Rediscovering Rogers's Self Theory and Personality

Abstract

This study examined the self theory of Carl Rogers in depth. There are some important concepts illuminated well, considering one's personality development. Its main focus was positive regard, self-worth and actualizing tendency, proposed by Rogers. To explain them in brief, positive regard was studied through self-image, ideal self and congruence. Self-worth is described as conditional and unconditional to cope with challenges in life, tolerate failures and sadness at times. Actualizing tendency was expounded into fully functioning or self-actualizing. These all concepts indicated that having a tendency on human behavior and concentrating on the capacity of individuals to think intentionally and soundly, to control their biological urges, are significantly main elements to evaluate one’s self. Therefore, in the humanistic perspective, individuals have the opportunity and will to change their states of mind and behavior. This study might be a guide to some certain aspect of self related studies for other researchers to benefit accordingly and also to develop a new scale related to self using Rogers’s theory.

Full text

Journal of Educational, Health and Community Psychology
2015, Vol 4, No 3, ISSN: 2088-3129 Nik Ahmad, Mustafa Tekke
28
Rediscovering Rogers’s Self Theory and Personality
Nik Ahmad Hisham Ismail
Institute of Education, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM)
Phone No: +603 6196 4000
Email: nikahmad@iium.edu.my
Mustafa Tekke
Turkey
Institute of Education, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM)
Phone No: +60188730772
Email: mustafatekke@gmail.com
Abstract
This study examined the self theory of Carl Rogers in depth. There are some important
concepts illuminated well, considering one's personality development. Its main focus was
positive regard, self-worth and actualizing tendency, proposed by Rogers. To explain them in
brief, positive regard was studied through self-image, ideal self and congruence. Self-worth is
described as conditional and unconditional to cope with challenges in life, tolerate failures
and sadness at times. Actualizing tendency was expounded into fully functioning or self-
actualizing. These all concepts indicated that having a tendency on human behavior and
concentrating on the capacity of individuals to think intentionally and soundly, to control their
biological urges, are significantly main elements to evaluate one’s self. Therefore, in the
humanistic perspective, individuals have the opportunity and will to change their states of
mind and behavior. This study might be a guide to some certain aspect of self related studies
for other researchers to benefit accordingly and also to develop a new scale related to self
using Rogers’s theory.
Keywords: Rogers, personality, self, positive regard, actualizing tendency
Introduction
The paper presents the theory of Carl Roger`s
self. Rogers (1902-1987) pioneered
humanistic psychotherapy and was the one of
first therapist to focus on `a person-centered`
(Rogers, 1951) approach. The self became the
core of study of personality as viewed by
Rogers. Therefore, in order to actualize,
enhance and maintain the self, Rogers (1959)
believed that people are encouraged by an
innate tendency which is the one basic motive
of self. His entire theory is thus developed on
actualizing tendency (Schultz & Schultz,
2013).
To briefly give a short biography of Rogers,
he was given an opportunity to initiate a
counseling center at the University of Chicago
in 1944. He then published ‘Client-Centered
Therapy’ (1951), in which he described the
theory that highlights his approach to

Journal of Educational, Health and Community Psychology
2015, Vol 4, No 3, ISSN: 2088-3129 Nik Ahmad, Mustafa Tekke
30
understanding human relationships. A decade
later he wrote on ‘Becoming a Person’ (1961),
a combination of papers on a group of issues
concerning his basic approach to
understanding self growth and development.
Rogers tried to point out the revolutionary
effect of his person-centered approach on
more particularly psychotherapy, education,
and family life. He, furthermore, argued the
implications of his approach for the
emergence of a new type of self-empowered
person (Rogers & Sanford, 1984).
In this paper, we systematically review and
evaluate Rogerian self theory, and suggest
directions for research that might further
advance the empirically based psychology of
personality (i.e., Ismail & Tekke, 2015). We
believe that this article is helpful as a valuable
reference, and guide to some certain aspect of
self related studies for researchers.
Carl Rogers Self Theory
The most important contribution of Rogers to
personality science: his self theory. His main
professional focus was the process of
psychotherapy. Rogers committed himself to
understanding how personality change can
come about. The process of change or of
becoming was his greatest concern (McLeod,
2007).
Rogers' personality theory is basically
focusing on the notion of self or self-concept.
The self-concept is defined in a wide way as
the individual`s tendency to act in ways which
actualize himself, lead to his differentiation
and a group of experiences, accordingly, are
differentiated and symbolized in conscious
awareness as self experiences, the sum of
which establishes the individual`s self
concept. In terms of his investigation on the
concept of self, it is central to the client-
centered theory of therapy and personality. A
method which he frequently used for this
purpose was the Q-technique (Stephenson,
1953) and Q-sort of self (Butler & Haigh,
1954) adapted for the study of self.
To Rogers, healthy persons are individuals
who can assimilate experiences into their self-
structure (Cervone & Pervin, 2008). To some
extent, they explained that individuals are
open to experiences: a congruence between
self and experience and in contrast, the
neurotic ones do not fit organismic
experience; they are in a position to deny
awareness of significant sensory and
emotional experiences. There are some
following terms which Rogers exploited in his
self theory.
Real-self (self-image). It includes the influence
of our body image intrinsically. How we see
ourselves, which is very important to good
psychological health. In other words, we
might perceive ourselves as a beautiful or
ugly, good or bad person. Self-image has
directly an affect on how a person feels, thinks
and acts in the world. Rogers (1954) identified
the ‘real self’ is initiated by the actualizing
tendency, follows organismic valuing, needs
and receives positive regard and self-regard. It
is described that you will become successful,
if everything continues well for you. Rogers
believed that we all own a real self. The real
self of course is related to inner personality.
It`s the self that feels most true to what and
who we really are. It may not be perfect, but
it`s the part of us that feels most real (Grice,
2007).
Ideal self. It briefly represents our strivings to
achieve in our goals or ideals. In other words,
it is our dynamic ambitions and goals. This
may not be valid for childhood is not the ideal
self in our teens or late twenties and so forth
(McLeod, 2007). To the extent that our society
is divergent from the actualizing tendency, and

