Personality Theory: Roger's Theory of Psychotherapy - Term Paper Example

 Personality theory-Roger's theory of Psychotherapy Introduction: Personality: What is personality? Is it really possible to describe the personality of an individual? These two questions are most fundamental yet frequently asked in the arena of human psychology. Though almost all the great scholars of psychological study have adequately reflected on definition as well as description of human personality but there is still ample scope of cultivation over this aspect. As every individual possesses his/her own personality and even perception of such personality alters due to social change, it is really tough to define or to describe personality from a universal perspective. However, there are certain general considerations, which demand special attention when it comes to definition of personality. “… personality refers to important and relatively stable aspects of a person’s behavior…. Most psychologists also define personality as originating within the individual….Personality deals with a wide range of human behavior. Virtually everything about a person – mental, emotional, social and physical is included….” (Ewen, 2003, p.1) Personality theory-Roger's theory of Psychotherapy: Social dynamism in the modern society has become so diverse and so widespread that psychological problems related to personality of a person have become very frequent. The aspects are not only affecting the psychological equilibrium of a person but also often lead him to lunacy as it becomes tough for him to determine his own personality to himself. To solve these kinds of problems psychological counseling is the most effective method but the greatest challenge that the counselor encounters is that of understanding the problems of the patient. Such incidents are quite frequent in the modern society. A counselor has interpreted the problem of a patient in his own ways and tried to impose such methods that finally led to worsening of the condition of the patient. To solve such problem of communication gap between client and counselor, one of the greatest psychotherapist, Carl Rogers, has provided highest importance to respect the requirement of the client. In this context he has clearly mentioned in his book On becoming a Person that “[I]t is the client who knows what hurts, what directions to go in, what problems are crucial.” (Rogers; Sommers-Flanagan, 2004, p.174) This very observation makes it clear why, in the modern context it becomes so important to choose this topic that will not only deal with solving of the problems related to personality disorders but also to find a solution to such a problem from the perspective of the client. Carl Rogers’ theory of psychotherapy is a scientifically oriented therapeutic process that approaches the problem from different dimension but at the same time solves the issue giving highest importance to the perspective of the client. One of the basic principles of psychotherapy has been to understand the psychological condition of the patient and then to treat him accordingly, depending over such realization. As such empathetic approach has not been witnessed much in the field of modern psycho therapeutic treatment, Carl Rogers’ approach must receive the greatest response in the modern times to solve such problems. (Rogers, 1959) Body: Topic definition Carl Rogers’ psychotherapeutic treatment is a specifically person-centered theoretical approach. (Rogers, Kirschenbaum and Henderson, 1989, p.219) Revolution in the field of psychological understanding of a person started with the Freud. Later on, several other psychologists have contributed in this field but Carl Rogers’ approach was altogether different from each of these personalities. Unlike Freud, the father of modern psychology he took a very optimistic approach in identifying the problems of the patients and such approach was to some extent similar to the optimism that Jung and Adler exhibited in their respective theoretical approach. Rogers’ “…approach is founded on an abiding belief in the capacity for persons, when unfettered by social and familial obstacles, to develop into positive, creative, flexible, and altruistic beings. Rogers referred to this capacity as an actualizing or formative tendency.” (Sommers-Flanagan, 2004, p.174) As it has already been mentioned, Rogers’ person centered theory was completely focused on providing highest importance to the problems of the clients. While elaborating his therapeutic process Rita Sommers-Flanagan has reflected in a personalized manner, “Rogers developed a distinctive approach to therapy: He listened. He listened to clients with every ounce of respect he could muster. Additionally, in all respects of his life, he strove to be a genius and open person …. As he interacted authentically with clients, he put himself so deeply into their world that he could feel their feelings right along with them.” (Sommers-Flanagan, 2004, p.174) Research relating to personality theories What actually such observation conveys is that Rogers conveyed the empathetic approach where the greatest deal of importance is placed on interacting and solving problems of the clients. The modern psychological counselors also provide importance to the aspect that a counselor, at the first place, takes a sympathetic approach to understand the problems of a client. (Costigan, 2004, p.16) As the subject of empathy receives highest importance in this kind of therapeutic approach, professed by Carl Rogers, it is widely known as person-centered therapy. Brian Thorne elaborates the general