Carl Rogers (1902-1987) was a humanistic psychologist

who agreed with the main assumptions of Abraham

Maslow, but added that for a person to "grow", they
need an environment that provides them with
genuineness (openness and self-disclosure), acceptance
(being seen with unconditional positive regard), and
empathy (being listened to and understood).
Without these, relationships and healthy personalities
will not develop as they should, much like a tree will
not grow without sunlight and water.
Rogers believed that every person could achieve their
goals, wishes, and desires in life. When, or rather if they
did so, self actualization took place.
This was one of Carl Rogers most important
contributions to psychology, and for a person to reach
their potential a number of factors must be satisfied.

Self Actualization
"The organism has one basic tendency and striving - to actualize, maintain, and
enhance the experiencing organism” (Rogers, 1951, p. 487).

Rogers rejected the deterministic nature of

both psychoanalysis and behaviorism and maintained
that we behave as we do because of the way we perceive
our situation. "As no one else can know how we
perceive, we are the best experts on ourselves."
Carl Rogers (1959) believed that humans have one basic
motive, that is the tendency to self-actualize - i.e., to
fulfill one's potential and achieve the highest level of
'human-beingness' we can.  Like a flower that will grow
to its full potential if the conditions are right, but which
is constrained by its environment, so people will
flourish and reach their potential if their environment
is good enough.
However, unlike a flower, the potential of the individual
human is unique, and we are meant to develop in
different ways according to our personality.  Rogers
believed that people are inherently good and creative.
They become destructive only when a poor self-concept
or external constraints override the valuing process. 
Carl Rogers believed that for a person to achieve self-
actualization they must be in a state of congruence.
This means that self-actualization occurs when a
person’s “ideal self” (i.e., who they would like to be) is
congruent with their actual behavior (self-image).
Rogers describes an individual who is actualizing as a
fully functioning person. The main determinant of
whether we will become self-actualized is childhood
experience.

The Fully Functioning Person

Rogers believed that every person could achieve their
goal. This means that the person is in touch with the
here and now, his or her subjective experiences and
feelings, continually growing and changing.
In many ways, Rogers regarded the fully functioning
person as an ideal and one that people do not
ultimately achieve. It is wrong to think of this as an end
or completion of life’s journey; rather it is a process of
always becoming and changing.
Rogers identified five characteristics of the fully functioning
person:
1. Open to experience: both positive and negative
emotions accepted. Negative feelings are not denied,
but worked through (rather than resorting to ego
defense mechanisms).
2. Existential living: in touch with different
experiences as they occur in life, avoiding prejudging
and preconceptions. Being able to live and fully
appreciate the present, not always looking back to the
past or forward to the future (i.e., living for the
moment).
3. Trust feelings: feeling, instincts, and gut-reactions
are paid attention to and trusted. People’s own
decisions are the right ones, and we should trust
ourselves to make the right choices.
4. Creativity: creative thinking and risk-taking are
features of a person’s life. A person does not play safe
all the time. This involves the ability to adjust and
change and seek new experiences.
5. Fulfilled life: a person is happy and satisfied with
life, and always looking for new challenges and
experiences.
For Rogers, fully functioning people are well adjusted,
well balanced and interesting to know. Often such
people are high achievers in society.
Critics claim that the fully functioning person is a
product of Western culture. In other cultures, such as
Eastern cultures, the achievement of the group is
valued more highly than the achievement of any one
person.

Personality Development
Central to Rogers' personality theory is the notion of
self or self-concept.  This is defined as "the organized,
consistent set of perceptions and beliefs about oneself."
The self is the humanistic term for who we really are as
a person.  The self is our inner personality, and can be
likened to the soul, or Freud's psyche.  The self is
influenced by the experiences a person has in their life,
and out interpretations of those experiences.  Two
primary sources that influence our self-concept are
childhood experiences and evaluation by others.
According to Rogers (1959), we want to feel, experience
and behave in ways which are consistent with our self-
image and which reflect what we would like to be like,
our ideal-self.  The closer our self-image and ideal-self
are to each other, the more consistent or congruent we
are and the higher our sense of self-worth. 
A person is said to be in a state of incongruence if some
of the totality of their experience is unacceptable to
them and is denied or distorted in the self-image.
The humanistic approach states that the self is
composed of concepts unique to ourselves. The self-
concept includes three components:

Self-worth
Self-worth (or self-esteem) comprises what we think
about ourselves. Rogers believed feelings of self-worth
developed in early childhood and were formed from the
interaction of the child with the mother and father.

