Early Life

Carl Ransom Rogers was born in 1902 in Oak Hill, Illinois. His father was a civil engineer, and his mother was a housewife; he was the fourth of six children. Rogers was a high achiever in school from an early age: He started reading before age 5 and was able to skip kindergarten and first grade. When he was 12, his family moved from the suburbs to a rural farm area. He enrolled at the University of Wisconsin in 1919 as an agriculture major. However, after attending a 1922 Christian conference in China, Rogers began to question his career choice. He later changed his major to History with plans to become a minister. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1924 with a bachelor’s degree in History and enrolled at the Union Theological Seminary before transferring to Teachers College of Columbia University in 1926 to complete his master’s degree. One reason he chose to abandon his pursuit of theology was a student-led seminar on religion which caused him to question his faith. Another inspiration for his switch to the study of psychology was a course he took at Columbia University taught by the psychologist Leta Stetter Hollingworth.

Career

After receiving his Ph.D., Rogers spent a number of years working in academia, holding positions at Ohio State University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Wisconsin. It was during this time that Rogers developed his approach to therapy, which he initially termed “nondirective therapy.” This approach, which involves the therapist acting as a facilitator rather than a director of the therapy session, eventually came to be known as client-centered therapy. In 1946, Rogers was elected President of the American Psychological Association. Rogers wrote 19 books and numerous articles outlining his humanistic theory. Among his best-known works are Client-Centered Therapy (1951), On Becoming a Person (1961), and A Way of Being (1980). After some conflicts within the psychology department at the University of Wisconsin, Rogers accepted a position at the Western Behavioral Studies Institute (WBSI) in La Jolla, California. Eventually, he and several colleagues left WBSI to form the Center for Studies of the Person (CSP).

Important Theories

Self-Actualization

Rogers believed that all people possess an inherent need to grow and achieve their potential. This need to achieve self-actualization, he believed, was one of the primary motives driving behavior.

Unconditional Positive Regard

For psychotherapy to be successful, Rogers suggested, it was imperative for the therapist to provide unconditional positive regard to the client. This means that the therapist accepts the client as they are and allows them to express both positive and negative feelings without judgment or reproach.

Development of the Self

Rogers believed that the formation of a healthy self-concept was an ongoing process shaped by a person’s life experiences. People with a stable sense of self tend to have greater confidence and cope more effectively with life’s challenges.

Congruence

Rogers also suggests that people tend to have a concept of their “ideal self.” The problem is that our image of who we think we should be does not always match up with our perceptions of who we are today. When our self-image does not line up with our ideal self, we are in a state of incongruence. Rogers believed that by receiving unconditional positive regard and pursuing self-actualization, however, people can come close to reaching a state of congruence.

The Fully-Functioning Person

Rogers suggested that people who continually strive to fulfill their actualizing tendency could become what he referred to as fully-functioning. A fully-functioning person is one who is completely congruent and living in the moment. Like many other aspects of his theory, unconditional positive regard plays a critical role in the development of full functioning. Those who receive nonjudgmental support and love can develop the self-esteem and confidence to be the best person they can be and live up to their full potential.

Contributions to Psychology

With his emphasis on human potential, Carl Rogers had an enormous influence on both psychology and education. Beyond that, he is considered by many to be one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century. More therapists cite Rogers as their primary influence than any other psychologist.

A flexible self-conceptOpenness to experienceThe ability to live in harmony with othersUnconditional regard for the self

As described by his daughter Natalie Rogers, he was “a model for compassion and democratic ideals in his own life, and in his work as an educator, writer, and therapist.“

In His Own Words

“Experience is, for me, the highest authority. The touchstone of validity is my own experience. No other person’s ideas and none of my own ideas are as authoritative as my experience. It is to experience that I must return again and again, to discover a closer approximation to truth as it is in the process of becoming in me.” – Carl Rogers, On Becoming a Person, 1954

Selected Publications

Rogers, C. (1951) Client-Centered Therapy: Its Current Practice, Implications, and Theory. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Rogers, C. (1961) On Becoming a Person: A Therapist’s View of Psychotherapy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Rogers, C. (1980) A Way of Being. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Biographies

Cohen, D. (1997) Carl Rogers. A Critical Biography. London: Constable. Thorne, B. (1992) Carl Rogers. London: Sage.