Self- Actualization theory

The Self and the Tendency toward Actualization

• Rogers investigated a potential internal influence, the child’s self-
Understanding or self-insight.

• Rogers described self-insight : as an acceptance of self and reality,

and a sense of responsibility for the self.

But he continued to believe that the external factors were of greater

importance in shaping one’s personality.

• Self-Insight
• Rogers predicted that the factors of family environment and social
interactions (external factors) would correlate most strongly with
delinquent behavior, but he was wrong.

William Kell, one of Rogers’s students, attempted to predict the

behavior of delinquent children.

• The factor that most accurately predicted later behavior was self-
insight.
• Rogers accepted that self was more
important in predicting behavior.

• Rogers focused on self in the

development of a psychotherapy that
would bring about greater awareness
of self-understanding,
• self-direction,
• and personal responsibility.

• Thus, the idea of the self became the

core of Rogers’s theory of personality.
 Actualizing Tendency

• people are motivated by an innate tendency to actualize, maintain, and

enhance the self.

• This drive toward self-actualization is part of a larger actualization tendency,

which encompasses all of our physiological and psychological needs.

• Rogers believed that the actualization tendency begins in the womb,

facilitating human growth by providing for the differentiation of the physical
organs and the development of physiological functioning.

• It is responsible for maturation ranging from the growth of the fetus to the
appearance of the secondary sex characteristics at puberty.

• These changes, all brought to fruition by the actualization tendency.

• To Rogers, the process involves struggle and pain.

• Example, when children take their first steps, they may fall and hurt
themselves.

• Although it would be less painful to remain in the crawling stage,

most children persist.

• They may fall again and cry,

• but they persevere despite the pain

• because the tendency to actualize is stronger than the urge to regress

simply because the growth process is difficult.
 Organismic Valuing Process
• The governing process throughout the life span is the
organismic valuing process.

• Through this process, we evaluate all life experiences by

how well they serve the actualization tendency.

• Experiences that we perceive as promoting

actualization are evaluated as good and desirable; we
assign them a positive value.

• Experiences perceived as hindering actualization are

undesirable and, thus, earn a negative value.

• These perceptions influence behavior because we

prefer to avoid undesirable experiences and repeat
desirable experiences.
 The Experiential World
• We are exposed to countless sources of
stimulation every day.

• This provides a frame of reference or

context that influences our growth.

• Some are trivial and some important,

some threatening and others rewarding.

• He wanted to know how we perceive

and react to the world of experiences to
which we are constantly exposed.
The Experiential World
• Rogers answered the question by
saying that the

reality of our environment depends on

our perception of it.

• Our experiences become the only

basis for our judgments and
behaviors.

• Higher levels of development sharpen

our experiential world and ultimately
lead to the development of the self.
The Development of the Self in Childhood

• As infants gradually develop a more complex experiential field from widening social
encounters, one part of their experience becomes differentiated from the rest.

• This separate part, defined by the words I, me, and myself, is the self or self-concept.

• The formation of the self-concept involves

distinguishing what is directly and immediately a part of the self from the people,
objects, and events that are external to the self.

• The self-concept is also our image of

• what we are,
• what we should be,
• and what we would like to be.
• All aspects of the self strive for consistency.
 Positive Regard
• As the self emerges, infants develop a need for what is
called positive regard.

• It includes acceptance, love, and approval from other

people, most notably from the mother during infancy.

• This need is probably learned, universal and persistent.

• Infants find it satisfying to receive positive regard and

frustrating not to receive it.

• Because positive regard is crucial to personality

development, infant behavior is guided by the amount of
affection and love bestowed.

• If the mother does not offer positive regard, then the

infant’s innate tendency toward actualization and
development of the self-concept will be hampered.
Unconditional Positive Regard
• Even though infants may receive sufficient acceptance,
love, and approval, some specific behaviors may bring
punishment.

• However, if positive regard for the infant persists

despite the infant’s undesirable behaviors, the
condition is called unconditional positive regard.

it is not conditional or dependent on the child’s

behavior.

• By interpreting the feedback we receive from them

(either approval or disapproval),

we refine our self-concept and we internalize the

attitudes of other people.
Positive Self-Regard

• positive regard will come more from within us than from other people, a condition
Rogers called positive self-regard.

• For example, children who are rewarded with affection, approval, and love when they are
happy will come to generate positive self-regard whenever they behave in a happy way.

• Thus, in a sense, we learn to reward ourselves.

• Positive self-regard can be defined as a feeling of contentment with oneself and is

related to positive mental health.

• Like positive regard, positive self-regard is reciprocal.

• When people receive positive regard and develop positive self-regard, in turn they may
provide positive regard to others.
• A study of adolescents found that when their mothers used
conditional positive self-regard to reward them for academic
achievement, and punish them for non-achievement, their
feelings of self-worth became erratic.

