Congruence & Conditions of Worth (AQA A Level Psychology): Revision Note

Congruence & conditions of worth

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

• Congruence is the aim of Carl Rogers' client-centred therapy, in which unconditional positive regard is used by the therapist in the 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'

• To resolve these psychological issues, Rogers, in his role as a therapist, sought to provide the unconditional positive regard that his clients had not received in childhood 

Evaluation of congruence & conditions of worth

Strengths

• Research supporting the conditions of worth comes from Harter et al. (1996)

  • They found that teens who felt they had to fulfil certain conditions in order to gain their parents' approval did not like themselves

  • They were also more likely to develop depression and lose touch with their true self

  • This finding is consistent with Rogers' view, as those who experience conditional positive regard are more likely to display false self behaviour

• Rogerian therapy can be praised for its optimistic view of human nature

  • By cultivating a counselling atmosphere that lifts blame, guilt and shame, it empowers clients to recognise that they are in control of their lives

  • In treating people as active agents of their lives, the approach proves both practical and highly valuable

Limitations

• Rogers' approach is to some extent vague and imprecise

  • He relied on non‑experimental, qualitative techniques, such as unstructured interviews, to evaluate therapeutic success

  • This is limitation, as it is impossible to establish cause and effect, as we cannot be certain that any observed personal growth is directly due to humanistic therapy

  • Therefore Rogers' approach lacks scientific rigour

• 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 provide 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