{PERSONALITY}

GHMC BENGALURU
 PERSONALITY
Personality: Personality stems from
Latin word PERSONA, which was the
name given to the masks actors wore and
the characters they portrayed.
DEFINITION :
➢characteristics
The overall profile or combination of
that capture the unique
nature of a person as that person
reacts and interacts with others.
➢characteristics
Personality is relatively stable set of
that influences an
individuals behavior
ALLPORT (1948): “Personality is the
dynamic organization within the individual
of those psycho-physical systems that
determine his unique adjustment to his
environment”.
CATTELL (1970) : “personality is that which
permits a prediction of what a person will
do in a given situation”.
EYSENCK (1971) : “personality is the more or
less stable and enduring organization of a
persons character temperament, intellect
and physique which determine his unique
adjustment to the environment”.
•classified
THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
into 4 broad categories –
 THEORIES ADOPTING TYPE
APPROACH : the viewpoint of
Hippocrates, Kretschmer, Sheldon
and Jung belong to this category.
 THEORIES ADOPTING TRAIT
APPROACH : theories like Allport’s
theory and Cattell’s theory of
personality are based on trait
approach
C) THEORIES ADOPTING TYPE CUM
TRAIT APPROACH : theories like
Eysenck’s theory of personality can be
put under this category.
▪ D) THEORIES ADOPTING
DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH :
theories like psycho-analytic theory of
Freud, theory of individual psychology
by Adler, Carl Roger’s self theory and
learning theories of personality can be
included in this category.
▪ Type – TYPE-Behavior Characteristics &
Body Fluids.
▪ Trait – Specific Dimensions Of
Personality
▪ Type Cum Trait - Trait Into Definite
Types
▪ Developmental - Psychodynamic :
Unconscious Motivations - Cognitive-
Social Learning : Influence Of
Environment
 TYPE APPROACH : Theories
adopting type approach, classified
into few clearly defined types and
each person can be put in one or
the other type depending upon his
behavioral characteristics, somatic
structure, blood types, fluids in the
body or personality traits.
classification was based on the three basic
elements of the body i.e pitta(bile),
vata(wind) and kuf(mucus).
i) Hippocrates classification : according to
Hippocrates the human body consists
of 4 types of humours of fluids– Blood,
Yellow bile, Phlegm (mucus) and
Black bile.
--- predominance of one of these 4 types
of fluids in ones body gives him unique
temperamental characteristics leading
to a particular type of personality.
 PERSONALITY
 Kretschmer classified all human beings
into certain biological types according
to their physical structure and has
allotted definite personality
characteristics associated with each
physical make-up.
 Pyknic (having fat bodies) :
sociable, jolly, easy going and good
natured.
 Athletic (balanced body) :
energetic, optimistic and
adjustable.
 Leptosomatic (lean and thin) :
unsociable, reserved, shy, sensitive
and pessimistic.
• Sheldon thought personality and body
type are correlated. It is somewhat
misleading. Their does not exist such
perfect body-mind or body-heart
correlation as the propagators of these
approaches have assumed.
• Jung's theory
• divided human beings into 2 types-
Introvert and Extrovert according to
their social participation and the
interest which they take in social
activities.
---again sub-divided by considering the
4 psychological functions- thinking,
feeling, sensation and intuition.
1 Thinking :
> Introvert thinking type
- More theoretical
- Afraid of external realities
- Absorbing in his own intellectual pursuits
> Extrovert thinking type
- Realistic and practical
- Support theory with facts
2. Feeling :
> Introvert feeling type
- Day dreamer
- Strong feeling, likes, dislikes
- Go on suffering but do not express their
feeling to others.
> Extrovert feeling type
- Helpful nature
- Feel for others and admire others
- More social
• This classification of Jung is
criticized. Most of us, on the basis of
typical characteristics prescribed for
introvert and extrovert, may belong
to both of the categories, as may be
called Ambivert.
This brings complication and hence
this type of approach does not give a
clear picture of classification or
description of personality.
 Sensation
> Introvert sensational type
- Cool
- Better in writing than speaking
- Interested in books, magazines etc.
> Extrovert sensational type
- Good taste and enjoyment seeker
- Demand constant emotional sensation
- Fluent in speech
- Interested in athletics
4 Intuition
 PERSONALITY
> Introvert intuition type
- Concerned with probabilities then actual
- Not interested in external facts
- Moody and temperamental
> Extrovert intuition type
- Optimistic
- Risk taker and change seeker
• Special Features of the Trait
Approach
▪ The trait approach is interested in
predicting the typical behavior of
people who score within a certain
segment of the trait continuum-
such a low in social anxiety, or
high in social anxiety.
▪ The approach enables to compare
across people, such as low or
high in anxiety.
▪ The approach does not attempt
to predict the behavior of a
specific person.
▪ It describes personality, but does
not attempt to explain it the
underlying mechanisms of traits.
