Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionIII. Humanistic/Existential
Theories- Rogers:
Person−Centered Theory
(^346) © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2009
- An individual becomes a person by making contactwith a caregiver whose
positive regardfor that individual fosters positive self-regard. - Barriers to psychological growthexist when a person experiences
conditions of worth, incongruence, defensiveness, and disorganization. - Conditions of worth and external evaluationlead to vulnerability, anxiety,
and threatand prevent people from experiencing unconditional positive
regard. - Incongruencedevelops when the organismic self and the perceived self do
not match. - When the organismic self and perceived self are incongruent, people will
become defensiveand use distortionand denialas attempts to reduce
incongruence. - People become disorganizedwhenever distortion and denial are
insufficient to block out incongruence. - Vulnerable people are unaware of their incongruence and are likely to
become anxious, threatened,and defensive. - When vulnerable people come in contact with a therapist who is congruent
and who has unconditional positive regardand empathy,the process of
personality change begins. - This processof therapeutic personality change ranges from extreme
defensiveness, or an unwillingness to talk about self, to a final stage in
which clients become their own therapists and are able to continue
psychological growth outside the therapeutic setting. - The basic outcomes of client-centered counseling are congruent clients
who are open to experiences and who have no need to be defensive. - Theoretically, successful clients will become persons of tomorrow,or fully
functioning persons.
340 Part III Humanistic/Existential Theories