Carl Rogers Psychologist Biography

Carl Rogers was an American psychologist known for his

influential psychotherapy method known as client-centered
therapy. Rogers was one of the founding figures of humanistic
psychology and widely regarded as one of the most eminent
thinkers in psychology. In one survey of professional
psychologists, Rogers was ranked as the sixth most eminent
psychologist of the 20th-century. Rogers is widely considered
to be one o the founding fathers of psychotherapy research and was honoured for his
pioneering research with the Award for Distinguished scientific contributions by the
American Psychological Association in 1956

Birth and Death

 Born January 8, 1902 in Oak park, Illinois a suburb of Chicago
 Died February 4, 1987(aged 85) San Diego, California U.S.

Accomplishments
 Carl Rogers is best-known for his nondirective approach to treatment called person-
centered approach (e.g. client-centered therapy, student centered learning, Rogerian
argument)
 His concept of the actualizing tendency
 Developing the notion of the fully-functioning person
 His concept of unconditional positive regard and its importance in the therapeutic
relationship

Early Life
Carl Ransom Rogers was born in 1902 in Oak Park, Illinois. Rogers was the fourth of six
children born to his parents, a civil engineer, and housewife. Rogers was a high achiever in
school from an early age. He could already read before age 5, so he was able to skip
kindergarten and first grade entirely to enter school in the second grade.

When he was 12, the family moved from the suburbs to a rural farm area. He enrolled at the
University of Wisconsin in 1919 as an agriculture major but later changed to religion with
plans to become a minister.

 It was a visit with a school group to Beijing and a bout of illness that caused him to
start reconsidering these plans. After attending a 1922 Christian conference in China,
Rogers began to question his career choice. He graduated from the University of
Wisconsin in 1924 with a bachelor's degree in History and enrolled at the Union
Theological Seminary before transferring to Teachers College of Columbia University
in 1926 to complete his master's degree.
Part of the reason he chose to abandon his pursuit of theology and switch to the study of
psychology was a course he took at Columbia University taught by the psychologist Leta
Stetter Hollingworth. Rogers decided to enroll in the clinical psychology program at
Columbia. He completed his doctorate at Columbia in 1931.

Career
After receiving his Ph.D., Rogers spent a number of years working in academia, holding
positions at Ohio State University, the University of Chicago, and the University of
Wisconsin. It was during this time that Rogers developed his approach to therapy, which he
initially termed "nondirective therapy." This approach, which involves the therapist acting as
a facilitator rather than a director of the therapy session, eventually came to be known as
client-centered therapy.

In 1946, Rogers was elected President of the American Psychological Association. Rogers
wrote 19 books and numerous articles outlining his humanistic theory. Among his best-
known works are Client-Centered Therapy (1951), On Becoming a Person (1961), and A
Way of Being (1980).

After some conflicts within the psychology department at the University of Wisconsin,
Rogers accepted a position at the Western Behavioural Studies Institute (WBSI) in La Jolla,
California. Eventually, he and several colleagues left WBSI to form Center for Studies of the
Person (CSP).

In 1987, Rogers was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. He continued his work with
client-centered therapy until his death in 1987.

Theory
Self-Actualization

Rogers believed that all people possess an inherent need to grow and achieve their potential.
This need to achieve self-actualization, he believed, was one of the primary motives driving
behaviour. Rogers believed that every person could achieve their goals, wishes, and desires in
life. When, or rather if they did so, self-actualization took place.

This was one of Carl Rogers most important contributions to psychology, and for a person to
reach their potential a number of factors must be satisfied.

Unconditional Positive Regard

For psychotherapy to be successful, Rogers suggested, it was imperative for the therapist to
provide unconditional positive regard to the client. This means offering support and a lack of
judgment, no matter what the client feels, does, or experiences. The therapist accepts the
client as they are and allows them to express both positive and negative feelings without
judgment or reproach.
Development of the Self

Rogers believed that the formation of a healthy self-concept was an ongoing process shaped
by a person's life experiences. People with a stable sense of self tend to have greater
confidence and cope more effectively with life's challenges.

