Congruence, Conditions of Worth & Counselling Psychology (AQA A Level Psychology)

The self, congruence & conditions of worth

The self

• The key assumption of humanistic psychology is the importance of the self

  • self-expression

    • the ways in which someone conducts themselves in personal, professional, artistic, sporting domains for example

  • self-image/real self

    • the 'picture' that one has of oneself which is formed from an internalised feeling of uniqueness and from interactions with others

    • self-image tends to be a realistic self-view

    • the more secure and 'solid' a person's self-image is, the more they are likely to be resilient and to accept that they have unending opportunities and potential to improve

  • self-esteem

    • the extent to which someone feels good about themselves, that they are worthy of love

  • ideal self

    • the 'perfect' version of the self according to one's own ideas and aspirations (as opposed to what, say, your parents or society feel you should be)

• Humanistic psychology takes this idea of self and asks, 'How can we make it better?'

  • The emphasis is on becoming the 'best self you can be'

What is congruence?

• Congruence describes the point at which a person's self-image completely overlaps their ideal self in the nature of a Venn diagram (see below)

• To be completely congruent a person must have scaled Maslow's hierarchy of needs and achieved self-actualisation

• Carl Rogers suggested congruence in the 1940s with his client-centred therapy in which unconditional positive regard is used by the therapist in their assessment and treatment of their client e.g.

  • the therapist does not judge the client, either openly or silently

  • the therapist accepts all traits, behaviours and flaws of the client

  • the client must come to view themselves with unconditional positive regard

• If the gap between the real and ideal self is too wide, the individual will suffer from incongruence and self-actualisation will not be possible

  • This is because the individual will suffer from negative feelings of self-worth e.g.

    • 'I wish I could be more patient with my children; I'm a bad mother'

    • 'Other people seem to have their lives figured out; why can't I be like that?'

    • 'My psychology class got bad grades in their mock exam which is completely my fault'

• By bringing the real and ideal self closer together, personal goals can be achieved

What are conditions of worth?

• Rogers claimed that many issues individuals face in adulthood stem from a lack of unconditional positive regard in childhood

• Rogers suggested that some parents may use conditions of worth with their child, e.g.

  • 'I will love you if you do exactly as I tell you and be the son/daughter I want you to be'

  • 'I love you because you got an A* in all of your GCSEs so make sure you repeat this with your A Levels'

  • 'I cannot possibly love you if you choose to be with this person; you must end the relationship'

• According to Rogers, conditions of worth play a key role in the development of psychological issues and damage into adulthood e.g.

  • 'I can't sustain a meaningful relationship as I don't believe that anyone would want to be with me'

  • 'I must work in the evenings and weekends to get promoted otherwise people will think I'm a failure'

  • 'If I could just slim down to a size 8 I know that I'd have more friends'

The influence on counselling psychology

• Rogers used a form of psychotherapy to treat his clients but unlike Freud, he chose to

  • focus on the positive aspects of the person

  • increase a client's self-worth and reduce incongruence between self-image and ideal self

• The mapping out of goals and milestones on the client’s ‘journey’ is known as phenomenology and is a good example of the idiographic approach

• Rogers developed client-centred therapy (known as counselling) to reduce the gap between the real self and ideal self

• Rogers, in his role as a therapist, sought to provide the unconditional positive regard that the client had not received in childhood 

Evaluation of congruence, conditions of worth & the influence on counselling psychology

Strengths

• Roger's client-centred approach can be praised for its emphasis on the positive aspects of the person being treated

  • This removes blame, guilt and shame from people who seek counselling (which Freudian therapy may not achieve)

  • Therefore this form of counselling is likely to lead to a good rate of client retention and lack of client attrition, meaning that the approach can be viewed as a useful and valuable resource

• Rogers' influence can seen in the plethora of self-help manuals which emerged in the USA from the 1960s onward

  • Such manuals may help people to 'heal' themselves to some extent, removing the need for (expensive) therapy

Limitations

• Rogers' approach is to some extent vague and imprecise

  • This lack of precision and direction makes it difficult to know how a potential therapist would structure their sessions or access the ideas

  • A successful counselling session may then rely more on the skill of individual therapists than on the system itself i.e. a lack of consistency

  • This limits the reliability of Rogers' ideas

• The use of unconditional positive regard may not help some clients

  • It may be necessary for some people to dwell on the negative, conflicted aspects of themselves for the therapy to be an agent of real and lasting change

  • By unconditionally accepting their client the therapist may not challenge them sufficiently to address real issues of concern e.g. addiction, mental disorder