JAN. 8, 1902 Carl Ransom Rogers is born in Chicago, Illinois.
1924 He completed his B. A. in history from University of Wisconsin, Madison.
1928 He got his M. A. degree from Columbia University Teacher's College.He joined Rochester Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (RSPCC) as child-psychologist.
1929 He was made Director of the Child Study Department, Rochester Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (RSPCC).
1931 Received his doctorate in psychotherapy from the Columbia University Teachers College.
1939 His work "The Clinical Treatment of the Problem child," was published
1940 He became full professor of clinical psychology at Ohio State University.
1942 His writing 'Counselling and Psychotherapy' was published.
1945 At the University of Chicago, he joined as professor of Psychology. He also established a counselling centre that served as a centre for research and the training of graduate students.
1946-1947 He served as President of the American Psychological Association (APA).
1946 His work 'Client-Centered Therapy' was published.
1951 Published work ‘Client-Centered Therapy’.
1954 ‘Psychotherapy and Personality Change’ was published.
1955 He received Nicholas Murray Butter Silver Medal.
1956 He became the first President of American Academy of Psychotherapist and special contribution award was given to him by American Psychological Association.
1957 He was a professor in the department of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin.
1960 He was the Member of Executive Committee of Wisconsin University.
1961 He wrote, ‘On Becoming a Person’.
1963 He moved to La Jolla, Cliff. There he branched on to humanistic psychology.
1964 Resident Fellow at Western Behavioral Science Institute. American Humanist Association selected him as a ‘Humanist of the Year’.
1968 He was given honorary doctorate by Gonzaga University.
1971 He received D. H. L. in University of Santa Clara.
1972 He received a ‘Distinguished Professional Contribution’ award from Division of Psychotherapy.
1974 He received D.Sc. from the University of Cincinnati.
1975 He received D. Ph. from the University of Hamburg and Ds.Sc. from the University of Leiden.
1977 ‘Carl Rogers on Personal Power’ was published.
1978 He received D.Sc. from Northwestern University.
1983 His book ‘Freedom to Learn for the 80s’ was published.
1984 He joined the Union for Experimenting Colleges and Universities, Cincinnati.
FEB. 4, 1987 He died of heart attack, in San Diego, California.
One is said to be in ‘Threatening Situation’ when he/she is in situation where there is an incongruity between one’s image of one’s own self and his / hers immediate experience of oneself that is between the ideal and the real self. For example, a student who is not passing in the tests, in such situations, tests would bring that incongruity to light, this means the test will be threatening.
When a person is expecting a threatening situation, he will feel anxiety. Anxiety is a signal that indicates a trouble which is ahead, which one should avoid. The one way to avoid such situation, one should run for the hills, not physically but psychologically by using ‘Defenses’.
Rogers’ idea of defenses is very much like that of Freud’s, except that Rogers considers everything perceptually. That means even memories and impulses are thought as perceptions. He has two defenses : Denial and Perceptual distortion.
Denial defenses means very much like what is in Freud’s system. This means a person blocks out the threatening situation. For an example, a person who never appears for his test or asks about its result, because he doesn’t want to face the poor grade or remarks he would get. Rogers also includes, repression in defense denial. By keeping a memory an impulse out of one’s awareness, by refusing to perceive it, one can avoid a threatening situation.
Perceptual distortion is again similar to Freud’s rationalization. It is a matter of reinterpreting the situation, so that the situation appears less threatening. For an example, a student who is threatened by tests and poor grades, may blame the teachings of his professor or tricky questions and so on and so forth. In fact, sometimes poor teaching of professors and writing tricky questions or bad attitudes only make the distortion work better. Obviously, it can be more perceptual, when the person misreads his grade as better than it is.
It is unfortunate that the poor neurotic or most of us put ourselves in a greater distance between the real and the ideal. One becomes more and more incongruous and finds oneself all the more in a threatening situation. This develops greater level of anxiety and use more and more defenses. Thus it forms a various cycles from which a person is unable to get out.
Rogers has partially explained ‘Psychosis’. Psychosis occurs when a person’s defenses are overwhelmed. Their sense of self becomes ‘Shattered’ into little disconnected pieces.
Rogers like Maslow, is just interested in describing healthy person. He has involved the following qualities and given the name ‘ Fully functioning’.
OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE
It is the opposite of defensiveness. This means the accurate perception of one’s experiences in the world that includes one’s feelings. It also means one should accept reality, including one’s feelings. Feelings are a very important part of openness as they convey organismic valuing. If persons cannot be open to their feelings, they cannot also be open to actualization. Though it is hard to distinguish real feelings from anxieties brought on by conditions of worth.
EXISTENTIAL LIVING
It is living in here and now. Rogers believed in reality, hence he insisted that we neither live in past nor in future and the present is the only reality. This does not mean that we shouldn’t remember the past and learn from it. We should also not stop dreaming and planning for future. But we must live in present, recognizing memories and dreams that we experience today.
ORGANISMIC TRUSTING
One must allow oneself to be guided by the organismic valuing process. One should do what one feels is right, what comes naturally by keeping on one’s own self.
A sadist hurts oneself, a masochist hurts people. If one feels happy by taking drugs or alcohol, then one should take it. If one feels depressed, then one kills one self. It is definitely a great advice. As Rogers explained "Trust your own self and you will know what your real self has to say, if you are open to experience and living existentially !" This can also be said as, Organismic trusting assumes that one is in contact with the actualizing tendency.
EXPERIENTIAL FREEDOM
According to Rogers, it was irrelevant, whether or not people really had free will. We always feel free to do what we like. But in practical sense, we cannot behave as per our wishes. So one can say, we feel free when choices are available to us. Fully functioning person acknowledges, feeling of freedom and takes responsibility of his choices.
CREATIVITY
If a person feels free and responsible, he or she will act accordingly, and participate in the world. When a fully-functioning person is in touch with actualization, he will feel obliged by only nature to contribute to the actualization of others. This is possible only through the creativity of arts, science or through social concern and parental love. Rogers’ view on creativity is very close to that of Erikson’s generativity.
• The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change.
• I believe that the testing of the student’s achievements in order to see if he meets some criterion held by the teacher, is directly contrary to the implications of therapy for significant learning.
• The very essence of the creative is its novelty, and hence we have no standard by which to judge it.
• I think my deepest criticism of the educational system at that period (Junior High and High School), and that also applies to other periods, is that it’s all based upon a distrust of the student. Don’t trust him to follow his own leads; guide him, tell him what to do, tell him what he should think; tell him what he should learn. Consequently at the very age when he should be developing adult characteristics of choice and decision making, when he should be trusted on some of those things, trusted to make mistakes and to learn from those mistakes, he is instead, regimented and shoved into a curriculum, whether it fits him or not.
• What I am is good enough if I would only be it openly.
He received his doctorate degree in psychotherapy from the University of Columbia in the year 1931.He was awarded "Nicholas Murray Butler Silver Medal" – in the year 1955.
Rogers was given special award for his contribution of ‘Psychotherapy’ by American Psychological Association in 1956
He was selected as a ‘Humanist of the Year’ by American Humanist Association.
Rogers received honorary doctorate from Gonzaga University in the Year 1968.
He got D.H.L. from the University of Santa Clara in 1971.
He also received D. Sc. From the University of Cincinnati in the year 1974.
Carl Rogers got D.Ph. degree from the University of Hamburg and Ds.Sc. from Leiden University.
Lastly he received D.Sc. from Northwestern University in the year 1978.
