Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionIII. Humanistic/Existential
Theories- Rogers:
Person−Centered Theory
(^318) © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2009
Wanting to expand his research and his ideas to psychiatry, Rogers accepted a
position at the University of Wisconsin in 1957. However, he was frustrated with
his stay at Wisconsin because he was unable to unite the professions of psychiatry
and psychology and because he felt that some members of his own research staff had
engaged in dishonest and unethical behavior (Milton, 2002).
Disappointed with his job at Wisconsin, Rogers moved to California where he
joined the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute (WBSI) and became increasingly
interested in encounter groups.
Rogers resigned from WBSI when he felt it was becoming less democratic and,
along with about 75 others from the institute, formed the Center for Studies of the
Person. He continued to work with encounter groups but extended his person-
centered methods to education (including the training of physicians) and to interna-
tional politics. During the last years of his life, he led workshops in such countries
as Hungary, Brazil, South Africa, and the former Soviet Union (Gendlin, 1988). He
died February 4, 1987, following surgery for a broken hip.
The personal life of Carl Rogers was marked by change and openness to ex-
perience. As an adolescent, he was extremely shy, had no close friends, and was “so-
cially incompetent in any but superficial contacts” (Rogers, 1973, p. 4). He did, how-
ever, have an active fantasy life, which he later believed would have been diagnosed
as “schizoid” (Rogers, 1980, p. 30). His shyness and social ineptitude greatly re-
stricted his experiences with women. When he originally entered the University of
Wisconsin, he had only enough courage to ask out a young lady whom he had known
in elementary school in Oak Park—Helen Elliott. Helen and Carl were married in
1924 and had two children—David and Natalie. Despite his early problems with in-
terpersonal relationships, Rogers grew to become a leading proponent of the notion
that the interpersonal relationship between two individuals is a powerful ingredient
that cultivates psychological growth within both persons. However, the transition
was not easy. He abandoned the formalized religion of his parents, gradually shap-
ing a humanistic/existential philosophy that he hoped would bridge the gap between
Eastern and Western thought.
Rogers received many honors during his long professional life. He was the first
president of the American Association for Applied Psychology and helped bring that
organization and the American Psychological Association (APA) back together. He
served as president of APA for the year 1946–1947 and served as first president of
the American Academy of Psychotherapists. In 1956, he was cowinner of the first
Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award presented by APA. This award was es-
pecially satisfying to Rogers because it highlighted his skill as a researcher, a skill
he learned well as a farm boy in Illinois (O’Hara, 1995).
Rogers originally saw little need for a theory of personality. But under pres-
sure from others and also to satisfy an inner need to be able to explain the phenom-
ena he was observing, he evolved his own theory, which was first tentatively ex-
pressed in his APA presidential address (Rogers, 1947). His theory was more fully
espoused in Client-Centered Therapy(1951) and was expressed in even greater de-
tail in the Koch series (Rogers, 1959). However, Rogers always insisted that the the-
ory should remain tentative, and it is with this thought that one should approach a
discussion of Rogerian personality theory.
312 Part III Humanistic/Existential Theories