Encyclopedia Britannica
W5_A2_Part1
Carl Rogers was born in Chicago in the suburb Oak Park, Illinois on January 8, the year 1902. Walter A Rogers, civil engineer was Carl’s fatherand Julia Cushinghis mother, a homemaker was a zealous Christian. His education began at second grade reason being, he knew how to read before preschool but when he was twelve years old, his family relocated to a farm that was about thirty miles west of Chicago where he spent his adolescence. Carl grew up as an independent, isolated and self-disciplined child due to the many chores accorded to him and a strict upbringing. He joined the University of Wisconsin where he majored in agriculture then history and later changed to religion for religious studies, and it is during this time when he was chosen alongside other nine students to go for a six-month Christian Federation Conference in Peking, China (Britannica). As a result of the new experiences Carl had, his thinking broadened and started having doubts about some of the religious views. He attended a seminar by the title, “Why am I entering the Ministry” for better clarity on his career choice and after that he joined Union Theological Seminary after graduating from Wisconsin.
After that, Carl left Seminary and enrolled in a teacher’s college in Columbia University where in 1928 he obtained an MA and in 1931 attained a PhD and during this time of getting his doctoral work undertook child study. He was a director of prevention of cruelty to children society in 1930 and from1935 to 1940 a lecturer at University of Rochester (Britannica). Based on the experience he acquired while working with troubled children, Rogers authored “The Clinical Treatment of the Problem Child” which was his first book in 1939 and 1942 he wrote another book “Counseling and Psychotherapy” and others after that.
Person-centered theory by Carl Rogers is humanistic and insists that for an individual to developthey require a genuineand acceptable environment that is full of empathy. He believed that self-actualization is the fundamental human motive, and it occurs when one’s ideal self is compatible with their actual behavior and the people who can self-actualize are referred to as fully functioning persons (McLeod). A fully functioning person is creative, open to experience, trusted, and has a fulfilled life and lives at the moment. Personality development in this theory has three principles which are self-worth, self-image, and ideal self. Pathological develops when self-image differs with typical person, there is little to overlap and in this case self-actualization is impossible.
Works cited
McLeod, Saul. “Carl Rogers | Simply Psychology”. Simplypsychology.org. N.p., 2014. Web. 2 May 2016.
Britannica. “Carl R. Rogers | American Psychologist”. Encyclopedia Britannica. N.p., 2016. Web. 2 May 2016.