procedure of Rogers’ psycho therapeutic approach as, “…clients will move from a position where their self-concept, usually poor at the entry into therapy and finding expression in behavior which tends to reinforce the negative influence of self, will shift to a position where it more closely approaches the essential worth of the total organism. As the self-concept moves towards a more positive view so, too, client’s behavior begins to reflect the improvement and to enhance further their perception of themselves.” (Thorne, 2003, p.41) Such observation clearly elaborates that in Rogers’ observation wrong or altered perception of self-concept is the main reason for leading to the problem of personality disorder. Every human being has certain fundamental idea about himself as well as for the others. Basically such ideas remain the same while a person evaluates himself at different phases of his life but can change while he reflects on others. Problems related to personality disorder occur as the basic idea behind such self-concept. An individual looks at himself from a certain self-judgmental perspective but as he looks at himself from a different perspective he tends to think of himself in a different way. He also fails to connect between the two selves - what he actually was and what he has become. Both the dimensions of his personality start conflicting with each other, leading to a confused state of mind about himself. At this point of time he does not really find answer to the question: who actually he is. Rogers’ therapeutic approach aims at providing a proper foundation to the self-concept of an individual. His approach aims at eradicating the negative impressions that the person has gathered about himself and gradually eradicates stains of all those negative impression that he has formulated about himself. Specific personality concepts and terminologies incorporated in the research In his book, Counseling and Psychotherapy, Rogers has classified the whole procedure in certain parts, namely, Child Counseling, Student Counseling, “Mental Hygiene Services for Adults”, “Social Work”, “Industrial Personnel Work” and Counseling for people engaged in the acts of Warfare. (Rogers, 2008, pp.4-11) It is not very tough to understand from such classification that he actually has segregated the total patient base into these six categories. People belonging to each of these categories are always at a high risk from suffering with the problems of personality disorder. Children and adolescents, due to their immature and deconstructing mental set up often suffer from the problems of personality disorder. People belonging to other segments, as made by Rogers, have their own kind of stress as characterized by their job responsibility. However, people belonging to each of these segments are suffering from the common problem of personality disorder but nature of each problem is separate from the other. Thus, it is primarily important that each type of problem must be addressed in separate ways, which means the way a counselor has planned to treat a child or adolescent cannot be followed while treating a soldier or a diplomat. Thus, it becomes clear that the theory of Carl Rogers regarding person-centered therapy actually does not have any typical method of its own. It, at once, relates to all types of theories of personality and encompasses each of these aspects amidst the domain of its theoretical approach. The main objective of the research is to evaluate the methodology as has been adopted by Carl Rogers while estimating the problems related to personality disorder. Reflecting over the modern approach of psychological counseling we may see that psychologists are also providing greatest importance to the aspect of person centered therapy as prescribed by Rogers. Why Roger’s theoretical approach becomes so very important? Robert B. Ewen suggests, “Rogers has added to our understanding of parental pathogenic behaviors and how they lead to psychopathology. The self has proved to be an important, widely studied construct….Roger’s emphasis on healthy inner potentials represents an important alternative (or “third force”) to psychoanalysis (with its emphasis on the illicit aspects of personality) and behaviorism (which concentrates on observable behaviors ….)…. Rogers has offered a challenging and provocative extension of the democratic principles on which our society is based.” (Ewen, 2003, p.211) Such encouragement of “democratic principles” at once incorporate diverse problems and approaches related to personality disorder problem. This research elaborates that through such approach Carl Rogers has actually attempted to provide solution to all problems related to personality disorder. In this context Rogers has clearly specified, “A great deal of attention has been paid to the enormous variety of problems, symptoms, and causes which the clinician or counselor will find exemplified in the individuals who come to him. Too little attention has been paid to the variety of attitude towards help which the individual may have, and the influence which these attitudes should have upon therapeutic procedure.” (Rogers, 2008, p.51) How Carl Rogers’s theory of personality encompasses such a broad horizon? During the later part of the 1950s Carl Rogers developed his therapeutic approach regarding personality disorder problem being inspired from the ideologies of phenomenology. The central logos of his theoretical approach depend over the idea that “each individual exists in the centre of a phenomenal field.” (Engler, 2008, p.359) Phenomenology elucidates that in case of