▪ AllportAllport was the founder of
the trait approach
▪ He suggested two avenues to
study personality:
▪ The nomothetic– that looks at
typical behavior across people
(e.g. how do anxious people
typically behave)
▪ The idiographic: the in-depth
study of one person, such as in a
case-study.
•
Central, Secondary, and Cardinal
Traits
According to Allport
▪ Central Traits: about 5 traits along
which a particular person can be
described
▪ Secondary traits: other, less
“central” traits in a particular
individual
▪ Cardinal trait: Just ONE trait that
“takes over” , often related to
psychopathology, for example, a
person who is paranoid, a tendency
that is reflected in all aspects of
his/her behavior.
• THEORIES ADOPTING TYPE CUM TRAIT
APPROACH
This approach tries to synthesize the type
and trait approach. Starting from the
trait approach it yields definite
personality types.
1.Eysenck’s theory of personality
• HJ Eysenck identified the major
components of personality as a number
of personality types. Each type is made
up of a set of personality characteristics.
• For example, people who fit Eysenck’s
extroverts type are said to have such
 PERSONALITY
characteristics as sociability, liveliness
and excitability. Each of these
characteristics, according to Eysenck can
be broken down into certain habitual
response.
▪ Pattern that habitual response
patterns can be broken down further
into specific responses within
specific situations. This progression
from broad, global types down to
specific situation bound, responses
is what makes Eysenck’s approach a
hierarchical theory.
▪ According to Eysenck, the two
dimensions of neuroticism (stable
vs. unstable) and introversion-
extroversion combine to form a
variety of personality characteristics.
▪ Extraverts are commonly known as
being loud and outgoing while
introverts are often thought of as quiet
and reserved.
▪ Neuroticism explores qualities like
impulse control and predictability of
emotions with traits like anxiety,
nervousness and reactivity. People who
demonstrate emotional stability are
calm and relaxed
▪ Traits are broad behavioral elements
that define who you are, like calm or
easily excited.
Eysenck was a theorist who focused on
personality traits,
i.e on two dimensions-
Extraversion vs Introversion
Emotional stability vs Neuroticism
•
THEORIES ADOPTING DEVELOPMENTAL
APPROACH :
Considers the developmental patterns or
characteristics of one’s personality.
a) Theories like psychoanalytic theory of
Freud
b) theory of individual psychology by Adler
c) Carl Roger’s self theory
• Psychodynamic Theories
• Behavior- psychological forces within
individual, - outside conscious
awareness
• Features – Much of mental life is
unconscious – Mental processes such as
emotions, motivations and thought may
conflict with one another
• – Early childhood experiences strongly
affect personality development
• – Our mental representation of
ourselves and others guides our
interactions with others
• – Development of personality involves
learning to regulate sexual and
aggressive urges
• A system of psychological theory and
therapy which aims to treat mental
disorders by investigating the
interaction of conscious and
unconscious elements in the mind and
bringing repressed fears and conflicts
into the conscious mind by techniques
 PERSONALITY
such as dreams interpretation and free
association
• Sigmund freud, a famous psychologist,
first popularized psychonalysis in 1900s
• Example : fear of cats (unpleasant
experience in the childhood )
• Sigmund Freud
• Sigmund freud was an Austrian
neurologist and the founder of
psychoanalysis, a theory which explains
human behavior and a method of
treating mental illness
• Psychoanalysis is often known as the
talking cure
• Typically freud would encourage his
patients to talk freely regarding their
symptoms and to describe exactly what
was on their mind
Aims of psychoanalysis therapy
• To release the repressed emotions and
experiences, i.e, make the unconscious
conscious.(Gaining insight)
• Psychoanalysis is commonly used to
treat depression and anxiety disorders
• Treatment focusses on bringing the
repressed conflicts to conscious, where
the client can deal with it realistically
and maturely
• dreams can reveal unconscious
Views of Sigmund freud
1 The world of unconscious
• Freud claimed there is more to mental
life than consciousness, the conscious
part occupies only the 1/10th portion of
total mental life
• This vast part remain of the mental life
of human being remain hidden and
usually inaccessible
• It contains all the repressed wishes,
desires,feelings, drives and motives
many of which relate to sex and
aggression
• This hidden treasure is responsible for
most of his behavior
• The key to most of behavioural
problem lies in bringing the
unconscious to the conscious level
2 Psychoanalytic method
• Freud gave importance to long
forgotten repressed childhood
experiences for determining many
problems of adult behavior
• He founded the psychoanalytic method
- analyzing the unconscious behavior
• Techniques 1) Free association
2) Dream analysis-
the dream is essentially a disguised
satisfaction for desires
that have been repressed during
waking life, which are
released symbolically in dreams, by
analysing of these
mind
3)Analysis of the
daily psychopathology – repressed
desires or experiences
 PERSONALITY

