Person‐Centered Psychology

Abstract

This chapter introduces person-centered psychology, founded on the work of Carl R Rogers, as a vibrant, innovative, evidence-based, developing body of work relevant to clinical psychologists, psychotherapists and group workers, and more recently, applied positive psychologists. The person-centered approach conceptualizes a single organismic process underpinning the spectrum of psychological functioning. The chapter discusses Rogers’ theory of personality and how it provides a unified theory of health and distress. Then, it focuses on infant development which describes how experiences early in life determine psychological functioning. The chapter also examines fundamental potential dynamic of human personality and how it gives rise to distress. It concludes that person-centered psychology is a positive psychology as a result of its core assumption that people are intrinsically motivated towards the personal growth of their potentialities. When facilitated in authentic, empathic and unconditionally accepting relationships, this directional force leads to greater positive functioning.

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