Topic > Person-centered theory: Real Self and Ideal Self

Carl Rogers was an influential American psychologist and was one of the founders of humanistic psychology and looks at the person as a whole and the development of the potential within them. Rogers focuses his work on understanding the idea of ​​self and human personality. Humanistic psychology focuses on the individual who is active, living in the present moment, and responding to the stimuli around him or her. Rogers emphasized free will and believed that human beings have within them the desire and determination to become the best person they can be. From this, Rogers developed the term “actualizing tendency,” which is a person's basic instinct, a motivational driver, to succeed and be the best person possible. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Rogers is considered the founder of person-centered therapy. The central idea of ​​the person-centered approach is that everyone has "vast resources for self-understanding, for changing one's self-concept, attitudes, and self-directed behavior" (Rogers, 1986), which means that Customers have an innate ability to find their own solutions to problems. However, Rogers also stated that "these resources can only be exploited if a definable climate of facilitative psychological attitudes can be provided" (Rogers, 1986), stating that although people possess the abilities to self-direct and alter themselves, they are only able to do so with the help and climate established by the support of a professional. The aim of person-centred therapy is for the benefit of the client, which means that the counselor must aim to understand how the client feels, get into their frame of reference. The frame of reference (internal reference) is a key skill in counseling and means that the counselor understands what the client feels and perceives experiences in the same way the client perceives them. This ensures that the counselor can accept the client's experience despite agreeing with how the client acted. This ensures that the client does not feel like a judge and that the counselor is open and honest in helping and responding to the client. Using these counseling skills, the client should be able to better understand their feelings and values, their actual self, and look for ways in which they can develop and continue their progression. The person-centered counselor does not act as an expert in their client's life, i.e. they do not appear to know more or better than what is best for the client. The client is seen as their own expert and the consultant simply supports, encourages and facilitates this process. The role of the consultant is to understand and help the client, for this to happen there must be an environment in which the client feels he can grow. This environment must comply with the three fundamental conditions: Congruence: This means that the consultant must be genuine and honest with the client about how he perceives him. Empathy: This means that the counselor must understand the client's feelings, thoughts and emotions. point of view without feeling sorry for him (since it would be sympathy) UPR – this is unconditional positive respect, which means that the consultant must not judge the client and value him. There are no conditions that the customer must meet to feel worthy and respected. In addition to the environment in which a helping relationship should take place, self-actualization theory also examines how a counseling relationship should ensure that the client feels accepted by the counselor,they trust him and his abilities, there is a desire to grow and develop on the client's part and for the counselor to offer understanding and acceptance to the client. To establish a safe environment for the client, a counselor must address things in their own life, through personal development or learning not to judge someone for things they have done or how they live their life, how they can deal with personal thoughts and feelings of a person who will be brought in for a counseling session. Rogers believed that therapists and counselors should display a set of values ​​and attitudes towards their clients that would then support their innate ability to heal themselves. Rogers also thought that people are constantly reacting to their surroundings, such as their thoughts, experiences, feelings, their environment, and the other people within it. These stimuli continually change providing new things for a person to react to, therefore Rogers suggested that over time a person develops a self-concept. The self-concept is the knowledge of who one is and according to Rogers it is made up of three components; self-image, self-esteem and ideal self. Rogers thought that the self-concept that humans have is active and malleable, so it can be influenced by the surrounding environment, such as social situations. It develops as we grow, yet continues to form and change over time as we learn more about ourselves and our stimuli change. The self-concept includes all our thoughts and feelings and our knowledge of ourselves; it also includes the judgments we have about ourselves. As discussed previously, Rogers believed that the self-concept was composed of three components. Self-image, the way we see ourselves, for example what we know about our appearance, our position in society and our personality. However, self-image does not always correspond to reality, and humans can perceive themselves in a more positive or negative light. Self-esteem was another of the components that make up the self-concept and is the value that human beings attribute to themselves. Human beings compare themselves with others and whether this is favorable or not depends on whether their self-esteem grows. Humans can have high self-esteem regarding some aspects of their life, for example they may consider themselves a good worker and at the same time have low self-esteem in other areas of their life, such as considering themselves a bad friend. The third component of the self-concept is the ideal self. The ideal self is a perfect representation of who we are, how we want to be, such as successful, rich, charitable, beautiful, etc. Our ideal self is not who we are, and human beings develop an ideal self and a real self; these are often different from each other. The extent to which a person's actual self and ideal self match is called congruence. If the real self and the ideal self of a human being coincide and overlap, then it would be considered congruence between the two. If a person had a difference between the two, then there would be an inconsistency. Inconsistency can therefore have a negative impact on self-esteem and lead to cognitive dissonance and prevent someone from fulfilling themselves. Positive regard is considered a key element in the development of the self-concept. Unconditional positive regard is the practice of showing nonjudgmental acceptance towards a customer. Therapists and counselors create a judgment-free environment where clients feel accepted and understood. When clients feel this way, Rogers believes they are better equipped to improve their lives and vision of themselves. For there to be unconditional positive regard, there must be an environment in which there are none.