can also be revealed through day-to-

day psychopathology

in terms of slips of tongue, slips of

• Communicates to the outerworld
and the inner self through
speech, pictures, writing,
pen etc
physical movement and thought
•
•
Psychoanalytic theory has three major
parts
• A theory of the structure of personality Only level of mental life directly
available to us
, in which the id, ego and super ego are

•
the principle parts
• A theory of personality dynamics ,in
which conscious and unconscious This is seen as the tip of the
motivation and ego defense iceberg

•
mechanisms play major role
• A theory of psychosexual development,
in which different motives and body Ex – you may be feeling thirsty at
regions influence the child at different this moment and decide to get a
stages of growth with effects persisting drink

•
in the form of adult personality traits

• Division of mind PRECONSIOUS

• UNCONSIOUS • It exist just below the conscious

•
These three levels of the human
mind continuously clash and
compromise to give birth to one or
other types of behavioral Contains thoughts and feelings
characteristics leading to a that a person is not currently
particular type of personality aware of , but which can easily
be brought to conscious

• CONSIOUS
• If you were asked what you

•
watched last night or what you
had for breakfast this morning,
Immediate awareness you would be pulling that
 PERSONALITY
information out of your
preconscious
•
Acts as a watchman – prevents
certain painful, unpleasant,
unacceptable distributing
unconscious memories from
reaching the conscious mind
• UNCONSIOUS
• Primary source of human behavior
• Like an iceberg, the most important
part of the mind is the part you cannot
see
• Storehouse of all significant and
disturbing memories and experiences
which we need to keep out of
awareness because they are too
threatening to acknowledge fully.This is
called repression
• Ex – slip of tongue, dreams, wishes
•
Freud believes the anatomy of our
personality
is built around the three unified and
interrelating systems
•
ID
•
EGO
•
SUPER EGO
•
ID
• Latin word of id is ‘it’
• Id is the original source of personality,
which is present in a newborn
• Operates on pleasure principle-to gain
pleasure, avoid pain
• Nothing else matters to the id except
the satisfaction of its own needs
• It is not oriented toward considering
the reality nor the needs of others
• Resides completely at unconscious
level
• EGO
• Latin word of ego is I – self
• Operates on reality principles does
realistic and logical thinking
• The balance between id and super ego
• Ego delays the discharge of tension, it
postpone the desires.This adaptive
measure of ego is referred as secondary
process thinking
• Process thinking – ego waits for the
right moment for the satisfaction of
desire, whereas id satisfies desires
immediately
•
Resides in all level of awareness
•
SUPER EGO
• Operates on moral principles
 PERSONALITY

• Idealistic and does not care for realities

• The anima and animus
• Perfection is its, rather than pleasure

• Able to differentiate between good and • Personal unconsciousness

bad, right and wrong
• It is the layer of mind dealing with
• Resides in preconscious one’s personal and individual thinking

• Embraces all repressed forgotten or

• Freud’s Contributions to Psychology subliminally perceived experiences by
one individual.
• Conscious/unconscious
• Examples : neglected or repressed
• Study of abnormal personality desires, ideas, feelings, fears, guilts,

