Unit R identify person
centred concepts of
personality and
behaviour
1- 10 of 19 aspects to Rogers’ theory of personality and behaviour
Rogers, C. (1951) Client-Centred Therapy London : Constable
All text in the
blue boxes is
taken from this
book.
Rogers, C. (1951) ClientCentred Therapy London :
Constable
The organism
reacts to the field
as it is
experienced and
perceived, this
perceptual field
is, for the
individual,
‘reality’.
 The way you see things is the REAL world to you
 Your REAL world and mine can be different.
 Two people see the same obstacle in the road,
one knows it is a tumbleweed, the other thinks it
is a boulder.
 One REACTS with fear
 One REACTS with calm
 Both REACT according to the way they see
(perceive) things.
 Every part of you reacts to your REAL world
The organism
reacts as an
organised
whole to this
phenomenal
field.
 Your mind and your body react together
(Holistic)
 Someone has job worries but keeps it hidden
 Develops ulcers.
 Someone opens up in counselling about a
troubled relationship
 asthma eases.
 You are driven towards being your best self!
The organism has
one basic
tendency and
striving – to
actualise,
maintain and
enhance the
experiencing
organism.
 Based on your experience of the REAL world.
Behaviour is
basically the
goal-directed
attempt of the
organism to
satisfy its needs,
as experienced, in
the field as
perceived.
 Are all needs fundamentally biological
 (in the body)?
 You behave based on how you see the world.
 You behave to meet your own needs.
 “Behaviour is not caused by something that
happened in the past. Present tensions and
present needs are the only ones … to reduce or
satisfy.” (Rogers, 1951: 492)
Every individual
exists in a
continually
changing world
of experience of
which he is the
centre.
Only a small
portion is
consciously
experienced
• You are the centre of your REAL world.
• Your experiences are changing all the time.
• You are not aware of most of the things you
experience!
 Writers of the past often used masculine pronouns only.
 I prefer ‘they, theirs, them’
 What do you think about personal pronouns?
 “By using gender-neutral language, you're ensuring your
sentences are inclusive for everyone.”
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/gender-neutral-pronouns
Emotion
accompanies and …
facilitates goal
directed behaviour.
The intensity of the
emotion being
related to the
perceived
significance of the
behaviour for the
maintenance and
enhancement of the
organism.
 Your feelings go along with your behaviour.
 Your feelings power your behaviour.
 Your feelings power behaviour designed to help
you
 Stay safe – get even better (actualise)
 How strong your feelings are depends on how
strongly your behaviour helps you stay safe.
 Jumping out of the way of traffic =
 strong emotional response
 Reading a familiar book at bedtime =
 mild emotional response
The best vantage
point for
understanding
behaviour is from
the internal
frame of
reference of the
individual
himself.
 In the past travellers have studied other cultures
and called them
 Primitive
 Depraved
 Ridiculous
 Sub-human
 This is because the opinions came from the observer’s
frame of reference.
 Client behaviour - ‘abnormal, delusional’ is labelling from
therapist’s frame of reference.
 “The only way to understand … behaviour meaningfully is to
understand it as he perceives it himself, just as the only way to
understand another culture is to assume the frame of reference of
that culture.” (Rogers, 1951:494)
Ota Benga brief history
A portion of
the total
perceptual
field
gradually
becomes
differentiated
as the self.
 You realise that not everything is YOU!
 You realise part of the world is ‘me, I , myself’
 No sharp line between self/outside world
 foot goes to sleep becomes object not self.
As a result of
interactions with the
environment, and
particularly as a result
of evaluational
interaction with others
the structure of self is
formed. An organised,
fluid, but consistent
pattern of perceptions
of characteristics and
relationships of the ‘I’ or
the ‘me’ together with
values attached to
these concepts.
 You learn how to ‘be yourself’.
 Your learning is influenced by ?
 the world around you.
 the things people say to you
 the judgements you pick up on.
 This ‘self’ is always with you but it can change.
The values attached to
experiences and the
values which are a part
of the self structure, in
some instances are
values experienced
directly by the
organism, and in some
instances are values
introjected or taken
over from others, but
perceived in distorted
fashion, as if they have
been experienced
directly.
Is there a difference between
I AM LOVED and I AM LOVABLE?
 A child who knows ‘I am loved, I am lovable’ – develops a strong
core self
 First of all children’s behaviour is natural ‘I like this, I don’t like this’
 Then it is labelled ‘naughty boy’ or ‘good child’
 Pleasurable behaviour that results in punishment ‘bad boy’ = deep
threat to the developing self.
 You learn to deny yourself to fit with your ideas of what is
loved/lovable.
 Leads to ‘I don’t really know myself’ as these ideas are distorted.
 To avoid creating distorted self structure in a child parents can:
 1) genuinely accepting of child’s experience of satisfaction
 2) fully accept the child who experiences them,
 3) accept own feelings that such behaviour is unacceptable
 e.g aggression towards baby brother is accepted feeling , hitting
baby unacceptable behaviour = no threat to the child’s perception
as ‘lovable’.