• When they got good grades, for example, they behaved in

self-aggrandizing ways.

• But when they did not get good grades, they felt shame and
tend to devalue their sense of self-worth.

• Children thus learn to avoid certain behaviors and no longer

function freely.

• Because they feel the need to evaluate their behaviors and

attitudes so carefully, and refrain from taking certain actions,
they are prevented from fully developing or actualizing the
self.

• They inhibit their development by living within the confines

of their conditions of worth.
Incongruence
• We learn to evaluate experiences, and to accept or reject them, not in terms of
how they contribute to our overall actualization tendency, but in terms of
whether they bring positive regard from others.

• This leads to incongruence between the self-concept and the experiential world.

• Experiences that are incongruent or incompatible with our self-concept become

threatening and are manifested as anxiety.

• For example, if our self-concept includes the belief that we love all humanity,
once we meet someone toward whom we feel hatred, we are likely to develop
anxiety.

• We defend ourselves against the anxiety that accompanies the threat by

distorting it, thus closing off a portion of our experiential field.
Congruence and Emotional Health
• Our level of psychological adjustment and emotional health is a function of the
degree of congruence or compatibility between our self-concept and our
experiences.

• Psychologically healthy people are able to perceive themselves, other people, and
events in their world much as they really are.

• They are open to new experiences because nothing threatens their self-concept.

• They feel worthy under all conditions and situations and are able to use all their
experiences.

• They can develop and actualize all facets of the self,

proceeding toward the goal of becoming a fully functioning person and leading what
Rogers called “the good life.”
Characteristics of Fully Functioning Persons
• Rogers described several characteristics of fully
functioning (self-actualizing) people.

1. Fully functioning persons are aware of all

experiences No experience is distorted or denied;
all of it filters through to the self.

• There is no defensiveness because there is

nothing to threaten the self-concept.

• Fully functioning persons are open to positive

feelings such as courage and tenderness, and to
negative feelings such as fear and pain.
2. Fully functioning persons live fully and richly in every moment

All experiences are potentially fresh and new.

3. Fully functioning persons trust in their own organism

By this phrase Rogers meant that fully functioning persons trust their own reactions rather
than being guided by the opinions of others, by a social code, or by their intellectual
judgments.

• Rogers did not suggest that fully functioning persons ignore information from their own
intellect or from other people.

• Rather, he meant that all data are accepted as congruent with the fully functioning person’s
self-concept.

• Nothing is threatening; all information can be perceived, evaluated, and weighed accurately.
4. Fully functioning persons feel free to make choices without constraints or
inhibitions

This brings a sense of power because they know their future depends on their
own actions and not present circumstances, past events, or other people.

• They do not feel compelled, either by themselves or by others, to behave in

only one way.

5. Fully functioning persons are creative and live constructively and adaptively
as environmental conditions change

• Allied with creativity is spontaneity.

• Fully functioning persons are flexible and seek new experiences and challenges.
They do not require predictability, security, or freedom from tension.
6. Fully Functioning Persons are in a State of Actualizing

• Rogers used the Word actualizing, not actualized, to characterize the fully
functioning person.

• Actualizing refers to this concept that self-development is always in progress.

• The latter term implies a finished or static personality, which was not Rogers’s
intent.

• Rogers wrote that being fully functioning is “a direction, not a destination”.

• If striving and growing cease, then the person loses spontaneity, flexibility,
and openness.
7. Being fully functioning is not always easy

Being fully functioning involves continually testing, growing, striving,

and using all of one’s potential, a way of life that brings complexity and
challenge.

• Rogers did not describe fully functioning persons as happy, blissful, or

contented, although at times they may be.

• More appropriately, their personality may be described as enriching,

exciting, and meaningful.
Questions about Human Nature

• On the issue of free will versus determinism, Rogers’s position is clear.

• Fully functioning persons have free choice in creating their selves. In other words, no aspect
of Personality is predetermined for them.

• On the nature–nurture issue, Rogers gave prominence to the role of the environment.

• Although the actualization tendency is innate, the actualizing process itself is influenced
more by social than by biological forces.

• Childhood experiences have some impact on personality development, but experiences later
in life have a greater influence.

• Our present feelings are more vital to our personality than the events of our childhood.
• The ultimate and necessary goal of life is to become a fully functioning
person.

• A personality theorist who credits people with the ability, motivation,

and responsibility to understand and improve themselves obviously
views people in an optimistic and positive light.

• Rogers believed we have a basically healthy nature and an innate

tendency to grow and fulfill our potential.

• Rogers never lost this optimism.

• Through Rogers’s person-centered therapy, people are able to overcome

difficulties by using their inner resources, the innate drive for
actualization.