• Focus on childhood issues

anxiety, forgotten incidents or dreams,
private or family experiences occurring
• Focus on sexual abuse
in a lifetime of an individual

• Dream interpretation • Collective unconsciousness

• Use of the concept of association • Jung’s most distinctive concept
• Psychoanalysis • Emotionally toned experiences derived
• Internal conflicts, striving for balance
ancestors

• Issues with parents

• Responsible for myths , legends, and
religious beliefs

• Carl Jung • Refers not to the inherited ideas but to

• Structure of psyche or mind man innate tendency to act in a certain

way whenever experience stimulates a

•
biologically- inherited response
Personal unconscious tendency

• Collective unconscious
• Example : thinkings, feelings, and
doings by one’s ancestor being

• The archetypes
transferred from generation to
generation

• Self realization
• Contains the archetypes

• The shadow
• The Archetypes
 PERSONALITY

• • Hinduism – atma
• Islam – soul

• The persona • Represent the unconsciousness and

consciousness of an individual
• Derived from Latin word meaning –
• The creation of self occurs through a
mask
process known as individuation, in
• How we present ourselves to the world which various aspects of personality
• The persona represents all of the
are integrated
different social masks that we wear • The self is the ultimate unity of the
among different groups and situations Personality and is symbolized by a
• It acts to shield the ego from negative
cross, a circle, and the Mandala figures
that Jung was fond of painting
images
• According to jung, the persona may
appear in dreams and take a number of
• The shadow

•
different forms
HERO
• The dark side of the ego , cruel side of
us.
• It is represented in mythology and
• It may represent all that bad and
legends as a powerful person
mean in man but attempt to hide from
sometimes , part god, who fights
ourselves and others
against great odds to conquer or to
destroy the evil in the form of
dragons, monsters, serpents and
• Jung contended that – to be whole we
must be continually strive to know our
demons
shadow and that this is our first stage
• The image of hero touches an of courage

•
archetype within us, as demonstrated
by our fascination with the heroes of
the movies, novels ,plays and
television programme
Jung – it tells us everything that all
human refuses to acknowledge about
themselves

• The wise old man • Images could be snake, demons ,

dragon etc

• THE SELF • Anima and animus

• Most important archetype of all is the
• Jung believed all humans are
self
psychologically bisexual and possess
• The self is a universal idea present in all both masculine and feminine traits
primitive(old) religion and philosophy
 PERSONALITY

• The anima is a feminine image in the • He was the first major figure to break
male psyche(mind or thinking) and the away from psychoanalysis to form an
animus is a male image in the female independent school of psychotherapy
psyche(mind or thinking) and personality

• According to Jung – every male has a • Focused on how social interactions and
female in himself and every female has conscious thought influence overall
a male in herself individual growth

• Together referred as synergy • Psychodynamic theory

• Origin
• Organ inferiority
• It originates in the collective • Feelings of inferiority
unconscious as an archetype and
remain extremely resistant to • Striving for superiority
consciousness
• Style of life
•
• Fictional finalism
This originated from early men’s
experience with women- mother, sister

• Social interest
and lovers that combined to from a
generalized picture of a women

• Animus originates from the encounters • Organ inferiority

of pre-historic women with men

• Women experiences with-brothers,

• Term coined by Alfred adler, to
describe how people who found
fathers, lover, sons etc
themselves born with certain psychical
defects develops feelings of inferiority

• Alfred Adler
(February 7, 1870 – May 28, 1937)
• Example – person with weak eye sight
might develop interest in visual things
• Austrian psychiatrist
as a method of compensation and
thus becomes interested in reading
• Best known for
• Organ inferiority doesn't always leads
• Individual psychology to inferiority complex - which is a

