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Biography
Carl Ransom Rogers (January 8, 1902 – February 4, 1987), a 20th century influential humanistic psychologist, was born and raised in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Son of Walter Rogers and Julia Cushing, he was the fourth of six children. Rogers was schooled in a strict, religious environment. While he was first interested in studying agriculture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a focus on history and religion as an undergraduate, his interests shifted from agriculture to religion. After receiving his bachelors degree in 1924, he entered a liberal Protestant seminary in New York City, going against the views of his conservative father. While Rogers eventually transferred to Columbia University Teachers College, where he would with work John Dewey, he first spent two years in seminary. Continuing on, Rogers obtained his masters in 1928 and his PhD in clinical psychology in 1931 at Columbia University.

Rogers spent a number of years working in academia after receiving his PhD in 1931 from Columbia. He held positions at Ohio State University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Wisconsin. These years he spent working in academia are seen as a key time in which he developed what would eventually become know as client-centered therapy. Following his work at the University of Wisconsin, Rogers became working in a position in Lajolla California at the Western Behavioral Studies Institute. From here himself and several other colleagues formed the Center for Studies of the Person (CSP). He remained here until his death in 1987.

The last ten years of Rogers life proved to be the most important period in his career. During this time, he utilized his person-centered approach in helping relationships into the resolution of inter-group and international conflict. . Himself and his colleagues conducted many experiments in cross cultural communication and peacemaking through many venues, such as the Carl Rogers Peace Project. It was this work that led Rogers to being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. While this work is not widely known, it is significant because it puts Rogers' contributions into a wider social and political context. Rogers work contributed to psychology, psychotherapy and group work. .

Theory
Roger's humanistic theory of self is based on nineteen propositions.
 * 1) All individuals (organisms) exist in a continually changing world of experience (phenomenal field) of which they are the center.
 * 2) The organism reacts to the field as it is experienced and perceived. This perceptual field is "reality" for the individual.
 * 3) The organism reacts as an organized whole to this phenomenal field.
 * 4) A portion of the total perceptual field gradually becomes differentiated as the self.
 * 5) As a result of interaction with the environment, and particularly as a result of evaluational interaction with others, the structure of the self is formed - an organized, fluid but consistent conceptual pattern of perceptions of characteristics and relationships of the "I" or the "me", together with values attached to these concepts.# Numbered list item
 * 6) The organism has one basic tendency and striving - to actualize, maintain and enhance the experiencing organism.
 * 7) The best vantage point for understanding behavior is from the internal frame of reference of the individual.
 * 8) Behavior is basically the goal-directed attempt of the organism to satisfy its needs as experienced, in the field as perceived.
 * 9) Emotion accompanies, and in general facilitates, such goal directed behavior, the kind of emotion being related to the perceived significance of the behavior for the maintenance and enhancement of the organism.
 * 10) The values attached to experiences, and the values that are a part of the self-structure, in some instances, are values experienced directly by the organism, and in some instances are values introjected or taken over from others, but perceived in distorted fashion, as if they had been experienced directly.
 * 11) As experiences occur in the life of the individual, they are either, a) symbolized, perceived and organized into some relation to the self, b) ignored because there is no perceived relationship to the self structure, c) denied symbolization or given distorted symbolization because the experience is inconsistent with the structure of the self.
 * 12) Most of the ways of behaving that are adopted by the organism are those that are consistent with the concept of self.
 * 13) In some instances, behavior may be brought about by organic experiences and needs which have not been symbolized. Such behavior may be inconsistent with the structure of the self but in such instances the behavior is not "owned" by the individual.
 * 14) Psychological adjustment exists when the concept of the self is such that all the sensory and visceral experiences of the organism are, or may be, assimilated on a symbolic level into a consistent relationship with the concept of self.
 * 15) Psychological maladjustment exists when the organism denies awareness of significant sensory and visceral experiences, which consequently are not symbolized and organized into the gestalt of the self structure. When this situation exists, there is a basic or potential psychological tension.
 * 16) Any experience which is inconsistent with the organization of the structure of the self may be perceived as a threat, and the more of these perceptions there are, the more rigidly the self structure is organized to maintain itself.
 * 17) Under certain conditions, involving primarily complete absence of threat to the self structure, experiences which are inconsistent with it may be perceived and examined, and the structure of self revised to assimilate and include such experiences.
 * 18) When the individual perceives and accepts into one consistent and integrated system all his sensory and visceral experiences, then he is necessarily more understanding of others and is more accepting of others as separate individuals.
 * 19) As the individual perceives and accepts into his self structure more of his organic experiences, he finds that he is replacing his present value system - based extensively on introjections which have been distortedly symbolized - with a continuing organismic valuing process.

