2. This way of thinking is what I believe would make for a more person-centered positive psychology. According to Carl Jung, the archetype anima and animus states that human are essentially bisexual. Carl Rogers, who was the originator of the person-centred approach to counselling, was born in 1902 in Chicago and died in California in 1987, leaving behind the legacy of what has been called the 'Third Force' in American psychology, namely, humanistic psychology. Inclusion in an NLM database does not imply endorsement of, or agreement with, The idea that the task should be to promote more fully functioning behavior has always been at the core of person-centered psychology (see Levitt, 2008; Joseph, 2015b). Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. The therapist cannot be up to other things, have other intentions without violating the essence of person-centered therapy. What is Carl Rogers' view of human nature? - Homework.Study.com humanistic psychology, positive psychology, person-centered approach, Carl Rogers, actualizing tendency, fully functioning person, Person-Centred Therapy: A Revolutionary Paradigm, Searching for the core: the interface of client-centered principles with other therapies,, Person-Centred Psychopathology: A Positive Psychology of Mental Health, Humanistic psychology: a new breakthrough. Therefore, as per Rogers, one of the goals of therapy is to help people bring their real self and ideal self into alignment, enhancing their self-esteem and overall life satisfaction. Carl Rogers (1959) believed that humans have one basic motive, which is the tendency to self-actualize - i.e., to fulfill one's potential and achieve the highest level of "human-beingness" we can. Carl Linnaeus and the Perilous Project of Labelling All of Life | The For example, research shows that greater authenticity leads to greater well-being. Such a shift in thinking would also have implications for what it means to be a positive psychologist. Rogers made a distinction between unconditional positive regard and conditional positive regard. Self-actualization concerns psychological growth, fulfillment, and satisfaction in life. Olivia Guy-Evans is a writer and associate editor for Simply Psychology. I was completing my doctorate research in the psychology of trauma. The .gov means its official. In addition to traditional topics, chapters on Eastern and religious perspectives as positive approaches to adult personality development are included. The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. Carl Rogers (1902-1987) was a humanistic psychologist best known for his views on the therapeutic relationship and his theories of personality and self-actualization. Carl Rogers: A Person-Centered Approach | SpringerLink However, unlike a flower, the potential of the individual human is unique, and we are meant to develop in different ways according to our personality. This remains a revolutionary idea in psychology that remains underappreciated in my view, perhaps because while Rogers' theory of therapy is well-known, it is less well-understood that it is about changing the social environment, not the person. If we reflect on one reason for the demise of humanistic psychology being its clash with conservative ideologies (Elkins, 2009), I believe we also learn about the success of positive psychology. One of the features of the conservative ideology is its focus on individualism, and it is a focus on individualism that has led to the rise of a culture in which positive psychology research has been used to promote mindfulness in school children, to deal with the stressors of failing educational systems, resilience training in workers to help them cope with punitive workloads, and well-being applications to help people manage the stresses of economic insecurity (Joseph, 2020). His theories have been applied to the educational system and psychotherapy techniques. Bugental (1964) put forward five basic principles of humanistic psychology, which were later adapted by Tom Greening to define the parameters of humanistic psychology: 1. Self-image refers to individuals mental representation of themselves, shaped by personal experiences and interactions with others. Of course, subsequent research can show support or fail to show support for an intervention, and in that way, we can be guided subsequently by research. It must mean that when the therapist has intentions of treatment plans, of treatment goals, of interventive strategies to get the client somewhere or for the client to do a certain thing, the therapist violates the essence of person-centered therapy (Bozarth, 1998, pp. While Rogers is now widely recognized in positive psychology as one of the original pioneers of a more positive psychological approach, the depth and detail of his work is not in my view well-understood, and particularly how his approach offered a vision for what we now call positive psychology 2.0, or put another way, a meta-theory for positive psychology (Joseph and Linley, 2006a). Lessons in Positive Psychology From Carl Rogers' Person-Centered ApproachIt's the Social Environment That Must Change - PMC Journal List Front Psychol PMC8510647 As a library, NLM provides access to scientific literature. The real self represents a persons genuine current state, including their strengths, weaknesses, and areas where they might struggle. Self-concept is the image we have