REAL AND

IDEAL SELF
 Contents:
Real vs. Ideal Self
Congruence and Incongruence
The Importance Of Alignment
Personality Development and the
Self-Concept
Unconditional Positive Regard
Criticisms of Rogers’ Theories

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 Real vs. Ideal Self

✘Carl Rogers (1902-1987) was a humanistic psychologist who agreed

with the main assumptions of Abraham Maslow. However, Rogers
(1959) added 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).

✘Without these, relationships and healthy personalities will not

develop as they should, much like a tree will not grow without sunlight
and water.

CARL ROGER (1902-1987)

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 One of his main ideas about personality regards self-
concept, our thoughts and feelings about ourselves. How
would you respond to the question, “Who am I?” Your
answer can show how you see yourself. If your response is
primarily positive, then you tend to feel good about who you
are, and you see the world as a safe and positive place. If
your response is mainly negative, then you may feel
unhappy with who you are. Rogers further divided the self
into two categories: the ideal self and the real self.
 In psychology, the real self
and the ideal self are terms
used to describe personality
domains. The real self is who
we actually are. It is how we
think, how we feel, look, and
act. The real self can be seen
by others, but because we
have no way of truly knowing
how others view us, the real
self is our self-image.

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 The ideal self, on the other
hand, is how we want to be. It
is an idealized image that we
have developed over time,
based on what we have
learned and experienced.
The ideal self could include
components of what our
parents have taught us, what
we admire in others, what our
society promotes, and what
we think is in our best
interest.

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 We experience congruence when our thoughts about
our real self and ideal self are very similar—in other
words, when our self-concept is accurate. High
congruence leads to a greater sense of self-worth and
a healthy, productive life. Parents can help their
children achieve this by giving them unconditional
positive regard, or unconditional love. According to
Rogers (1980), “As persons are accepted and prized,
they tend to develop a more caring attitude towards
themselves” (p. 116). Conversely, when there is a great
discrepancy between our ideal and actual selves, we
experience a state Rogers called incongruence, which
can lead to maladjustment. Both Rogers’ and Maslow’s
theories focus on individual choices and do not believe
that biology is deterministic.

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 Congruence and
✘
Incongruence
A person’s ideal self may not be consistent with what actually happens in life and
experiences of the person. Hence, a difference may exist between a person’s ideal self
and actual experience. This is called incongruence.

✘ Where a person’s ideal self and actual experience are consistent or very similar, a
state of congruence exists. Rarely, if ever, does a total state of congruence exist; all
people experience a certain amount of incongruence.

✘ The development of congruence is dependent on unconditional positive regard. Carl

Rogers believed that for a person to achieve self-actualization they must be in a state of
congruence.

✘ According to Rogers, we want to feel, experience and behave in ways which are
consistent with our self image and which reflect what we would like to be like, our
ideal-self

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 The Importance Of Alignment
If the way that I am (the real self) is aligned with the way that I want to be (the
ideal self), then I will feel a sense of mental well-being or peace of mind. If the
way that I am is not aligned with how I want to be, the incongruence, or lack of
alignment, will result in mental distress or anxiety. The greater the level of
incongruence between the ideal self and real self, the greater the level of
resulting distress.

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 Personality Development and
the Self-Concept
Rogers based his theories of personality development on humanistic psychology and
theories of subjective experience. He believed that everyone exists in a constantly
changing world of experiences that they are at the center of. A person reacts to changes in
their phenomenal field, which includes external objects and people as well as internal
thoughts and emotions.

Rogers believed that all behavior is motivated by self-actualizing tendencies, which

drive a person to achieve at their highest level. As a result of their interactions with the
environment and others, an individual forms a structure of the self or self-concept—an
organized, fluid, conceptual pattern of concepts and values related to the self. If a person
has a positive self-concept, they tend to feel good about who they are and often see the
world as a safe and positive place. If they have a negative self concept, they may feel
unhappy with who they are.

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 Unconditional Positive Regard

In the development of the self-concept, Rogers elevated the importance of

unconditional positive regard, or unconditional love. People raised in an
environment of unconditional positive regard, in which no preconceived
conditions of worth are present, have the opportunity to fully actualize. When
people are raised in an environment of conditional positive regard, in which
worth and love are only given under certain conditions, they must match or
achieve those conditions in order to receive the love or positive regard they
yearn for. Their ideal self is thereby determined by others based on these
conditions, and they are forced to develop outside of their own true actualizing
tendency; this contributes to incongruence and a greater gap between the real self
and the ideal self.