Rogers suggested that self-concept begins to develop during childhood and is heavily
influenced by parenting. Parents who offer their children unconditional love and regard are
more likely to foster a healthy self-concept. Children who feel that they have to “earn” their
parents love may end of with low self-esteem and feelings of unworthiness.

Congruence

Rogers also suggests that people tend to have a concept of their “ideal self.” The problem is
that our image of who we think we should be does not always match up with our perceptions
of who we are today. When our self-image does not line up with our ideal self, we are in a
state of incongruence. By receiving unconditional positive regard and by pursuing the
actualizing tendency, however, people can come close to reaching a state of congruence.

The Fully-Functioning Person

Rogers suggested that people who continually strive to fulfill their actualizing tendency could
become what he referred to as fully-functioning. A fully-functioning person is one who is
completely congruent and living in the moment. Like many other aspects of his theory,
unconditional positive regard plays a critical role in the development of full functioning.
Those who receive non-judgmental support and love can develop the self-esteem and
confidence to be the best person they can be and live up to their full potential.

Some of the key characteristics of a fully-functioning person include:

 Openness to experience
 A flexible self-concept
 Unconditional regard for the self
 The ability to live in harmony with others.

Contributions to Psychology using creative techniques

With his emphasis on human potential, Carl Rogers had an enormous influence on both
psychology and education. Beyond that, he is considered by many to be one of the most
influential psychologists of the 20th century. More therapists cite Rogers as their primary
influence than any other psychologist.

As described by his daughter Natalie Rogers, he was "a model for compassion and
democratic ideals in his own life, and in his work as an educator, writer, and therapist."

His psychological approaches are known to be essential that introduces several concepts and
theories regarding the development of humans. His approaches are more of the understanding
relationships of the people that correspond to a wide domain of ideas and approaches in
psychology. Carl Rogers contribution to psychology focuses primarily on approaches that
would develop the relationship of the people with each other at the same time developing
their own personality.

 Top Contributions to the Industry

Here are some of the greatest contributions of Carl Rogers that really serve as an essential
part of people’s life in developing their personalities:

Person-Centered Therapy
It is a psychological approach which is also known as client centered. This includes different
humanistic concepts that develop the personality of the people. This may include relationship
not only with you but also with other people, cultural relationships, and all other concepts
which talks about the personality of the people.

The main goal of this approach is to provide the people a great opportunity to develop their
self through positive perspectives. Applying this approach in their life, people can be able to
realize that negative attitudes and behaviours would affect their life.

It is also an effective approach that is known to be the starting point in which relationships
from other people are formed.

The key principles of person-centred care are:

 Valuing people. Treating people with dignity and respect by being aware of and
supporting personal perspectives, values, beliefs and preferences. ...

 Autonomy. The provision of choice and subsequent respect for choices made. ...
 Life experience. ...
 Understanding relationships. ...
 Environment.
 ideas and approaches in psychology. Carl Rogers contribution to psychology focuses
primarily on approaches that would develop the relationship of the people with each
other at the same time developing their own personality.
 Learner-Centered Teaching
Apart from the relationship approaches that Carl Rogers had introduces, he also
formulated learner centered approaches that could de evidently see in teaching. In this
approach, teachers are providing the lessons and their main goal is to inculcate lessons
and psychological concepts to the pupils. Apart from the lessons that learners can be
able to learn, they are also forming relationships with each other that is very important
to acquire good learning environment.
  Relationship Approaches from Cross Cultural Countries
Aside from the approaches in psychology that Carl Rogers emphasizes regarding
learner and people, he also founded a way on how to make deal and form
relationships with cross cultural countries. It is a way wherein people who are living
from different places can have the ability to form good relationships with each other
even from faraway places.
With the contributions and humanistic approaches Carl Rogers have brought to the
people, it can be generalized that his main goal is to help the people develop their
personality that would allow them to form good relationship with other people. It is
also evident that some people who have undergone and tried some of this approach
really acquires a personality trait that is good for them. Instead of developing negative
personality behaviour, they have completely acquired positive ones that enable them
to provide more chances of forming good relationships.
So, if you are going to try these approaches, you will be guaranteed that it is an
effective psychological approach that would provide you a good environment
surrounded by people who possesses good personality and humanistic behaviours.