Journal of Educational, Health and Community Psychology
2015, Vol 4, No 3, ISSN: 2088-3129 Nik Ahmad, Mustafa Tekke
31
‘we are forced to live with conditions of worth
that are out of step with organismic valuing,
and receive only conditional positive regard
and self-regard, we develop instead an ideal
self’(Boeree, 2006, Incongruity, para. 2) as
shown in Figure 1.
By ideal, Rogers (1961) suggested there are
some things situated beyond our reachable
that might result from the gap between the real
self and the ideal self (Boeree, 2006). In fact,
this self is borne out of influences outside of
us. It is the self that holds values absorbed
from others; a culmination of all those things
that we think we should be, and that we feel
others think we should be. Holding the values
of others is not a conscious decision, but
rather, a process of osmosis, to the extent that
Rogers highlighted free choice is dominant in
his personality theory. It refers individuals are
responsible for what happens to them and stop
attributing their actions from outside forces
(Derlega, Winstead, & Jones, 2005; Singer,
1984).
Figure 1. Rogers’ Self Theory.
Shaded area represents the congruency between
real-self and ideal-self
Fully-functioning person. If people are able to
operate their valuing processes fully, they will
certainly begin to experience self movement
and growth toward realization of their
potentials. This shows that the person who are
able be self-actualize, are called fully
functioning person (Rogers, 1961). According
to Roger`s terminology, they will be moving
toward becoming fully functioning persons.
Fully functioning person, for Rogers, are well
balanced, well adjusted and interesting to
know (Mcleod, 2007). Rogers, in his later
writings, extended and amplified his view of
the fully functioning person (1961) to
emerging person (1975).
The conditions of worth and self-worth. The
individual learns to similarly differentiate his
or her self-experiences as the individual
experiences other people`s differences of the
individual`s self-experiences as unequally
worthy of positive regards (Nelson-Jones,
2000). This is called a condition of worth
which condition which determines an
individual`s assessment of positive self-
regards. According to Rogers, conditions of
worth are caused by experiences of
conditional regard. Furhermore, the conditions
of worth may take it impossible for an
individual to simultaneously satisfy both the
need for positive self-regard and the needs of
the total organism as explained by an
organismic valuing process (Anderson, 1998).
For Rogers (1959), a person who has high
self-worth, cope with challenges in life,
tolerate failures and sadness at times, and is
open with people. An individual with self-
worth may keep away from challenges in life,
not tolerate that life can be troublesome and
distressing at times. Rogers highlighted the
importance of early childhood experience by
mother and father in order to affect positively
the feelings of self-worth. Interaction with

Journal of Educational, Health and Community Psychology
2015, Vol 4, No 3, ISSN: 2088-3129 Nik Ahmad, Mustafa Tekke
32
outer environment will be effect on self-worth
as child grows older (McLeod, 2007).
In fact, self worth as inherent in one's being. If
one follows a suboptimal conceptual system,
then the development of self and the definition
of self would follow the same system (Myers
et al., 1991). In other words, self would be
defined and measured on the basis of external
factors that are tenuous and transient in nature.
In this view, identity is alienated from its
inherent value (Myers, 1988). Self within the
optimal conceptual system is seen as
multidimensional and self worth is inherent in
one's being. Self is seen within a holistic
system designed to foster peace and harmony
within and between people (Myers, 1988).
Sevig (1993) described people who have
successfully attached feelings of self worth
associated to the part of self. People are more
tolerant and accepting of others who do not
threaten this newfound sense of self. She
explained further that self worth is innate in
existence; therefore, ‘irrelevant factors’ (e.g.,
race, gender, age, religion, physical ability)
have no relevance in determining worth.
According to Frankl (1992), the meaning of
one’s life may modify, but the need for
meaning is always there. Baumeister (1991)
discussed the search for meaning covers four
basic needs. One of them is self-worth, to
believe that one is a worthy person with
desirable characteristics. The other three basic
needs are a sense of purpose in life, sense of
self efficacy and value. Self-worth is existence
within personal meaning, that is an
accompanying sense of fulfillment.
Congruence. With unconditional positive
regard, the self-concept carries no conditions
of worth, there is congruence between the true
self and experience, and the person is
psychologically healthy. According to Rogers
(1959), the closer the person`s self image and
self-ideal are each other, the more congruent
or consistent and the higher person`s sense of
self-worth, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Actualizing Tendency. Adapted from “
Personality theories: Carl Rogers.” by C. G.
Boeree, 2006, retrieved February 13,2013, from
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/rogers.html.
Incongruent behaviors result from
incongruence (Rogers, 1961). To the extent,
behaviors which are consistent with the self-
concept are truthfully symbolized, those which
are inconsistent with conditions of worth are
either denied or distorted completely to
awareness (Nooraini, 2014).
Experience incongruence indicates a basic
inconsistency in the self. When this occurs,
Rogers (1956) assumed that anxiety is the
result of a discrepancy between experience
and the perception of the self. Then, a person
tends to engage in defensive process. In this
regard, defensive act occurs due to that a