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 “The Good Life”

Rogers described life in terms of principles rather than stages of development. These
principles exist in fluid processes rather than static states. He claimed that a fully
functioning person would continually aim to fulfill his or her potential in each of these
processes, achieving what he called “the good life.” These people would allow
personality and self-concept to emanate from experience. He found that fully
functioning individuals had several traits or tendencies in common:
 A growing openness to experience
 An increasingly existential lifestyle
 Increasing organismic trust
 Freedom of choice
 Higher levels of creativity
 Reliability and constructiveness
 A rich full life

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 Criticisms of Rogers’ Theories

Like Maslow’s theories, Rogers’ were criticized for their lack

of empirical evidence used in research. The holistic approach of
humanism allows for a great deal of variation but does not
identify enough constant variables to be researched with true
accuracy. Psychologists also worry that such an extreme focus
on the subjective experience of the individual does little to
explain or appreciate the impact of society on personality
development.

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THANK YOU!
REPORTERS:

JEAN DIEGO FABROS

ANGEL MAE ESCARIO

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 MULTIPLE
VS.
UNIFIED SELF
REPORTERS:
M A R I Q U I T, A N G E L I K A R .
MAIGUE, MERBELLE GRACE O.
WHO IS RITA CARTER? R I TA C A R T E R
• Born in Essex, England
• Trained as journalist in London
• An anchor for the London nightly news
program, “Thames News”
• An award-winning medical and science writer,
lecturer, broadcaster, and is an English medical
journalist
• Author of the book called “Mapping the Mind”
which was published in1998
• Contributed to The Independent, New Scientist,
Daily Mail, and Telegraph
The Multiple Self Theory by Rita Carter
R I TA C A R T E R

o She is a science writer who has written a

general introduction to the idea of multiple
selves and, in addition, has developed some
interesting hypotheses and a set of exercises
in order to explore our multiple selves.

o Carter accepts the existence of multiple

selves, defined as others have defined them,
but she introduced the division of multiple
selves into major and minor selves and a
number of fragmentary micros.
What is Multiplicity?

Rita Carter’s “Multiplicity: The New Science of

Personality”

• Producing a Joyful household of personalities,

• Demonstrating how to distinguish various
versions of oneself
• Enabling our personalities to participate in
functioning to be successful in life
Click icon to add picture What are
Multiple
Selves?
According to
Carter, the
occurrence of
multiple selves are
described as
others have
defined them.
THE DIVISION OF MULTIPLE SELVES
MAJOR SELVES
A personality with thoughts,
desires, intentions, emotions,
ambitions, and beliefs.
 Single Major
 Double Major
MINOR SELVES
Minors are less complex than
majors and come out in particular
situations. A minor may be no
more than a small collection of
responses, just enough to deal
with a particular situation, such as
a compulsion to argue with
certain people or smoking in
certain situations.
 Multiple Minors
MICRO
It is the “building blocks of
personality, individual
responses, thoughts, ideas,
habit,” as small as a physical
or vocal contraction or a
renewed interfering thought or
emotion. Micros combine to
form minors which in turn can
coalesce into majors.
 A major plus Minor
 Several Majors and Minors
 ASSESSMENT OF OUR MULTIPLE
SELVES
Part I: The Big 5 OCEAN Personality Dimensions

 Openness
 Conscientiousness
 Extroversion
 Agreeableness
 Neuroticism

Framework based on Rita Carter’s Book

Part II: The Typology of Selves (Types of Selves)

 Defenders – protects and guards against threats

 Controllers – drives and steers one’s behavior
 Punishers – defenders or controllers whose energy
has become misdirected
 Role Players – the personalities created for a
particular situations or purpose
 Relics – the old minors that no longer have a useful
function
 Creatives – originates new ideas, it aims, and visions
The Unified Self
For the impression of the unified self,
Carter discusses that every individual
has a group of personalities who are all
working together.
The unified self is the integration of the
sub-selves into one, however, integration
is a task for the later part of life.
Summary
- Rita Carter accepts the existence of multiple selves.
- She published the book entitled, “Multiplicity: The New Science of
Personality.” This book guides us on how to know ourselves better.
- There are two types of selves: Multiple Selves and Unified Self
Multiple Selves: Is describes as others defined them
Unified Self: the integration of the sub-selves into one
- Multiple selves has three divisions: Major, Minor, and Micros
Major: personality with thoughts, desires, intentions, emotions, ambitions,
and beliefs
Minor: enough to deal with a particular condition
Micros: the “building blocks of personality
- Two types of assessing ourselves: The Big 5 OCEAN Personality
Dimension and the Typology of Selves
Thank you for
listening!
 References:

https://www.scribd.com/document/483241277/Multiple-vs-Unified-Self-by-Rita-Carter

https://l.messenger.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ritacarter.co.uk%2F&h=AT1aJLo3V8EB1oZM_
Nd1PV51FIjck19K9Sfon0dm1Zgxv4IMkTrQ2va2bR8t3GtZmyBU0Fd8dBLaCj8b4S1xOQMHNaZk3C
OfDkucPViXK5wXCWoLj4YU71ZhSmJAJNrr581wyg

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.2466/02.09.28.CP.1.5