of ourselves. In 1969, Rogers published his influential book Freedom to Learn (Rogers, 1969), in which, building on his earlier writings, he set out his full philosophy of education: in essence, that human beings have a natural urge to learn, that this most readily happens when the subject matter is perceived as relevant to the student, that learning involves change and as such is threatening and resisted; that learning is best achieved by doing, and that the most lasting learning takes place in an atmosphere of freedom in which students were trusted to be autonomous learners. The human infant is seen as having an inherent motivational sys-tem (which he shares in common with all living things) and a reg-ulatory system (the valuing process) which by its "feedback" keeps the organism "on the beam" of satisfying his motivational needs. Of more importance, in my view, is that positive psychology expends its energy on upstream interventions, to facilitate people's psychological development in the first place, such that the eventual need for psychotherapy and clinical psychology is reduced. Throughout the 1990's, I studied Rogers' ideas coming to realize that what he and his colleagues had achieved from the 1950's onwards had offered a new paradigm for the psychological sciences, one that focused on how to promote human flourishing. I have gradually come to one negative conclusion about the good life. S. Koch. Person-Centered Theory: The Legacy of Carl Rogers and Contemporary What is congruence? In the section below I will discuss the significance for practice of Rogers' ideasspecifically how the person-centered approach proposes that if we want to change people, we need to change their social environment. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the Recent years have seen much interest in positive psychology applications to education and the development of the new subfield of positive education (Seligman et al., 2009). Humanistic psychologists of all persuasions would no doubt wholeheartedly agree with this, but what is radically different about Rogers' person-centered approach is that it is all about the social environmentwe develop good and decent people through the society we create. Seligman later said how the idea of positive psychology came to him following a moment of epiphany when gardening with his daughter, Nikki, who was then aged five, when she instructed him not to be such a grouch. Self-image affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves in the world. It includes all the goals, values, and traits a person deems ideal or desirable. But if it is thought that people need instruction from others, then introducing interventions targeted directly at somehow pushing the person toward authenticity will make sense. Rogers (1963a) described the fully functioning person as (1) open to all their experiences, they are sensitive to the world around them, other people's reactions, and their own internal feelings, reactions, and meanings; (2) living existentially, able to be fully present in the moment; and (3) able to trust their feelings and reactions to guide them in their actions. Rogers' view on education was that it was this teacher-centered approach that was itself the problem that thwarted and usurped developmental processes and stifled creativity and curiosity. Carl Rogers (1959) believes that the self-concept has three different components: The view you have of yourself (self-image) How much value you place on yourself (self-esteem or self-worth) What you wish you were really like (ideal-self) Self-image This does not necessarily have to reflect reality. Person-Centered Approach, Positive Psychology, and Relational Helping Rogers rejected the deterministic nature of both psychoanalysis and behaviorism and maintained that we behave as we do because of the way we perceive our situation. This can be difficult to understand if looking at the person-centered approach from outside its paradigmatic stance. But as the positive psychology movement evolved, and gained footholds in the mainstream agenda, its leaders (e.g., Seligman et al., 2005) came to acknowledge, perhaps albeit reluctantly and without fully admitting their earlier critical comments were largely unfounded and misleading, that positive psychology built upon the earlier work of the pioneers of humanistic psychology (see DeRobertis and Bland, 2021). But for positive psychology, if not the growth model, what model? As described above, reflection on positive psychology from the perspective of the person-centered approach leads to questions about the positionality of positive psychology, its politics, and its subtle promotion of power. Greening (2001), the then editor, opened by remarking how positive psychology had appeared as if humanistic psychology, its decades of scholarship and research, and the fact that early pioneers of humanistic psychology had themselves been presidents of the American Psychological Association, had simply not existed. It has been criticized as potentially inauthentic, as it might require therapists to suppress their own feelings and judgments. In therapy, it can substitute for any lack of unconditional positive regard the client may have experienced in childhood, and promote a healthier self-worth. Moreover, Rogers emphasis on authentic communication and understanding has influenced interpersonal relationships, promoting