psychological counseling close observation of human perception and awareness must receive highest attention. Rogers provided another dimension to such observation as he lays greatest emphasis over the kind of perception that a person adopts in case of his interpretation of reality. As interpretation or perception of such reality is different in diverse context, automatically it also elaborates construction of the personality of an individual. Thus, through his therapeutic process Rogers never actually attempted to find a typical and universal way to solve the problems of an individual; rather he emphasized over the flexibility of his model that would encompass different problems and different approaches to personality within its scope. This universal appeal of Rogers’ model has further been stressed by another important assumption, which has been brought into focus by researchers, W. Edward Craighead and Charles B. Nemeroff - “…human beings have an innate ability to solve their own problems, given a free and permissive atmosphere.” (Craighead, and Nemeroff, 2004, p.414) Though such assumption has been made from a quite idealistic perspective but there is no denial of the fact that if a counselor attempts then he can provide such impression to his clients as if they have been provided with a free and permissible environment. Realization of this aspect boosts the client to develop his self-perception from a positive perspective and they learn to realize their potential to solve problems with their human intelligence. Summarized Research Findings: While understanding the personality of a person, it needs to be remembered that social interaction plays a very vital role in constructing personality of an individual. Since childhood, a person grows up interacting with people surrounding him. The kind of approach that a child actually receives from the society and the way he also responds towards those approaches in order to complete the process of interaction naturally casts an influence over that person and develops the foundation of his human entity. Several researchers have interpreted Carl Roger’s model from different perspectives but all of them have admitted at one point that judged from the perspective of flexibility and universality, Rogers’ theory of personality has definitely added a new horizon in the modern approach of psychological counseling method. Roger’s model is based over certain basic assumptions. For instance, each human being has the capacity to solve their problems if they are facilitated with ‘free and permissive atmosphere’ or emphasis over the aspect of phenomenology and presence of a ‘third force’ within the psychical construction of every human being. The aspects have not been highlighted by only one researcher, but several people explored these aspects respectively. They also have shown, how, conjointly, these issues have ultimately benefitted the modern approach of psychological therapeutic treatment. Except certain criticism over Carl’s highly optimistic attitude to solve the problems related to personality disorder issues, they all have agreed to the point that Carl Rogers’ model of person-centered therapy definitely has contributed in a major way towards addressing the issue of personality disorder in the modern society. Conclusion: Carl Roger’s therapeutic approach to solve the issue of personality disorder is highly effective and widely appreciated by psychological counselors across the world. It has almost been unanimously admitted that looking at the problem from self oriented perspective, it is always more effective to reflect on the issue from client’s perspective. It is the primary duty of a counselor to empathize with the client’s condition so that the person finds himself easy enough to disclose his problems properly to the counselor. Otherwise, there is a high possibility that the person will not disclose his problems and it will prevent the actual issue from being addressed properly. What amazes me is the broad scope of Carl Rogers’ theory and flexibility of his approach. As this model is completely dependent over person-centered approach, the scope of addressing problems of a client does not follow any specific procedure. At the same time adopting this theoretical approach also provides a counselor with the opportunity to improvise his technique according to the demand of situation. Finally, it also helps him gain adequate experience for catering better service to the clients. References 1. Costigan, L., (2004), Social Awareness in Counselling, Edition: 1, Bloomington: iUniverse 2. Engler, B., (2008), Personality Theories, Edition: 8, Kentucky: Cengage Learning 3. Ewen, R.B., (2003), An introduction to theories of personality, Edition: 6, Philadelphia: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates 4. Nemeroff, C.B., and Craighead, W.E., (2004), The Concise Corsini encyclopedia of psychology and behavioral science, Edition: 3, New York: John Wiley and Sons 5. Rogers, C. R., (2007), Counseling and Psychotherapy, Edition: 1, READ BOOKS 6. Rogers, C.R. (1959) A theory of therapy, personality, and interpersonal relationships. In S. Koch (ed.), Psychology: A Study of a Science, vol. III. New York: McGraw Hill, 184-256 7. Rogers, C.R., Kirschenbaum, H. and Henderson, V.L. (1989) The Carl Rogers Reader, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 8. Sommers-Flanagan, R., (2004), Counseling and psychotherapy theories in context and practice: skills, strategies, and techniques, Edition: 1, New York: John Wiley and Sons 9. Thorne, B., (2003), Carl Rogers, Edition: 2, New York: SAGE Read More