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HUMANISTIC : (Lecture Series-3)

B.A. IInd (Honors)

(Paper-IVth : Systems in Psychology)

By Dr. Masaud Ansari Department of Psychology, A.P.S.M. College, Barauni L. N. M. University, Darbhanga 28th AUGUST 2020 2

Carl Rogers (1902–1987)

Carl Rogers is best known for a popular approach to called person- centered . Rogers also advanced a theory based on a single motivational factor similar to Maslow’s concept of -actualization. Unlike Maslow, however, Rogers’s ideas did not derive from the study of emotionally healthy people but from applying his person- centered therapy to those treated at his university counseling centers. The name of Rogers’s therapy indicates his v iew of the personality. By placing the responsibility for improvement on the person or client rather than on the therapist (as in orthodox ), Rogers assumed that people can consciously and rationally change their thoughts and behaviors from undesirable to desirable. He did not believe that we are permanently restrained by unconscious forces or childhood experiences. Personality is shaped by the present and how we consciously perceive it. 3

Conti…

Carl Rogers was born in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. His parents espoused strict fundamentalist v iews that, as Rogers put it, held him like a v ise throughout childhood and adolescence. Their religious beliefs, and the suppression of any display of , forced him to live by a code that was not his own. He was a solitary child who read incessantly. He believ ed that his older brother was his parents’ favorite; as a result, Rogers felt he was always in competition with his brother. He grew up with “bitter memories of the inevitable butt of his brother’s jokes, even as he was starv ed of joy by his mother” (Milton, 2002, p. 128). Loneliness led Rogers to rely on his own experiences, and he turned to books as an escape. He read everything he could find, even a dictionary and an encyclopedia. His solitude forced him to depend on his own resources and his own personal view of the world, a characteristic that was to become the foundation of his approach to the understanding of the human personality: 4

Conti… As I look back, I realize that my interest in interviewing and in therapy certainly grew out of my early loneliness. Here was a socially approved way of getting really close to individuals and thus filling some of the hunger I undoubtedly felt. (Rogers, 1980, p. 34)

When Rogers was 12, the family moved to a farm where he developed a strong interest in nature. He read about agricultural experiments and the scientific approach to solving problems. At age 22, while attending a Christian student conference in China, he finally freed himself from his parents’ fundamentalist code and adopted a more liberal philosophy of life. He became convinced that people must choose to guide their lives by their own interpretation of ev ents rather than relying on the views of others. 5

Self-Actualization

The greatest motivating force in personality is the drive to actualize the self (Rogers, 1961). Although this urge toward self-actualization is innate, it can be helped or hindered by childhood experiences and by learning. Rogers emphasized the importance of the mother- child relationship as it affects the child’s growing sense of self. If the mother satisfies the infant’s need for , which Rogers called positive regard, then the infant will tend to become a healthy personality. If the mother’s love for her child is conditional on proper behavior (conditional positive regard), then the child will internalize the mother’s attitude and develop conditions of worth. In that event, the child feels worthy only under certain conditions and will try to avoid behaviors that bring disapproval. As a result, the child’s self is not allowed to develop fully. The child cannot express all aspects of the self because he or she has learned that some of those behaviors bring rejection. 6

Conti…

Thus, the primary requisite for the development of psychological is unconditional positive regard in childhood. Ideally, the mother will demonstrate love and acceptance of the child regardless of the child’s behavior. The child who receives unconditional positive regard will not develop conditions of worth and therefore will not have to repress any part of the emerging self. Only in this way can a person eventually achieve self-actualization. 7

Characteristics of psychologically healthy or fully functioning persons

▪ An openness to, and a freshness of appreciation of, all experience ▪ A tendency to live fully in every moment ▪ The ability to be guided by their instincts rather than by reason or the opinions of others ▪ A sense of freedom in thought and action ▪ A high degree of ▪ The continualneed to maximize their potential

Rogers described fully functioning persons as actualizing rather than actualized, to indicate that the development of the self is always a work in progress. This emphasis on spontaneity, flexibility, and our continued ability to grow is neatly captured in the title of Rogers’s most popular book: On a Person (1961). 8

Conti…

Rogers’s unique person-centered psychotherapy has had a major impact on psychology. Its rapid acceptance was fostered in part by the social circumstances in the United States in 1945 at the end of World War II. A huge number of veterans returning from active duty overseas needed help adjusting to civilian life. The result was a demand for and for an effective counseling technique that could be learned quickly. Training in traditional psychoanalysis required a medical degree and several years of specialization. In contrast, Rogers’s person-centered therapy was far simpler and required much less preparation for the therapist. It perfectly suited the needs of the time. Rogers’s approach remains influential in counseling and psychotherapy (Kirschenbaum & Jourdan, 2005; Patterson & Joseph, 2007). Rogers was influential in the movement of the 1960s and part of the ov eralltrend toward humanizing psychology. 9

The Fate of Humanistic Psychology

The humanistic psychology movement became formalized with its own journal, association, and division of the APA: i. The Journal of Humanistic Psychology began in 1961, ii. The American Association for Humanistic Psychology in 1962, and iii. The Div ision of Humanistic Psychology of the APA in 1971. iv. The Humanistic became the division’s official journal in 1989, and v. In 1986 the humanistic psychology archive was established at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Thus the distinguishing traits of a cohesive school of thought were evident. 10

Conti…

In the twenty-first century, humanistic psychology remains isolated outside the mainstream of psychology (Giorgi, 2005). Why did humanistic psychology remain separate from the accepted body of psychological thought? There were two reasons: i. One reason is that most humanistic psychologists were in clinical practice and not at universities. Unlike academic psychologists, humanistic psychologists in private practice could not to the same extent conduct research, publish papers, or train new generations of graduate students to carry on their tradition. ii. Another reason for its lack of impact relates to the timing of the humanistic psychology protest. At its peak—the 1960s and early 1970s—humanistic psychologists were attacking positions no longer influential in psychology. Freud’s psychoanalysis and Skinner’s had already been weakened by internal divisiveness, and both were already beginning to change in the way urged by the humanistic psychologists. As a result, the humanistic protest was fighting movements that were no longer dominant in their original form. 11