion or fulfillment of potentials.

5.

A state of ________________________ exists when the organismic self, the

perceived self, and the ideal self are in harmony.

6.

To Rogers, the real self and the __________________ self are the same concept.

7.

Rogers believed that each of us has an _____________________ self, that is, a

picture of our self as we would wish to be.

8.

Discrepancies between the _________________________ and the organismic

self results in incongruence.

9.

A discrepancy between self-concept and organismic experiences is called

____________________.

10.

People often deny or ____________________ both positive and negative

experiences because these experiences threaten an established self-concept.

11.

All of us, Rogers said, have a need for ______________________, that is, a
feeling of self-confidence and self-worth.

12.

We experience ______________________ of worth whenever a significant other

accepts only our positive behaviors and traits.

13.

The need for _______________________ would include the need for food,
sleep, and the tendency to resist change.

14.

The need for ________________________ includes the need to grow, to

develop, and to become a more fully-functioning person.

15.

The first condition for therapeutic growth is that a _____________________

client comes into contact with a congruent therapist.

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Chapter 10 Rogers: Person-Centered Theory

16.

A _____________________ person is one whose organismic experiences are

matched by an awareness of them and a willingness to communicate them
honestly.

17.

Unconditional ____________________________ exists when the therapist

prizes the client regardless of the client's behavior.

18.

A state of ______________________ exists when therapists accurately sense the

feelings of their clients and are able to communicate these perceptions so that the
clients know that another person is on their wavelength.

19.

According to Rogers, _____________________ living is the tendency to live in

the moment.

20.

The issues of freedom and control of human behavior were at the heart of a
series of debates between Rogers and ________________________.

True-False
______1. Carl Rogers' parents were teachers, and they encouraged him to become a
teacher.
_____ 2.

Rogers's theory of personality grew out of his experiences as a

psychotherapist.

______3.

Rogers' approach to psychotherapy is most accurately called nondirective.

______4.

As a schoolboy, Rogers became interested in scientific farming, an interest

that contributed to his later research abilities.

______5.

After receiving his PhD, Rogers spent more than 10 years in clinical
practice, mostly isolated from the academic community, and this isolation
helped him develop an approach to therapy that was unique.

______6.

According to Rogers, all living organisms possess the actualizing

tendency.

______7.

Once the self-concept is formed, change becomes difficult.

______8.

Self-actualization is a subsystem of the actualizing tendency.

______9.

In Rogerian theory, the actualizing tendency refers to the person's

organismic or physiological experiences.

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Chapter 10 Rogers: Person-Centered Theory

_____10.

Rogers believed that healthy people adjust their organismic self in order to
make it congruent with their ideal self.

_____11.

Receiving praise or compliments can be threatening to a person's selfconcept.

_____12.

Maintenance needs include the need to resist change.

_____13.

After people have established unconditional positive self-regard, they no

longer depend on others for unconditional positive regard.

_____14.

Rogers held that healthy people evaluate their experience from the
viewpoint of significant others.

_____15.

According to Rogers, people with low self-worth who receive positive

external evaluations will assimilate these evaluations into their selfconcept, and thus will grow toward psychological health.

_____16.

According to Rogers, a vulnerable person is unaware of the discrepancy

between self and experience.

_____17.

Rogers was more interested in building a theory than in conducting

psychotherapy.

_____18.

The three necessary conditions for therapeutic growth, Rogers believed,

are counselor congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathic
listening.

_____19.

Rogers believed that when client-centered therapy is successful, clients

become their own therapists.

_____20.

A strong criticism of Rogers' theory is that it has not produced any

research.

Multiple Choice
_____ 1.
a.
b.
c.
d.
______2.
a
b.
c.

At the height of his career, Rogers engaged in a series of debates with

George Kelly.
Carl Jung.
B.F. Skinner.
Albert Bandura.
As a young boy, Rogers
was shy and frequently teased by his older brothers and sisters.
spent 2 years in a detention home for wayward boys.
wanted to be a physician.

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Chapter 10 Rogers: Person-Centered Theory

d.

held deep-seated animosity toward his mother.

______3.
a.
b.
c.
d.

Rogers described the formative tendency as the tendency for

humans to form intimate interpersonal relationships.
matter to evolve from simpler to more complex form.
people to strive toward self-actualization.
people to return to an inorganic state.

______4.
a.
b.
c.
d.

Rogers believed that all behavior relates to one's

enhancement needs.
ideal self.
safety needs.
actualizing tendency.

______5.

Healthy people evaluate their experiences as good or bad according to this

criterion.
the self-concept
perceived self
reflected appraisal of others
the actualizing tendency

a.
b.
c.
d.
______6.
a.
b.
c.
d.

In Rogerian theory, the actualization tendency

is synonymous with the formative tendency.
has the same or nearly the same meaning as self-actualization.
refers to the person's organismic experiences.
refers to the tendency to actualize the perceived self.

______7.
a.
b.
c.
d.

Inner tension arises, Rogers said, when a conflict exists between the
self-actualization tendency and the organismic self.
emotion and cognition.
the values of others and one's own values.
the formative tendency and the actualization tendency.

