Carl Rogers and His Theory of Personality
Carl Rogers (1902-1987) was ‘the most influential psychologist in American history’ (Kirshenbaum, 1989:11). Since the study of personality began, personality theorists have offered a wide assortment of explanations about behaviour and about what constructs a person. Carl Rogers was the main originator of the ‘person centred’ approach, also referred to as the ‘nondirective’ or ‘client centred’ approach. This essay will offer a brief description about some of the main concepts in Carl Rogers’ person centred theory. Mainly covering topics such as his philosophy of theory, his theory of personality, how we acquire dysfunction and how we treat dysfunction. Carl Rogers’ approach has often been called the ‘Third Force’ in psychology (Casemore, 2011).
The development of his theory stemmed from Rogers’ own experience of being a client, and his experience of working as a therapist. This gave rise to the views he developed about Behaviourism and the Psychoanalytical approach to therapy. These approaches are viewed as the other two forces in psychology; the first force to psychology being Freud and his psychoanalysis and the second being the Behaviourists such as Pavlov, Skinner and Watson. Rogers strongly challenged these two views of human nature as he believed that Behaviourists seemed to take the view that all human beings are organisms that only react to stimuli and that they develop habits learned from experience. Behavioural theorists also maintain that humans are helpless and are not responsible for their own behaviour (Casemore, 2011).
Rogers also thought that Freud and his psychoanalytical approach had shortcomings due to the belief that human beings are never free from primitive passions orienting in their childhood fixations and that they are solely the product of powerful biological drives. The psychoanalysts emphasised a ‘dark side of human nature’ (Casemore, 2011:5) to which humans seemed to have no control over. Both of these theories have commonalities in
The development of his theory stemmed from Rogers’ own experience of being a client, and his experience of working as a therapist. This gave rise to the views he developed about Behaviourism and the Psychoanalytical approach to therapy. These approaches are viewed as the other two forces in psychology; the first force to psychology being Freud and his psychoanalysis and the second being the Behaviourists such as Pavlov, Skinner and Watson. Rogers strongly challenged these two views of human nature as he believed that Behaviourists seemed to take the view that all human beings are organisms that only react to stimuli and that they develop habits learned from experience. Behavioural theorists also maintain that humans are helpless and are not responsible for their own behaviour (Casemore, 2011).
Rogers also thought that Freud and his psychoanalytical approach had shortcomings due to the belief that human beings are never free from primitive passions orienting in their childhood fixations and that they are solely the product of powerful biological drives. The psychoanalysts emphasised a ‘dark side of human nature’ (Casemore, 2011:5) to which humans seemed to have no control over. Both of these theories have commonalities in