Assessment in Roger’s Theory

To Roger’s, the only way to assess personality is in terms of the person’s subjective experience, the events in the person’s life as he or she perceives them and accepts them as real. He maintained that his clients had the ability to examine the roots of their problems.

Person-center therapy:
In the technique of person-centered therapy, Rogers explored the client’s feelings and attitudes toward the self and toward other people. He focused on subjective experiences, rather than unconscious experiences. The therapist learns about the client in what the person communicates about their experiences. Clients are accepted as they are and the therapist gives them unconditional positive regard and offers no judgments about their behavior or advice on how to behave.
He opposed assessment techniques such as free association, dream analysis, and case history. He believed they made clients dependent on the therapist. Clients could conclude that the therapist would solve their problems and all they need to do was sit back and follow the experts instruction.


Encounter Groups:
Roger’s used his person-centered therapy in groups, where he believed a greater number of people could learn about themselves and how they relate to or encounter others. His approach to encounter groups was very popular during the 1960’s and 1970’s. A typical group ranged from 8 to 15 people, and the group facilitator was to establish an atmosphere where the group members could express themselves and focus on how others perceive them. Through these group encounters, Roger’s believed most of the participants would become more fully functioning.

Psychological Test:
Rogers did not use psychological tests to assess personality, nor did he develop any tests. However other psychologists have devised tests to measure aspects of the experiential world. The experience inventory (Coan 1972), a self-report questionnaire, attempts to assess openness to experience, a characteristics of the fully functioning person.