Hidden Personality - Carl Rogers

Carl Rogers

Humanist psychologist Carl Rogers opposed psychoanalytic personality theory as he was dissatisfied with the 'dehumanising nature' of this school of thought (Pervin & Oliver 1997). The central tenet of humanistic psychology is that people have drives that lead them to engage in activities resulting in personal satisfaction and a contribution to society: the actualising tendency. This tendency is present in all organisms and can be defined as the motivation present in every life form to develop its potentials to the fullest extent. Humanistic psychology is based on an optimistic view of human nature and the direction of people's movement is basically towards self-actualisation. Some might criticise Rogers as being a naive optimist and point out the violent history of humanity. Rogers defends his view by referring to the fact that his theory is based on more than twenty-five years of experience in psychotherapy (Pervin & Oliver 1997).

A person's identity is formed through a series of personal experiences, which reflect how the individual is perceived by both him or herself and the outside world - the phenomenological field. Individuals also have experiences of which they are unaware and the phenomenological field contains both conscious and unconscious perceptions. The concept of the self is, according to Rogers, however, primarily conscious. The most important determinants of behaviour are those that are conscious or are capable of becoming conscious. Rogers argues that a notion of the self that includes a reference to the unconscious (as with Freud) cannot be studied objectively as it can not be directly known (Pervin & Oliver 1997).

Rogerian personality theory distinguishes between two personalities. The real self is created through the actualising tendency, it is the self that one can become. The demands of society, however, do not always support the actualising tendency and we are forced to live under conditions that are out of step with our tendencies. The ideal self is the ideal created through the demands of society. Rogers does not see it as something to strive for (that is the real self) but an ideal imposed on us we can never fully reach (Boeree 1998). Rogers' view of 'hidden' personality relates to the person one could be given the right circumstances within society. For an individual to be truly happy and for self-actualisation to be realised, the public and hidden selves must be as similar as possible. Rogers believed that when all aspects of a person's life, surroundings and thoughts are in harmony and thus the ideal state of congruence is reached (Pervin & Oliver 1997).