Carl Ransom Rogers: Humanistic Approach To Psychology

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Carl Ransom Rogers (January 8, 1902- February 4, 1987) was an American psychologist and among the founders of the humanistic approach to psychology. Rogers is widely considered to be one of the founding fathers of psychotherapy research and was honored for his pioneering research with the Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions by the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1956.
His father, Walter A. Rogers, was a civil engineer and his mother, Julia M. Cushing was a homemaker and devout Pentecostal Christian. Carl was the fourth of their sixth children. Rogers was intelligent and could read well before kindergarten. Following an education in a strict religious and ethical environment, he became rather isolated, independent and …show more content…
While completing his doctoral work, he engaged in child study. In 1930, Rogers served as Director of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in Rochester, New York. From 1935 to 1940, he lectured at the University of Rochester and wrote the Clinical Treatment of the Problem a Child (1939), based on his experience in working with troubled children. In 1940, Rogers became professor of Clinical Psychology at Ohio State University, where he wrote his second book, Counseling and psychotherapy (1942). In it, Rogers suggested that the client, by establishing a relationship with an understanding, accepting therapist, can resolve difficulties and gain the insight necessary to restructure their …show more content…
In 1947, he was elected President of the American Psychological Association. While a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago (1945-57), Rogers helped to establish a counseling centre connected with the university and there conducted studies to determine the effectiveness of his methods. His findings and theories appeared in Client-Centered Therapy (1951) and psychotherapy and Personality change (1954). In 1956, Rogers became the first President of the American Academy of Psychotherapists. He taught Psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (1957-63), during which time he wrote one of his best-known books, on Becoming a Person (1961). Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow (1908-70) pioneered a movement called humanistic psychology which reached its peak in the 1960s. In 1961, he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Carl Rogers was also one of the people who questioned the rise of McCarthyism in 1950s. Through articles, he criticized society for its backward-looking affinities.
Rogers last years were devoted to applying his theories in situations of political oppression and national social conflict, traveling worldwide to do so. In Belfast, Northern Ireland, he brought together influential Protestants and Catholics. In South Africa, Blacks and White. In Brazil, people emerging from dictatorship to democracy. In the United States, consumers and providers
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