______8.
a.
b.
c.
d.

A discrepancy between the self-concept and the ideal self results in

ego defense mechanisms.
safe-guarding tendencies.
the person of tomorrow.
incongruence.

_____9.

Taylor's parents praise her whenever her behavior meets with their
standards. However, they punish Taylor when her behavior fails to meet
with their approval. From this information it appears that Taylor is
experiencing
low self-esteem.
conditions of worth.
disorganization.

a.
b.
c.

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Chapter 10 Rogers: Person-Centered Theory

d.
_____10.
a.
b.
c.
d.

high self-esteem.
Tyler has a negative view of himself. To increase his self-concept, his
parents and teachers continually praise and compliment him. Rogers
believed that such praise and compliments are most likely to
enhance Tyler's self-esteem.
reinforce Tyler's negative behavior.
be easily accepted into Tyler's self-concept.
be distorted by Tyler.

_____11.
a.
b.
c.
d.

According to Rogers, the two basic human needs are

sex and safety.
self-actualization and self-enhancement.
power and submission.
maintenance and enhancement.

_____12.
a.
b.
c.
d.

Rogers believed that, for psychologically healthy individuals,

the self and experience are congruent.
denial of organismic functioning is essential.
the ideal self replaces the real self.
an incongruence exists between their organismic self and their ideal self.

_____13.
a.
b.

Which statement is consistent with Rogers' theory?

Self-regard is originally dependent on self-concept.
Once achieved, self-regard can exist independently of others' opinions and
attitudes.
Self-regard is symptomatic of malignant egoism.
Self-regard stems from the negative appraisals received from others.

c.
d.
_____14.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.

An unawareness of a discrepancy between self and experience leads to

psychological health.
anxiety.
threat.
vulnerability.
guilt.

_____15.
a.
b.
c.
d.

According to Rogers, the two primary defensive strategies are ______.

repression and denial
repression and reaction formation
denial and distortion
repression and regression

_____16.

Rogers believed that a person with a disorganized personality may at times

behave consistently with organismic experience and at other times
consistently with
the ideal self.

a.

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Chapter 10 Rogers: Person-Centered Theory

b.
c.
d.
_____17.
a.
b.
c.
d.
_____18.
a.
b.
c.
d.

others' expectations.
the shattered self-concept.
the actualizing tendency.
Rogers hypothesized that empathy, unconditional positive regard, and
congruence are
necessary and sufficient conditions for therapy.
necessary but not sufficient conditions for therapy.
sufficient but not necessary conditions for therapy.
neither necessary nor sufficient for therapy.
In the Chicago studies,
clients who received no therapy experienced the same level of growth as
did the clients in the therapy group.
clients who received no therapy received no psychological growth.
Carl Rogers was the sole therapist.
all the therapist were graduate students.

_____19.
a.
b.
c.
d.

Clients are better able to listen to themselves when the therapist possesses
sympathy for them.
empathy for them.
conditions of worth toward them.
a professional attitude toward them.

_____20.
a.
b.
c.
d.

Rogers hypothesized that persons of tomorrow would

mistrust others.
be free of psychological conflict.
be open to their experience.
reach a high-level stage where continued change was unnecessary.

_____21.
a.
b.

In the Chicago studies, Rogers and his associates found that

clients who received client-centered therapy became fully functioning.
empathy, unconditional positive regard, and congruence were neither
necessary nor sufficient.
c. clients who received client-centered therapy improved, but they did not
reach an "average" level of psychological functioning.
d. clients who received cognitive behavior therapy showed no gain.
_____ 22. Which statement is most consistent with Rogers' concept of humanity?
a. People have a natural tendency to move toward actualization.
b. People move inevitably toward actualization.
c. People move inevitably toward self-actualization.
d. People are free to become what they will.
Short Answer
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Chapter 10 Rogers: Person-Centered Theory

1. Compare Rogers' concepts of the formative tendency and the actualizing tendency.

2.

Discuss Rogers' concept of self-actualization.

3. Define conditions of worth.

4. List and briefly explain the "necessary and sufficient" conditions for psychological
growth.

5. Define incongruence and discuss how a person might become incongruent.

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Chapter 10 Rogers: Person-Centered Theory

6. Discuss implications for the future if Rogers' view of the person of tomorrow is
realized.

Answers
Fill-in-the-Blanks
True-False
1.
minister
2.
client-centered
3.
formative
4.
actualization
5.
congruence
6.
organismic
7.
ideal
8.
self-concept
9.
incongruence
10.
distort
11.
self-regard
12.
conditions
13.
maintenance
14.
enhancement
15.
vulnerable
16.
congruent
17.
positive regard
18.
empathy
19.
existential
20.
control (freedom)

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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.

Multiple Choice
F
T
F
T
T
T
T
T
T
F
T
T
T
F
F
T
F
T
T
F

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.

c
a
b
d
d
c
a
d
b
d
d
a
b
d
c
c
a
b
b
c
c
a
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