0390435333.pdf

Feist−Feist: Theories of

Personality, Seventh

Edition

III. Humanistic/Existential

Theories

11. Rogers:
    Person−Centered Theory

© The McGraw−Hill^321

Companies, 2009

terion the actualizing tendency. Because nourishment is a requirement for actualiza-
tion, infants value food and devalue hunger. They also value sleep, fresh air, physi-
cal contact, and health because each of these is needed for actualization.
Once infants establish a rudimentary self structure, their tendency to actualize
the self begins to evolve. Self-actualizationis a subset of the actualization tendency
and is therefore not synonymous with it. Theactualization tendencyrefers to organ-
ismic experiences of the individual; that is, it refers to the whole person—conscious
and unconscious, physiological and cognitive. On the other hand, self-actualization
is the tendency to actualize the self as perceived in awareness.When the organism
and the perceived self are in harmony, the two actualization tendencies are nearly
identical; but when people’s organismic experiences are not in harmony with their
view of self, a discrepancy exists between the actualization tendency and the self-
actualization tendency. For example, if a man’s organismic experience is one of
anger toward his wife, and if anger toward spouse is contrary to his perception of
self, then his actualization tendency and his self-actualization are incongruent and he
will experience conflict and inner tension. Rogers (1959) postulated two self sub-
systems, the self-conceptand the ideal self.

The Self-Concept
The self-conceptincludes all those aspects of one’s being and one’s experiences that
are perceived in awareness (though not always accurately) by the individual. The
self-concept is not identical with the organismic self.Portions of the organismic self
may be beyond a person’s awareness or simply not owned by that person. For exam-
ple, the stomach is part of the organismic self, but unless it malfunctions and causes
concern, it is not likely to be part of one’s self-concept. Similarly, people can disown

Chapter 11 Rogers: Person-Centered Theory 315

Incongruence between the ideal self and the perceived self can result in conflict and unhappiness.