Carl Rogers: A Phenomenological Theory of Personality

Carl Rogers’ self-theory of personality is primarily

based on his approach known as client-centred therapy.

He stresses the importance of individual who

determines his own fate. There are two basic concepts

that are regarded as the basis upon which his whole

theory rests. These are (a) the organism and (b) the

self.

The organism is the centre of all experiences that

keeps taking place within the individual at a particular

moment. These experiences include everything

potentially available to one’s awareness that is going

on within the organism at that moment. The totality

of these experiences constitutes the phenomenal field.

The phenomenal field is not identical with the field

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of consciousness. At a given moment, it is made up

of conscious or symbolized and unconscious or

unsymbolized experiences. The phenomenal field is

individual’s frame of reference that can only be known

to the person only. According to Rogers behaviour of

a person depends upon the phenomenal field (which

is the subjective reality) and not upon the external

conditions. An individual’s perceptions and experiences

constitute not only his or her own reality but also

form the basis of his or her actions. One responds to

events in accordance with how one perceives and

interprets them.

For example, a thirsty person lost in the desert will

run as eagerly to a pool of water that is a mirage as

to a real pool. Similarly two persons observing an

identical set of events may later recall two very

different outcomes, which is often the case with eye

witness accounts of the unidentified flying objects

and traffic accidents etc. Thus a person tends to

check his or her symbolized experiences against that

of the world outside in his own way. This testing of

reality provides one with dependable knowledge of the

world so that one is able to behave realistically.

However, some experiences may remain untested or

are inadequately tested, which may cause one to

behave unrealistically. Apparently the person, therefore,

must have some conception of an external reality,

otherwise he or she could not perform the act of

testing an inner picture of reality against an outer

one.

Let us explain this a little further with the help of

another example. Suppose a person wishes to put salt

in his food and in front of him are two identical jars,

one that contains salt and the other containing pepper.

The person believes that the jar with larger holes in 

its lid contains salt but not being quite sure of it, he

keeps the contents in the jar on his hand. If the

particles are white rather than black, he becomes

sure that it is salt. A cautious person may, even after

that, put a little on his tongue, believing that it may

not be white pepper, instead of salt. Thus, the point

to be noted here is that one is testing his or her ideas

against a variety of sensory data. The test consists of

checking less certain information against more direct

knowledge. In this case the final test is taste that

defines it to be salt. Out of the process of perceiving

experiences, attaching meanings to them and testing

them with the outside reality, there emerges a portion

of the phenomenal field which gradually becomes

differentiated and is called self. The self can best be

thought of as the concept of I, me and myself. In

addition to this concept of self (also called real self)

there is an ideal self which represents what one thinks

one ought to be and would like to be. The ideal self

represents the self-concept that the individual would

like to possess. It is quite close to the notion of

superego in Freudian theory.

The significance of these concepts of organism and

self becomes more clear in Rogers’ discussion of

congruence and incongruence between the self as

perceived and the actual experiences of the organism.

When the symbolized or conscious experiences that

constitute the self faithfully mirror the experiences of

the organism, the person is said to be adjusted,

mature, and fully functioning. While on the other

hand, if there is no congruence with the experiences

of self and organism, the individual feels threatened

and anxious. Such a person behaves defensively and

is rigid. Thus we see that Roger’s theory puts emphasis on the

continuity of growth. The person continuously strives

to develop a self. He incorporates only those

experiences into his frame of reference which he

thinks are appropriate for him and rejects those which

are not appropriate. Therefore personality development,

in Rogerian scheme there is a reciprocal relationship

between the ways a person views his experiences and

his actual social and inter-personal experiences.