empathy, respect, and mutual growth. PDF The humanistic approach: the basics - Psychlotron In this way, person-centered psychology can be seen as a historical antecedent to positive psychology, but what I want to show is that it is not just a branch of research, scholarship, and practice from the past; it is one that has continued and developed over the past 70 years, that now sits comfortably under the wider umbrella of positive psychology. Critics of Carl Rogers humanistic approach to psychology argue that it lacks scientific rigor and empirical evidence compared to other established theories. To understand Carl Rogers's ideas and approach to therapy, it is important to understand what he valued and believed about human nature. The ideal self is the version of oneself that an individual aspires to become. Carl Rogers' Theory of Personality | Overview & Concept - Video Human beings are intentional, aim at goals, are aware that they cause future events, and seek meaning, value, and creativity. Humanistic psychology was known as the third force of psychology, because it recognized the limitations of its predecessors, behavioral psychology and psychoanalytical psychology. I believe that positive psychology was a welcome shift in the everyday business of mainstream psychology, but as Seligman (2004) made clear, it was not a paradigm shift. It would be useful for positive psychologists to be open regarding their image of humanity, thus offering positive psychology as an umbrella for interventions from different theoretical foundations and making that explicit would seem a step forward for positive psychology and a door-opener to include the person-centered approach. High self-esteem indicates a positive self-view, while low self-esteem signifies self-doubt and criticism. There is nothing inherent in the research finding itself that presupposes the nature of the intervention, whether it be through changing the social environment or by altering the person's thoughts, feelings or behaviors. Click the card to flip 1 / 70 Flashcards Learn Test Match Q-Chat Created by reid_bervik In 1947 he served as the President of the American Psychological Association; the position later held by Seligman 50 years later when he founded the positive psychology movement. But it is an assumption that runs counter to the person-centered proposal that there is a unitary cause of distress and growth, and thus a single form of intervention. Most known for his development of client-centered therapy (Rogers, 1951), Rogers went on to apply his theory more broadly, offering a theoretical framework encompassing personality development, psychological functioning, and helping relationships across different contexts (Rogers, 1959). Freud's psychoanalytic approach to therapy had more of a negative view of human nature that Carl Rogers' view. I could see that person-centered psychology was not incompatible with being interested in positive psychology, so I began to think of myself as a person-centered positive psychologist. In making this argument I am reiterating and developing Linley and Joseph's (2004b) conclusion in their book Positive Psychology in Practice that there is a need to develop a theoretical foundation for positive psychology that offers a clear, coherent, and consistent vision of human nature, and how the agenda for the practice of positive psychology inevitably arises out of its vision. Rogers (1959) referred to this as the actualizing tendency, a universal human motivation resulting in growth, development, and autonomy of the individual. Thomas Hobbes referred to this time as the state of nature, where every man competes for resources, driven on by greed. you cannot live a healthy and fulfilling life in a sick world contaminated by crime, corruption, injustice, oppression, and poverty. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). For Rogers, fully functioning people are well-adjusted, well-balanced, and interesting to know. While that may be how many think of it, including perhaps how some of its pioneers originally thought of it, positive psychology has the potential to be so much more than that. As Wong (2011) wrote. The organism has one basic tendency and striving to actualize, maintain, and enhance the experiencing organism (Rogers, 1951, p. 487). The idea that the world around us influences how we think, and feel is of course not new, and many positive psychologists have already emphasized that attention cannot only be placed on the individual. As such, it might therefore surprise some readers to think of Rogers' conditions as describing a social environment as more often his theory is caricatured as something the therapist does to a patient. In describing the fully functioning person, Rogers provided an alternative to then dominant illness-related concepts. Carl Rogers is a theorist who held unique views on human nature. His humanistic principles have also been applied in leadership development, promoting empathetic and empowering leadership styles. This is the organized, consistent set of perceptions and beliefs about oneself.. Discrepancies between self-concept and reality can cause incongruence, leading to psychological tension and anxiety. As such, and as I've argued before, it was possibly a politically astute move by the positive psychologists to distance themselves from the perceived embarrassments of humanistic psychology if