* Real self
* Ideal self 
* Congruence
* Incongruence

Key Concepts Related to the Self-Concept

True or false? Self-concept helps answer the question, "Who am I?"

According to Carl Rogers, parents can help their children achieve congruence and develop a healthy self-concept by giving them unconditional positive regard, or unconditional love. When individuals are accepted and prized, they tend to develop a more caring attitude towards themselves.

Unconditional Positive Regard in Parenting

One of the main ideas proposed by Carl Rodgers was the idea of self-concept: how we feel about ourselves; and our attitudes and feelings towards ourselves.

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Carl Rogers (1902–1987) was an influential American psychologist and a key figure in humanism. Similar to Abraham Maslow, Rogers emphasized the inherent potential for good within every individual. He is widely known for developing client-centered therapy, a therapeutic approach where clients take a leading role in their own healing process. Rogers also played a crucial part in establishing a humanistic research program that moved away from traditional reductionist methods.

Carl Rogers

Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020, April 22). Psychology (2nd ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/1-introduction

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

Carl Rogers and Self-Concept

Developed by Carl Rogers, client-centered therapy is a humanistic approach that remains commonly used in psychotherapeutic settings today. It is designed to help individuals address problematic issues. In a departure from the psychoanalytic model, where the therapist interprets the unconscious, this therapy empowers the patient to take a leading role in the session. Rogers posited that when therapists provide certain core conditions, clients are fully capable of navigating and resolving their own problems.

Client-Centered Therapy (Rogerian)

Beginning with Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers, the humanistic research program emerged by rejecting the reductionist experimentation typically used in the traditions of the physical and biological sciences, as it failed to account for the “whole” human being. This research approach has been largely qualitative rather than measurement-based. Nevertheless, quantitative research does exist within humanistic psychology, focusing on areas such as happiness, self-concept, meditation, and the outcomes of humanistic psychotherapy.

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