Carl Rogers Quotes

"The very essence of the creative is its novelty, and hence we have no standard by which to
judge it". (Rogers, 1961, p. 351)

"I have gradually come to one negative conclusion about the good life. It seems to me that the
good life is not any fixed state. It is not, in my estimation, a state of virtue, or contentment, or
nirvana, or happiness. It is not a condition in which the individual is adjusted or fulfilled or
actualized. To use psychological terms, it is not a state of drive-reduction, or tension-
reduction, or homeostasis". (Rogers, 1967, p. 185-186)

Selected Works By Carl Rogers

 Rogers, Carl, and Carmichael, Leonard (1939). The Clinical Treatment of the
Problem Child. Boston; New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
 Rogers, Carl. (1942). Counselling and Psychotherapy: Newer Concepts in Practice.
Boston; New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
 Rogers, Carl. (1951). Client-Centered Therapy: Its Current Practice, Implications
and Theory. London: Constable. ISBN 1-84119-840-4.
 Rogers, C.R. (1957). The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic
personality change. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 21: 95-103.
 Rogers, Carl. (1959). A Theory of Therapy, Personality and Interpersonal
Relationships as Developed in the Client-centered Framework. In (ed.) S. Koch,
Psychology: A Study of a Science. Vol. 3: Formulations of the Person and the Social
Context. New York: McGraw Hill.
 Rogers, Carl. (1961). On Becoming a Person: A Therapist's View of Psychotherapy.
London: Constable. ISBN 1-84529-057-7.Excerpts
 Rogers, Carl. (1969). Freedom to Learn: A View of What Education Might Become.
(1st ed.) Columbus, Ohio: Charles Merill. Excerpts
 Rogers, Carl. (1970). On Encounter Groups. New York: Harrow Books, Harper and
Row, ISBN 0-06-087045-1
  Rogers, Carl. (1977). On Personal Power: Inner Strength and Its Revolutionary
Impact.
 Rogers, Carl. (nd, @1978). A personal message from Carl Rogers. In: N. J. Raskin.
(2004). Contributions to Client-Centered Therapy and the Person-Centered
Approach. (pp. v-vi). Herefordshire, United Kingdom: PCCS Books, Ross-on-the-
Wye. ISBN 1-898059-57-8
 Rogers, Carl. (1980). A Way of Being. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
 Rogers, Carl. and Stevens, B. (1967). Person to Person: The Problem of Being
Human. Lafayette, CA: Real People Press.
 Rogers, Carl, Lyon, Harold C., & Tausch, Reinhard (2013) On Becoming an Effective
Teacher—Person-centered Teaching, Psychology, Philosophy, and Dialogues with
Carl R. Rogers and Harold Lyon. London: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-81698-4
 Rogers, C.R., Raskin, N.J., et al. (1949). A coordinated research in psychotherapy.
Journal of Consulting Psychology, 13, 149-200. Cited in: N.J. Raskin, The first 50
years and the next 10. Person-Centered Review, 5(4), November 1990, 364-372.

 In His Words
"Experience is, for me, the highest authority. The touchstone of validity is my
own experience. No other person's ideas and none of my own ideas are as
authoritative as my experience. It is to experience that I must return again
and again, to discover a closer approximation to truth as it is in the process of
becoming in me." -Carl Rogers, On Becoming a Person