it was to succeed where humanistic psychology had failed in garnering mainstream attention, funding, and prestige (see Joseph and Murphy, 2013a). Notable among these are Carl Rogers' fully Functioning Person' (Shlien, 2003, p. 17). Wilkins, P. (1997). The first line of inquiry has the aims of 1) integrating parts of the subfields of positive and humanistic psychology (article I) and 2) suggesting a model of personal growth based on Carl Rogers . National Library of Medicine Almost two decades later, I think positive psychology has indeed provided an important vehicle for renewed interest in humanistic psychology. Carl Rogers: Carl Rogers was an American psychologist. Its their understanding of who I am.. This can only happen if they have unconditional positive regard from others if they feel that they are valued and respected without reservation by those around them (especially their parents when they were children). Unconditional positive regard is where parents, significant others (and the humanist therapist) accept and loves the person for what he or she is, and refrain from any judgment or criticism. To use psychological terms, it is not a state of drive-reduction, or tension-reduction, or homeostasis. The person-centered psychologist would see the challenges in such situations to be how to create more growth promoting climates in schools, and workplaces, and in everyday life, how to build more empathic, genuine, and unconditional relationships in which people can be autonomous and free from coercion and control, and thus able to express themselves in a more socially constructive way. One of the ways in which psychology has power over people is through its adoption of the medical model. Co-actualization: a new construct in understanding well-functioning relationships, Person-centered therapy: Past, present, and future orientations,, Humanistic Psychotherapies: Handbook of Research and Practice, Person-centered personality theory: support from self-determination theory and positive psychology. This might be seen as a strength for a discipline, but it is misleading to think that this means that each instance of research or practice is not based in a paradigm. Schunk (2016, p. 346) asserts that humanistic psychology is constructivist and based on two assumptions: Studying people must be done from a holistic perspective. Page 64 2. Rogers (1959) believed that for a person to grow, they need an environment that provides them with genuineness (openness and self-disclosure), acceptance (being seen with unconditional positive regard), and empathy (being listened to and understood). Positive psychology has become a richer and deeper form of scholarship as a result. Carl Rogers, the founder of the person-centered approach, was one of the pioneers of humanistic psychology. So it was that when positive psychology was introduced, it seemed that the ideas long championed by humanistic psychologists were now being put forward again, but it was done so in a way that was critical of humanistic psychology for what was perceived to be its anti-scientific stance, and paid scant acknowledgment to its achievements (Robbins, 2008, 2015). Seligman M. E. P., Steen T. A., Park N., Peterson C. (2005). Rarely, if ever, does a total state of congruence exist; all people experience a certain amount of incongruence. Rogers' View of Human Nature - State University of New York College at In other cultures, such as Eastern cultures, the achievement of the group is valued more highly than the achievement of any one person. Critics claim that the fully functioning person is a product of Western culture. In sum, most positive psychology interventions involve directive interventions targeted at changing the person in ways decided upon by the practitioner as best for the client, which presupposes an ideological position that runs counter to a growth model. Rogers recorded his therapeutic sessions, analyzed their transcripts, and examined factors related to the therapy outcome. Seligman M. E. P., Csikszentmihalyi M. (2000). Motschnig-Pitrik R., Barrett-Lennard G. (2010). It encompasses an individuals self-image (how they see themselves), self-esteem (how much value they place on themselves), and ideal self (the person they aspire to be). As the emphasis on pathology lessons, there have been a few recent efforts toward positive conceptualizations of mental health. Carl Rogers believed that for a person to achieve self-actualization, they must be in a state of congruence. However, and this now takes me to the main point of my article, positive psychology is not necessarily person-centered. Mearns, D. (1999). 