Self-image
How we see ourselves, which is important to good
psychological health. Self-image includes the influence
of our body image on inner personality.
At a simple level, we might perceive ourselves as a good
or bad person, beautiful or ugly. Self-image affects how
a person thinks, feels and behaves in the world.

Ideal-self
This is the person who we would like to be. It consists
of our goals and ambitions in life, and is dynamic – i.e.,
forever changing.
The ideal self in childhood is not the ideal self in our
teens or late twenties etc.

Positive Regard and Self Worth

Carl Rogers (1951) viewed the child as having two basic

needs: positive regard from other people and self-
worth.
How we think about ourselves, our feelings of self-
worth are of fundamental importance both to
psychological health and to the likelihood that we can
achieve goals and ambitions in life and achieve self-
actualization.
Self-worth may be seen as a continuum from very high
to very low.  For Carl Rogers (1959) a person who has
high self-worth, that is, has confidence and positive
feelings about him or herself, faces challenges in life,
accepts failure and unhappiness at times, and is open
with people.
A person with low self-worth may avoid challenges in
life, not accept that life can be painful and unhappy at
times, and will be defensive and guarded with other
people.
Rogers believed feelings of self-worth developed in
early childhood and were formed from the interaction
of the child with the mother and father. As a child
grows older, interactions with significant others will
affect feelings of self-worth.
Rogers believed that we need to be regarded positively
by others; we need to feel valued, respected, treated
with affection and loved. Positive regard is to do with
how other people evaluate and judge us in social
interaction. Rogers made a distinction between
unconditional positive regard and conditional positive
regard.

Unconditional Positive Regard

Unconditional positive regardis where parents,
significant others (and the humanist therapist) accepts
and loves the person for what he or she is.  Positive
regard is not withdrawn if the person does something
wrong or makes a mistake. 
The consequences of unconditional positive regard are
that the person feels free to try things out and make
mistakes, even though this may lead to getting it worse
at times.
People who are able to self-actualize are more likely to
have received unconditional positive regard from
others, especially their parents in childhood.

Conditional Positive Regard

Conditional positive regard is where positive regard,
praise, and approval, depend upon the child, for
example, behaving in ways that the parents think
correct.
Hence the child is not loved for the person he or she is,
but on condition that he or she behaves only in ways
approved by the parent(s). 
At the extreme, a person who constantly seeks approval
from other people is likely only to have experienced
conditional positive regard as a child.

Congruence
A person’s ideal self may not be consistent with what
actually happens in life and experiences of the person.
Hence, a difference may exist between a person’s ideal
self and actual experience. This is called incongruence.
Where a person’s ideal self and actual experience are
consistent or very similar, a state of congruence exists.
Rarely, if ever, does a total state of congruence exist; all
people experience a certain amount of incongruence.

The development of congruence is dependent on

unconditional positive regard. Carl Rogers believed that
for a person to achieve self-actualization they must be
in a state of congruence.
According to Rogers, we want to feel, experience and
behave in ways which are consistent with our self-
image and which reflect what we would like to be like,
our ideal-self.
The closer our self-image and ideal-self are to each
other, the more consistent or congruent we are and the
higher our sense of self-worth. A person is said to be in
a state of incongruence if some of the totality of their
experience is unacceptable to them and is denied or
distorted in the self-image.
Incongruence is "a discrepancy between the actual
experience of the organism and the self-picture of the
individual insofar as it represents that experience.
As we prefer to see ourselves in ways that are consistent
with our self-image, we may use defense
mechanisms like denial or repression in order to feel
less threatened by some of what we consider to be our
undesirable feelings.  A person whose self-concept is
incongruent with her or his real feelings and
experiences will defend because the truth hurts.