Self-Actualization
In the eyes of Rogers, we behave the way we do because of the way we perceive situations. Rogers stated, ""The organism has one basic tendency and striving - to actualize, maintain, and enhance the experiencing organism." . Rogers believed that humans have one basic motive,to self-actualize, or to fulfill one's potential and achieve the highest level of 'human-beingness' we can . Under this notion of Rogers', people will grow to their full potential only if their environment is well equipped. These full potentials, however, are unique to each individual, differing in growth from person to person.

According to Rogers, all humans are instinctively good and creative. It is when external constraints dominate over the value process that destruction occurs. In addition, Roger's claimed that for individuals to achieve this self-actualization, they must be in a state of congruence. Congruence is a state in which one's ideal self, the person they would like to be, actually matches up with the person they are, or their actual behavior. Those who are in congruence would be named a fully functioning person under the theory of Rogers.

The Fully Functioning Person
Those who take place in self-actualization, according to Rogers, would be considered fully functioning persons. These people are fully aware of their subjective feelings and the idea that they are constantly changing. This is a process of continuous growth and change, rather than of completion. Rogers identified five characteristics of a fully functioning person.
 * 1) Openness to Experience: both positive and negative emotions accepted. Negative feelings are not denied, but worked through.
 * 2) Existential Living: in touch with different experiences as they occur in life, avoiding prejudging and preconceptions. Being able to live and fully appreciate the present, not always looking back to the past or forward to the future.
 * 3) Trust feelings: feeling, instincts and gut-reactions are paid attention to and trusted. People’s own decisions are the right ones and we should trust ourselves to make the right choices.
 * 4) Creativity: creative thinking and risk taking are features of a person’s life. Person does not play safe all the time. This involves the ability to adjust and change and seek new experiences.
 * 5) Fulfilled life: person is happy and satisfied with life, and always looking for new challenges and experiences.

Personality Development
The main component in Rogers personality theory is notion of self-concept. Self-concept is defined as "the organized, consistent set of perceptions and beliefs about oneself". According to Rogers, individuals want to reach congruence, that is, they want to behave and feel in ways that match up with our self-image. When one finds some or all of their experience undesirable and their self-image does not match up with their "ideal self", Rogers thought of them to be in incongruence. Self worth, self-image and ideal self all make up self-concept. In addition, self worth can be occur in individuals on a scale from high to low. Those who experience high self-worth will be confident and have positive feeling about themselves. Those with low self-worth will often avoid challenges and feel negatively about themselves.

In the development of self-worth, Rogers claimed that unconditional positive regard was very important. Unconditional positive regard occurs when parents and other individuals involved in a child's life completely accepts this child for who they are. Positive regard is present despite the circumstance and, as a result of this, the child recognizes that is is okay to make mistakes. Rogers saw this as key in a child's ability to self-actualize later in life.

Person-Centered Therapy
Now referred to as person-centered therapy, this type of therapy established by Rogers has been referred with a variety of names, first non-directive therapy, then client-centered therapy and finally person-centered therapy. While it was first termed non-directive, Rogers feeling that the therapist should not lead the client, he later realized that the client will still be influenced by the therapist, looking to the therapist for guidance. This type of therapy uses an approach to counseling in which the focal interest is the feelings of the client, rather than the symptoms he relates. One noteworthy characteristic portrayed by the counselor in this type of counseling is their attitude of complete tolerance.

One technique known to be used under this type of therapy is known as reflection, or the mirroring of emotional communication. In doing this, the therapist is not only letting the client know that he/she is listening and cares enough to understand, but also letting the client know what the client is communicating. This technique must be used carefully, however, the therapist being careful that they are not just simply repeating everything the client says, sounding much like a parrot. .

Person-centered therapy operates according to three basic principles. . These three qualities, according to Rogers are necessary and efficient. If the therapist shows these three qualities, the client will improve, even if no other techniques are used.


 * The therapist is congruent with the client.
 * The therapist provides the client with unconditional positive regard.
 * The therapist shows empathetic understanding to the client.

Under this type of therapy, the client decides for themselves what is wrong and what should be done about it while the therapist acts more as a friend, encouraging the client throughout the process.

Selected Works by Carl Rogers

 * Clinical Treatment of the Problem Child (1939)
 * Counseling and Psychotherapy: Newer Concepts in Practice (1942)
 * Client-Centered Therapy: Its Current Practice, Implications, and Theory (1951)
 * On Becoming a Person: A Therapist's View of Psychotherapy (1961)
 * Person to Person: The Problem of Being Human (1967)
 * Freedom to Learn: A View of What Education Might Become (1969)
 * On Encounter Groups (1970)
 * Becoming Partners: Marriage and Its Alternatives (1972)
 * On Personal Power: Inner Strength and Its Revolutionary Impact (1977)
 * A Way of Being (1980)