3. of human behavior? In this way, person-centered therapy effectively posits a unitary cause of distress, but varied expressions of that distress will arise according to the uniqueness of each individual's incongruence (see Sanders and Joseph, 2016). FOIA It is not, in my estimation, a state of virtue, or contentment, or nirvana, or happiness. Conditional positive regard is where positive regard, praise, and approval, depend upon the child, for example, behaving in ways that the parents think correct. Positive psychologists might not always be the people behind such interventions, but it is the technology and tools of positive psychology which are used when stressed and overworked employees are forced by their managers to attend well-being sessions, or school children are given mindfulness classes to cope with the mental health concerns. And this is what makes it a radically different form of practice to most other psychological interventions, which focus on changing the person. He also believes that these archetypes must be expressed in every human, and if it is not expressed, the person will experience one side of personality. Unlike behaviorism, which focused on observable behaviors, and psychoanalysis, which emphasized the unconscious mind, Rogers believed in the innate potential for personal growth and self-actualization. He also emphasized self-concept and free will. Recognizing it as such places a much-needed new stake firmly in the ground to draw attention to, and create a tension with, whatever the other implicitly accepted ontological stances of mainstream positive psychology are, and which often imply that people's intrinsic motivation cannot be relied upon. In sum, if we reflect on the demise of humanistic psychology relative to the success of positive psychology, we might wonder if the latter's rise was at least in part because it fits well with the demands of conservative ideologies and the need for many organizations and institutions to control and coerce people to behave in particular ways, which presupposes an ideological position that runs counter to a growth model. Imagine if that was the attitudinal climate experienced by children in their homes and schools, and by adults in their workplaces and in all other areas of their life. Rogers believed that the tendency to actualize is: innate According to Rogers, which of the following is part of the actualization tendency of people? Shlien (1989) wrote: Client-centered therapy has only one treatment for all cases. Carl Rogers self-concept is a central theme in his humanistic theory of psychology. The self-concept includes three components: Self-worth (or self-esteem) is the value or worth an individual places on themselves. 1It is beyond the scope of this paper to go into the detail, but it is worth noting that this view of human nature was also taken up and developed subsequently by Ryan and Deci (2000) in their self-determination theory, which, by and large, offers theory and evidence consistent with and supportive of Rogers' theory (see Sheldon and Kasser, 2001; Patterson and Joseph, 2007; Joseph and Murphy, 2013b; Sheldon, 2013). No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. Human beings have their existence in a uniquely human context, as well as in a cosmic ecology. Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers are two of the most influential names in Humanistic Psychology, both contending that the optimal psychological state for all humankind is self-actualization, an individual's potential within a synergistic society (Pearson & Podeschi, 1997; Winston, Maher & Easvaradoss, 2017). Rogers' View of Human Nature A consistent theme underlies most of Rogers' writings - a deep faith in thetendency of humans to develop in a positive and constructive manner if aclimate of respect and trust is established (Corey, 1986). In 2001, in response, the Journal of Humanistic Psychology had a special issue containing several articles dedicated to what had become a fraught relationship between humanistic and positive psychology. It is a common assumption in clinical psychology that different interventions are needed for different clinical states, referred to as the specificity myth by person-centered psychologists (Bozarth and Motomasa, 2005). It isn't defined in terms of its approach. If the ideal self is unrealistic or theres a significant disparity between the real and ideal self, it can lead to incongruence, resulting in dissatisfaction, unhappiness, and even mental health issues. James Madison University - ('educ.jmu.edu') How Humanistic Is Positive Psychology? Lessons in Positive - PubMed In so doing, I hope to show how a consideration of the person-centered approach leads to questions about positionality, politics, and power in positive psychology. The person-centered conceptualization is that while there is a universal human tendency toward actualization, this tendency becomes thwarted in non-optimal social environments, which create an incongruence between the tendency toward actualization and self-actualization. It is not a condition in which the individual is adjusted or fulfilled or actualized. It is an assumption from clinical psychology that is applied to positive psychology that there are specific interventions for specific positive psychological states. The first way it does this is because the remit of positive psychology is often seen as a supplement to traditional psychology, which focuses on distress and dysfunction. It also helps us think about how our research is used by others and what other agendas our findings might be used to serve. This means that self-actualization occurs when a persons ideal self (i.e., who they would like to be) is congruent with their actual behavior (self-image). Client-centered psychology remains a distinctive and alternative approach because of its assertion that the organismic valuing process . Genlin. On Human Nature "When I look at the world I'm pessimistic, but when I look at people I am optimistic." Rogers believed people possess inherent goodness and that people are driven by the actualizing tendency.
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