Carl Rogers
American psychologist and founder of client-centred therapy
American psychologist who developed client-centred therapy and promoted unconditional positive regard. His books include Counseling and Psychotherapy (1942), Client-Centered Therapy (1951) and On Becoming a Person (1961).
Why this person matters
Rogers moved therapy towards listening to the client and accepting the person without negative judgement of their basic worth. He set up a counselling centre at the University of Chicago in 1945 and also taught at Ohio State and Wisconsin. His approach shaped counselling.
Main contributions
Client-centred therapy
Set out in Counseling and Psychotherapy (1942) and Client-Centered Therapy (1951), the approach placed the client's own experience at the centre of treatment, with reflection as its main technique.
Core conditions
Rogers held that unconditional positive regard (accepting a person without negative judgement of their basic worth), congruence and empathic understanding are necessary and sufficient for client growth.
Person-centred organisations
He became first president of the American Academy of Psychotherapists in 1956 and helped found the Center for Studies of the Person in 1968.
Context and limits
One encyclopaedia account reports three criticisms: that a counsellor who stresses support may validate behaviour clients ought to change, that without a standard counsellors lack authority to guide constructive change, and that his optimism about human nature does not explain why so many relationships are unhealthy. The sources read do not review the empirical evidence for the core conditions, so this profile does not.
In your introductory course
Treatment and therapy.He appears in therapy and personality chapters for client-centred therapy, empathy and unconditional positive regard.
Related course reading: Psychology 2e, section 1.2. This is course context rather than a biographical source.
Years of active work
- 1942
He published Counseling and Psychotherapy.
- 1947
He was elected president of the American Psychological Association.
- 1951
He published Client-Centered Therapy.
- 1961
He published On Becoming a Person.
Sources
- New World Encyclopedia, Carl RogersReference work. Reference article inspected.
- Wikipedia, Carl RogersReference work. Reference article inspected.