We all react differently to situations in life, based on personal experience. Dr. Carl Rogers developed the person-centered approach through his belief that every person should fully accept their true selves in order to reach self-actualization. Throughout this essay, I will analyze the person-centered approaches to personality, compare the person centered theory to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, outline its main components and identify which theory I relate to the most and why. Psychologist Dr. Carl Rogers developed the person-centered approach theory. Rogers believed that in order for a person to gain self-acceptance, they would have to feel unconditionally accepted by others. He also believed that certain conditions must take place before a person could reach their full potential in life or self-actualization. The person-centered approach is actually the term used outside of therapy; within therapy it is called the client-centered approach. The person-centered approach is defined in Cloninger (2012) as: “Rogers’s orientation to therapy and education, which focuses on the experience of the client or student rather than the therapist or teacher”. Rogers’s concept of process proposes that at higher levels of development, people become more spontaneous in discovering and accepting …show more content…
I believe the following to be the main components of the person-centered approach: 1. The Actualizing Tendency: the force for growth and development that is innate in all organisms (Cloninger, 2012). 2. The Organismic Valuing Process: inner sense within a person, which guides him or her in the directions of growth and health (Cloninger, 2012). 3. Fully functioning: Rogers’s term for a mentally healthy person (Cloninger, 2012). 4. Ideal self: what a person feels he or she out to be like (Cloninger,