Biography of Carl Rogers

Are these five qualities related to personality? If so, how?How does Rogers’ view compare with that of Maslow and other humanistic psychologists?

CARL ROGERS 1902 – 1987 Dr. C. George Boeree Biography Carl Rogers was born January 8, 1902 in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, the fourth of six children. His father was a successful civil engineer and his mother was a housewife and devout Christian. His education started in the second grade, because he could already read before kindergarten. When Carl was 12, his family moved to a farm about 30 miles west of Chicago, and it was here that he was to spend his adolescence. With a strict upbringing and many chores, Carl was to become rather isolated, independent, and self-disciplined. He went on to the University of Wisconsin as an agriculture major. Later, he switched to religion to study for the ministry. During this time, he was selected as one of ten students to go to Beijing for the “World Student Christian Federation Conference” for six months. He tells us that his new experiences so broadened his thinking that he began to doubt some of his basic religious views. After graduation, he married Helen Elliot (against his parents’ wishes), moved to New York City, and began attending the Union Theological Seminary, a famous liberal religious institution. While there, he took a student organized seminar called “Why am I entering the ministry?” I might as well tell you that, unless you want to change your career, never take a class with such a title! He tells us that most of the participants “thought their way right out of religious work.” Religion’s loss was, of course, psychology’s gain: Rogers switched to the clinical psychology program of Columbia University, and received his Ph.D. in 1931. He had already begun his clinical work at the Rochester Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. At this clinic, he learned about Otto Rank’s theory and therapy techniques, which started him on the road to developing his own approach. He was offered a full professorship at Ohio State in 1940. In 1942, he wrote his first book, Counseling and Psychotherapy. Then, in 1945, he was invited to set up a counseling center at the University of Chicago. It was while working there that in 1951 he published his major work, Client-Centered Therapy, wherein he outlines his basic theory.