Question

Explain the theory of Self as proposed by Carl Rogers.

Answer 1

According to Rogers, every individual has to actualise himself. Mentally healthy persons have congruence between their experience and self-concept. Neurotic individuals deny awareness of their sensory and emotional experience. For example, if a mentally healthy student is facing failure in exams, he will find out the reasons and will try to overcome his weakness. But those who deny this experience and are incongruent with it may accept an escapist attitude, may give false excuses and will not accept his failure and blame others for it.

There are two important concepts related to this

1. Real self (self image): It is what the person actually is in reality. It is very important for good psychological health. A teenager may perceive himself as beautiful or ugly, a good or bad person. Self-image directly affects how a person feels, thinks and acts in this world. Real self has a tendency to actualise himself, organismic valuing needs and receives positive regard and self regard. Real self is our inner personality. It may not be perfect but it is our real part (Grice, 2007).
2. Ideal self: It represents the ideal image developed by a person as he/she would like to be. It represents our dynamic ambitions and goals. By Ideal self, Rogers meant some goals which are beyond our reach. This may result in the gap between real self and ideal self. If ideal self and real self are similar, our self concept is accurate.

If there is incongruence between the real self and the ideal self, it leads to maladjustment. If the ideal self and real self are congruent, our self-concept is accurate.
Self-actualisation refers to the motive to realise our full potential as we strive to be fully functioning individuals. A person with high self-worth can tolerate failure and cope with challenges of life, while someone with low self-worth tends to avoid challenges and cannot tolerate distress.

• The self-image is different from the ideal self.
• There is only a little overlap.
• Here, self-actualisation will be difficult.

• The self-image is similar to the ideal self.
• There is more overlap.
• This person can achieve self-actualisation.