Amanda Neal
Student I.D. 235646
School of Counseling and Psychology
LMHC Track
Anticipated Graduation Date: Spring 2016
CCP518 Research Design and Evaluation
Summer 2014
Discussion Question 2
2
A. Neal DQ2
DQ2: Was Carl Rogers a scientist, and is personcentered therapy a science?
Why or why not?
The purpose of this paper is to identify the
meaning of science and discuss whether Carl Rogers,
a humanist psychologist that developed the theory of
person-centered therapy, was in fact a scientist; and
whether his theory can be considered a science.
3
A. Neal DQ2
Carl Rogers himself once debated this issue in
an article he wrote in 1955 entitled, “Persons or
Science? A philosophical question.” In the article,
Rogers stated, “I have felt an increasing discomfort at
the distance between the rigorous objectivity of myself
as scientist and the almost mystical subjectivity of
myself as therapist” (Rogers, 1955, p. 267).
Carl Rogers developed the concept of personcentered, non-directive therapy, which is focused on
the core principles of compassion, positive self-regard
and congruence as necessary in an effective
therapeutic setting (Wedding and Corsini, 2014). This
form of therapy was groundbreaking at the time as it
was counterintuitive to the popular concept of
psychoanalysis. This theory eliminated the idea of an
4
A. Neal DQ2
authority figure in therapy and instead offered clients
an opportunity to feel “at one” with their therapist.
Rogers (1955, p. 267) once stated, “I launch myself
into the therapeutic relationship having a hypothesis
that my liking, my confidence, and my understanding
of the other person's inner world, will lead to a
significant process of becoming.”
The textbook defines science as “a way of
obtaining knowledge by means of objective
observations” (McBurney and White, 2007, p.6). One
can deduce, therefore, that a scientist is one that
obtains knowledge through objective observations.
McBurney and White (2007) describe the
characteristics of science as empirical (evidence
based), objective (other people would see the same
5
A. Neal DQ2
things), self-correcting (able to accept evidence and
change beliefs), progressive (there is continual
progress), tentative (new information is always
emerging), parsimonious (the simplest explanation is
usually the correct one) and concerned with theory
(how something works).
This learner believes that Carl Rogers was
certainly a Scientist and that the development of
person-centered therapy is most definitely a science.
Simply by examining the definition of science as
described above and by understanding Rogers’
approach to therapy, once can clearly see that he, in
the simplest terms, obtained knowledge through
observations. Furthermore, Rogers
insisted on testing his new therapy to show that it
worked. To Rogers, that meant
6
A. Neal DQ2
objective, quantitative research. …. Rogers
recorded therapy sessions on the
clumsy glass disks of that time…. Rogers’s group
was the first (by 20 years) to
analyze every sentence of hundreds of
transcripts and to measure outcomes on
psychometric (and other newly devised) tests
given to clients before and after
therapy, and also given to a control group…. He
proclaimed new ethics:
Recording requires the client’s permission.
Confidentiality was emphasized, and
the answer to all inquiries was only “The person
was in therapy here.” In spirit,
his ethics is now accepted, but at the time it was
new. “Professional ethics”
mostly meant a doctor’s duty to protect other
doctors (Glendlin, 1988, p.127).
It seems quite clear to this learner that Carl
Rogers worked as a scientist and approached his
theory of person-centered therapy in a very scientific
manner. The theory itself follows many of the
characteristics of science – it is empirical, objective,
self-correcting, progressive, parsimonious, etc. There
7
A. Neal DQ2
can be little doubt as to Roger’s contribution to the
science of psychology and psychotherapy.
References
Glendlin, E.T. (1988). Obituary: Carl Rogers (19021987). American Psychologist, 43(2),
127-128.
McBurney, D.H and White, T.L. (2007). Research
Methods, Seventh Edition. Belmont,
CA: Thomas Learning, Inc.
Rogers, C. R. (1955). Persons or Science? A
Philosophical Question. American
Psychologist, 10(7), 267-278.
Wedding, D. and Corsini, R.J. (Eds.) 2014. Current
Psychotherapies Tenth Edition.
8
A. Neal DQ2
Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.