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2015, Vol 4, No 3, ISSN: 2088-3129 Nik Ahmad, Mustafa Tekke
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person experiences threatening. In fact, Rogers
argued that defensive act is not against driving
forces in the id, against ‘a loss of a consistent,
integrated sense of the self’ (Cervone &
Pervin, 2008).
Actualizing tendency. Understanding the
personality, according to humanist
psychologist, is very much different from
psychoanalysis and behaviorist psychologists.
Personality is a process of the acquisition of
an increasingly accurate self-concept rather
than a description of developmental stages and
tasks. Rogers (1951) mainly focused this
concept on his varied and prolonged
experience with troubled individuals in
therapy. To Rogers, the studies, together with
his clinical experience, suggested that there is
a directional tendency in each of us to grow, to
seek new and varied experiences. It is stated
by him that “the organism has one basic
tendency and striving -to actualize, maintain,
and enhance the experiencing organism”
(Rogers, 1951, p.487).
The actualizing tendency has two distincts:
The psychological and the biological aspect.
The psychological approach means the
development of potentials that make us view
human beings more worthwhile. The
biological approach involves drives to satisfy
our important basic needs, the need for food,
water, and air. In Rogers`s argument as similar
as Maslow`s work, people are all basically
good and creative. He believed that the
actualizing tendency is selective and
constructive; it is a directional tendency.
People develop their innate goodness, if
society acts toward them in an encouraging
and supportive way. In other words, when a
strong self-concept or external environment
supports the valuing process, they become
constructive. Rogers believed that they must
be in a state of congruence in order to achieve
self-actualization for a person. This indicates
that self-actualization occurs when a
individual`s ideal self (who would like to be)
is congruent with the his self-image (actual
behaviour). Rogers describes a person who is
actualizing the self as a fully functioning
person (McLeod, 2007).
Conclusion
Rogers (1959), a well-known Western
personality theorist, described personality as a
structured, consistent prototype of
understanding of the ‘I’ and ‘myself’ who is
influenced by previous experiences. It can be
decided from the perspective of personality
theorists that defining personality is a difficult
task. Personality theorists have presented
many characteristics, descriptions, and
definitions of personality that helps to develop
comprehensive frameworks for personality
types. With this reasoning, the personality
framework of this study is basically centered
on Rogers`s self theory in order to partially
understand the aspect of positive regard, self-
worth and, fully functioning or self-
actualizing.
For Rogerian personality theory, according to
Cervone and Pervin (2008), he disagreed
strongly with significant points of Freudian
hypothesis: its delineation of people as
controlled by unconscious forces and instead,
Rogers' claim that personality is determined
by early life experiences; for example, adult
psychologically repressed conflicts in the past.
They stressed conscious perceptions of the
present and interpersonal encounters
experienced over the course of life. Therefore,
Rogers’s self theory is likely consistent with
traits are what make us who we are; they are
generally permanent parts of individual
evidenced by the consistency in our
associations.

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2015, Vol 4, No 3, ISSN: 2088-3129 Nik Ahmad, Mustafa Tekke
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Psychologists like Rogers and Maslow felt
existing (psychodynamic) hypotheses
neglected to satisfactorily address issues like
the significance of behavior, positive regard,
self-worth, self-actualizing, and the healthy
growth. In any case, the outcome was not just
new varieties on psychodynamic hypothesis,
but instead showing the holistic concepts of
Rogers's theory in general. Humanistic
psychologists attempt to see individuals' lives
as those individuals would see them. They
have a tendency to have an optimistic point of
view on human behavior and concentrate on
the capacity of individuals to think
intentionally and soundly, to control their
biological urges, and to accomplish their
maximum capacity. In the humanistic
perspective, individuals are in charge of their
lives and activities and have the opportunity
and will to change their states of mind and
behavior. Rogers turned out to be understood
for their humanistic theories.
Finally, as for limitation of the study, it
focused on the self theory of Rogers from
various perspective. It might be better idea to
review relevant self theories to come out with
more promising result. In any case, this review
will be a perfect guide for future researchers in
a position to develop a new scale related to
self-theory of Rogers.
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