• The concept of the inferiority complex

disorder that happens as result of
improper compensation
• President of Vienna psychoanalytic
• Feelings of inferiority
society
 PERSONALITY
• All children starts life with feelings of
inferiority because they are completely
dependent on adults for survival
• This feeling of being weak, inferior and
impotent stimulates an intense desire
to seek power, thereby overcoming the
feeling of inferiority
• Example – if a certain culture assigns
better status to tall men then a short
man might develop a inferiority
complex as a result of feeling that he is
less important than others
• Now if the same short man lived in a
culture that made no difference
between both tall and short men then
he would have never developed
inferiority complex
• Striving for superiority
• It is the use of the effort to obtain
superiority over others
• The drive motivates a person to do
everything perfect and complete so he
may get superiority over others
• An innate need from the time of the
birth, master motive that leads people
to pursue a superior or perfect society
• Style of life(life style)
• Each individual seeks to cope with the
environment and develop superiority in
a unique way
• Each of us shares the common goal of
striving for superiority, even though
there are many different ways by which
we may achieve this goal
• One may try to develop competence
and superiority through intellectual
skills
• Another may seek self-perfection by
capitalizing on physical strenghts
• Fictional finalism
• Fictional future goal which a person
aspires for
• Alder called – guiding self ideal
• Birth order
• Adler was the first theorist who
focused not only on a child’s parents
for influencing the behavior but also
the child’s brothers and sisters as well
•
The importance of the family
atmosphere and family constellation
Only child
• More likely to be pampered
• Parents have probably invested all of
their love and energy into this one and
extremely taken care of
• Sometimes this excessive care can lead
to anxiety filled control because the
child is the pride and joy of the parents
• If parents are abusive, the child will
suffer the consequences of abuse all
alone
 PERSONALITY
First born child
• When the next child is born they are
no longer center of attention
• The child may act like a baby and cry,
refusing to grow up
• Some may become rebellious and
disobedient
• Alder says – elder child is problem child
• Positive – caring, conservative, solitary,
responsible
• Second born child
• The child has the role as the pace setter
• These children are not pampered as
their older sibling was, but are still
afforded the attention
• They will be very competitive
,constantly outdo the eldest child-they
also often succeed
• rose to prominence in the mid 20th
• Defense Mechanisms
• Denial – Refusal to acknowledge a
painful reality
• Repression – Unpleasant thoughts are
excluded from consciousness
• Projection – Attributing one’s own
feelings, motives, or wishes to others
• Identification – Taking on the
characteristics of other to avoid feeling
incompetent
• Regression – Reverting to childlike
behavior
• HUMANIST SCHOOL : CARL ROGER
• Introduction
• Carl Ransom Roger (1902-1987)
• Humanist psychologist
• Founder of client-centered
psychotherapy
Humanist : an advocate or follower of the
principles of humanism
Humanism : a doctrine, attitude, or way of
life centered on human interests or
values; especially a philosophy that
usually rejects supernaturalism and
stresses an individual’s dignity and
worth and capacity for self- realization
through reason.
• This is a psychological perspective which
century in response to limitations of
Freud's psychoanalytic theory and
Skinner’s behaviourism.
• Humanists roots runs from Socrates
through Renaissance and emphasizes
individuals inherent drive towards self-
actualization, the process of realising
and expressing one’s own capabilities
and creativity.
• Adopts holistic approach to human
existence and pays special attention to
phenomena like creativity, free will and
positive regard and encourages self
exploration.
 PERSONALITY
• is a new school of psychology which
reflects the recent trends of humanism
in psychology.
•
Humanist psychology referred as
humanism emerged during 1950s which
stress on distinctive human aspects of
personality as the existence of his free
will and freedom of choice and his
search for unique goals and values to
guide his behaviour and to give a
personal meaning to his existence.
• Roger’s focus was to ensure that, the
development processes that led to
healthier personality functioning.
• The term ‘actualizing tendency’ was
coined by Roger and was a concept
which led Abraham Maslow to study
‘self actualization’ as one of the needs
of humans.
• So, Roger and Maslow introduced this
positive humanistic psychology in
response to what they viewed as overly
pessimistic view of psychoanalysis.
• Basic principles of Humanistic
psychology
• A human is more than just a sum of his
parts. He should be viewed holistically
and not reductively.
• Person’s behaviour is influenced by his
environment and social interactions are
the key in development of human
beings.
• People are aware of their existence i.e.
they are conscious of themselves and
their surroundings . They are aware of
past experiences and relate them to
inform present and future behaviour.
•
Humans have free will and make
