CARL ROGERS

FORMATIVE TENDENCY

• Tendency for all matter, both organic and inorganic, to evolve from simpler to more complex forms
•Example: human consciousness evolves from a primitive unconsciousness to a highly organized awareness

ACTUALIZING TENDENCY

• Tendency within humans (and other animals and plants) to move toward completion or fulfillment of potentials
• Because each person operates as one complete organism, actualization involves the whole person.

• Tendencies to MAINTAIN and to ENHANCE the organism are subsumed within the actualizing tendency. (Maintenance and Enhancement)

• The actualization tendency is not limited to humans. Just as plants need conditions to grow, a human's actualization tendency is realized only under certain conditions as well. Specifically, people must be involved in a relationship with a partner who is CONGRUENT, or AUTHENTIC, and who demonstrates EMPATHY and UNCONDITIONAL POSITIVE REGARD.

• Thus, these 3 conditions are both NECESSARY and SUFFICIENT conditions for becoming a fully funtioning or self-actualizing person.

SELF-CONCEPT

all those aspects of one’s being and one’s experience that are perceived in awareness by the individual

–NOT identical with organismic self

IDEAL SELF

– one’s view of self as one wishes to be.

– contains all those attributes, usually positive, that people aspire to possess

INCONGRUENCE

• an unhealthy personality marked by a wide gap between the ideal self and the self-concept.

• • Failure to recognize our organismic experiences as self-experiences
  •Happens when people do not accurately symbolize organismic experiences into awareness because they appear INCONSISTENT with the emerging self- concept

  -Vulnerability, Anxiety and Threat

IGNORED or DENIED

some events that are experienced below the threshold of awareness

ACCURATELY SYMBOLIZED

experiences that are freely admitted to the self-structure and consistent with the existing self-concept

DISTORTED

reshaping of experiences that are not consistent with our view of self

POSITIVE REGARD

need to be loved, liked, or accepted by another person

POSITIVE SELF-REGARD

experience of prizing or valuing one’s self

CONDITIONS OF WORTH

Perception that parents, peers, or partners love and accept them ONLY if they meet those people’s expectations and approval

DEFENSIVENESS

• Protection of the self-concept against anxiety and threat by the DENIAL or DISTORTION of experiences inconsistent with it.

DISORGANIZATION

• When the incongruence between people’s perceived self and their organismic experience is either too obvious or occurs too suddenly to be denied or distorted, their behavior becomes DISORGANIZED.

CONGRUENCE

• To be real or genuine, to be whole or integrated, to be what one truly is
• Congruent therapists wear no masks, do not attempt to fake a pleasant façade, and avoid any pretense of friendliness and affections when these emotions are not truly felt.
. Congruence involves feelings, awareness, and expression

UNCONDITIONAL POSITIVE REGARD

• “experiencing a warm, positive and accepting attitude toward what is the client” • Therapists accept and prize their clients without any restrictions or reservations
• Therapists do not evaluate clients, nor do they accept one action and reject another.

EMPATHIC LISTENING

• Therapist accurately sense the feelings of their clients
• “temporarily living in the other’s life, moving about in it delicately without making judgments” • Therapists sees things from the client’s point of view
• Understanding of what it means to be the client at the particular moment