Carl Rogers

Carl Ransom Rogers was an American psychologist that took a humanistic approach to psychology. Carl Rogers is considered to be a founding father of psychotherapy research. He was honored with his pioneering research with the Distinguished Scientific Contributions award by the American Psychology Association in 1956.

Rogers was born on January 8, 1902 in Oak Park, Illinois outside of Chicago. Carl died on February 4, 1987 Walter Rogers, his father, was a civil engineer. His mother Julia Cushing was a homemaker. Carl was 4th out of 6 children. Rogers was extremely intelligent, he could read before kindergarten. Rogers was also an altar boy. Rogers’s first choice of career was in Agriculture. Rogers received his B.A. in 1924 from the University of Wisconsin, His M.A in 1928 from the University of Columbia, and his PH.D in psychotherapy from the University of Columbia in 1931 Carl also served as a psychology professor for many colleges. Rogers became a professor of psychology of Ohio State University in 1940 in which he stayed until 1945.

He then transferred to the University of Chicago where he was a professor of psychology and executive secretary of the Counseling Center. He took a point position in 1957 in the departments of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin. Rogers traveled to many colleges after.

Carl had his own unique approach called the person-centered approach. This helped him understand human relationships and personality. He would later use this as a method of therapy. He first called this method “non-directive therapy,” but later changed it to “client centered,” and then changing it to “person-centered” which is what it is known as now. The goal of person-centered therapy is to make the client dev...

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...ormed from a child’s interaction with his or hers parents.

Carl’s theory was based off of “phenomenal field” by Combs and Snygg. He wrote 16 books and many journal articles expressing his theory. Carl had his own theory which was summarized by 19 propositions. The first proposition could be considered the most important. The proposition is read as,” All individual organisms exist in a continually changing world of experience (phenomenal field) of which they are center of.

Some of Carl’s accomplishments consist of writing books, winning awards, and changing and producing a different way to go about therapy. His professional work was awarded with the Distinguished Professional Contributions to psychology by the American Psychology Association in 1972. Rogers was found to be the 6th most eminent psychologist. Carl was recognized as the humanist of the year in 1964.