conscious choices
• and this will help them to achieve their
full potential as human being.
• This need for fulfilment and personal
growth is a key motivator of all
behaviour.
• Carl Roger’s humanistic approach of
client-centered therapy is of special
importance as its philosophy marked a
paradigm shift to existing approaches in
psychotherapy.
•
It offers valuable aspects that can easily
be integrated into the homeopathic
practice.
• Humanism emphasizes the study of the
whole person.
• One of the basic assumptions is that
humans are basically good and
trustworthy.
• They have free will with regard to
choices and the path they go down.
• Central to the humanistic theories are
the subjective experiences of the
individual.
 PERSONALITY
• Objective reality is less important than a
person’s subjective perception and
understanding of the world: “Man
essentially lives in his personal and
subjective world“. Thus,“ There are as
many realities as there are humans”.
• Roger regarded personal growth and
fulfillment in life as a basic human
motive.
• He agreed with the main assumptions of
Maslow, but added that for a person to
grow, they need an environment that
provides them with genuineness,
acceptance and empathy.
• Without these, relationships , healthy
personalities will not develop as they
should.
• Each person seeks to grow
psychologically and to continuously
enhance oneself, which is captured by
the term “self-actualization”.
• He emphasized, that the potential of
each individual is unique, and that we
are meant to develop in different ways
according to our personalities
• Roger’s : core ideas
➢The self
➢Self-actualization
➢Organismic valuing process
➢Conditional vs unconditional positive
regard
➢The ‘fully functioning’ person
• The self
• Roger’s personality theory is the notion
of self or self-concept which is defined
as the organized, consistent set of
perceptions and beliefs about oneself –
the perceptions that the individual has
of the “I” or the “me”
----The self-concept includes three
components:
• Self worth or self-esteem – how we
value ourselves
• Self-image – how we see ourselves
• Ideal self – the person we would like to
be
• The self-actualizing
• The self-actualizing tendency describes
the inborn tendency of the organism to
develop all one‘s possibilities, and in
such a way that it serves the
maintenance and promotion of the
organism.
• This tendency is
--directional,-constructive and present in
all living beings
--Roger considers it as “the most profound
truth about man”.
• 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
 PERSONALITY
they would like to be) is congruent with
their actual behavior (self-image).
Humans strive :
•
to become what they can be,
• to realize their potentialities,
• to live in a way which is deeply satisfying
to them and which truly expresses
them.
• The actualizing tendency can be
suppressed but can never be destroyed
without the destruction of the
organism.
• Organismic valuing
• Roger’s opinion was that organisms
know what is good for them and they
have the ability to make changes, which
is called “organismic valuing”.
• Related to the self-concept and self-
actualization are secondary needs such
as the “need for positive regard from
others”, which refers to love, warmth,
sympathy, respect, affection, attention
etc.,
• and “the need for positive self-regard”,
an internalized version which refers to
self-esteem, self-worth, and a positive
self-image.
• Unconditional positive regard
• is where parents and others (and even
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
• 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 parents.
• The ‘ fully functioning’ person
• Roger described an individual who is
self-actualizing as a “fully functioning
person”.
• The needs for positive regard from
others and positive self-regard match
organismic evaluation and there is
congruence between self and
experience, with full psychological
adjustment as a result.
 PERSONALITY
• Rogers regarded the fully functioning
person as an ideal who is able to live
existentially, is trusting his organism,
expresses feelings freely, acts
independently, is creative and lives a
richer life – “the good life”.
• 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.
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).
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.
• Therapy according to Roger
• The organism has one basic tendency
and striving – to actualize, maintain, and
enhance the experiencing organism.
Whether one calls it a growth tendency,
a drive toward self-actualization, or a
forward-moving directional tendency, it
is the mainspring of life, and is in the
last analysis, the tendency upon which
all psychotherapy depends.
• The therapist’s attitude
• Therapy focuses on the whole person,
not their isolated problems.
• Congruence
With congruence Rogers refers person
to achieve self-actualization. Self image
is similar to Ideal Self. (client be able to
search for his own truth).
• Unconditional positive regard
With unconditional positive regard
Roger means that there is acceptance,
sympathy and appreciation whatever
the client‘s situation, behavior or
feelings may be
• Empathy
Emphatic understanding means to let
yourself enter the world of another
person‘s feelings and meanings and to
see them as he does – stepping into his
world without evaluating or judging
him.