 How does Rogers suggest we develop our
personality?
Questions
 By realising there is a difference between the perceived
outside world and our inner self.
 By forming a sense of self based on values and
judgements.
 How does Rogers suggest we choose our
behaviours?
 Our emotions power our behaviour
 We choose behaviour that will keep us safe or help us
actualise
 Our behaviour is linked to NOW not the past.
4 slides to read
at home
Rogers’
Concept of the
Self
Carl Rogers’ organismic valuing process (OVP) theory
One of the fundamental concepts within humanistic psychology is that of the ”organismic valuing process” (OVP).
Rogers (1952) refers to this as the innate tendency to automatically select, pursue and seek those situations which fit
into our inherent aspirations, in order to lead a fulfilling life. It is a subconscious and biologically driven process which
guides people in evaluating new experiences to maintain or enhance their growth potential and eventually reach
actualization. In order for this to be achieved it is important that their values are not fixed, but instead experiences are
evaluated in terms of the satisfactions which are innately experienced this process is called the organismic valuing
process.
From birth, children innately respond to their sensory experiences, they will repeat and value those experiences which
generate good feelings for them. However it seems as though it is at this stage where difficulties and incongruence’s
are likely to develop. It is very common at this stage, that judgemental and critical messages can be portrayed towards
the infant, this is usually through there parents attempt to implement rules of behaviour, consequently this leads to
feelings of incongruence between what the infant is experiencing as good, their organismic valuing process, and how
this is viewed by others., This can lead to the child internalising the values and beliefs portrayed by others, a process
called conditions of worth, this will shape an individual into someone who is cut off from their own sense of worth and
value this can become a vicious cycle as they begin to behave in ways which they feel is expected of them and not to
there true organismic feelings, this is believed to prevent all personal growth for the individual.
As the individual grows older this valuing process is essential if they are to achieve self actualization, under favourable
circumstances it allows the development of an optimum self-esteem and an accurate sense of who the person “really
is” as well as who they would ideally like to become. This gives the individual clear goals which they can work towards in
order to reach self actualization. It is inevitably that life is never this simple and everyone faces high demands and
responsibilities within there everyday life which can alter what they choose to do, as they feel responsibility for certain
jobs and situation which can shift the person away from their organismic valuing process.
At first glance the idea of an organismic valuing process, where individuals can rely freely on the
evidence of their own senses to make value judgments, seems to be a very appealing and positive
outlook. However it is also viewed by those such as Cofer & Appley (1964) as a very naive and overly
optimistic interpretation of human nature. It is very questionable that all humans have an innate drive to
do ”good”. A lot of criticism towards Rogers approach has centred around its failure to provide insight
into the evil side of human nature such as criminals and violent people who do not seem to be
functioning in this innately positive way, On the other hand it has been suggested by those such as
Myers (2000) that there may in fact be such a skill as an organismic valuing process, when analysing self
reports on peoples views of their lives, most people reported feeling happy and very satisfied with their
lives, this research suggests that although it may seem, overly optimistic to think that people strive for
good it also seems as though people are very good at reaching and striving towards a stage where they
are very satisfied with there lives.
A further criticism of the organismic value processing is that there is inadequate empirical research to
support its premises. It is very difficult to define and measure such a subjective concept scientifically,
therefore the concept lacks empirical evidence, therefore the theory has to be criticized for not providing
substantial evidence for its assumptions. Although it is heavily criticized for its lack of empirical evidence
there have been attempts to investigate the organismic valuing process such as by Sheldon et al (2003)
by investigating the way in which people change their goal choices over time, to investigate if people
tend to change their goals, they found that people tend to move away from those goals which are
extrinsic in nature and move towards intrinsic goals suggesting that there is such a thing as OVP. They
concluded that people may have a positive bias toward changing their minds in directions most likely to
be SWB enhancing
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/psychology/describe-rogers-concept-of-the-organismic-valuing-processpsychology-essay.php
Maurer & Daukantaitė Article on Teams
Wood et al. (2008a) proposed the construct of the authentic personality, based on the Rogers
(1959) Organismic Valuing Process theory. The dispositional construct of authenticity
operationalizes some of the key points of the OVP theory, including the ability to gain
autonomy and self-direction instead of behaving according to conditions of worth;
understand and listen to one’s inner processing; and gear toward authentic, or intrinsic,
behavior. The construct includes three subcomponents: alienation from the self, which
reflects the state of congruence between true experiencing and conscious awareness of it
(i.e., the sense that one is connected to and knows the true self); authentic living, or the
congruence between conscious awareness of one’s experience and one’s outward behavior of
it (i.e., being able to express one’s true self in behavior); and rejecting external influence, or
one’s ability to be self-governing and reject external pressures and conditions of worth. Very
high authenticity therefore reflects a state of congruence between the awareness of one’s
real experience and the ability to behave according to that experience in an autonomous
way, all the while rejecting external pressure (Wood et al., 2008a).
On a scale of 1-5 how
strongly do you agree with
this statement:
I understand Rogers’
ideas on personality
and behaviour
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