Personality Theory and Assessment

Carl Rogers

Carl Rogers came from an average American family in the suburbs of Chicago . He was born on January 8 , 1902 in Oak Park , Illinois (Kirschenbaum , 1979 . He grew up in the traditional family set-up of that period , his father worked as a civil engineer while his mother stayed home . His mother was a devout Christian and religion had been a key aspect in his early life . The family moved to a farm when Carl was 12 , and removed from the influences of the city life , he was preoccupied with farm chores

. He spent his adolescent life in the farm and as expected being the second to the youngest child and authoritarian parents , he was generally independent and self-disciplined but isolated himself . Carl had always been an excellent student (Kirschenbaum , 1979 he started school in the second grade since he could read even before kindergarten . He pursued a major in agriculture in the University of Wisconsin by virtue of the fact that he grew up in a farm . However , he later changed majors and studied religion to join the ministry . In this year , he was sent to the World Student Christian Federation Conference ' in Beijing which lasted for 6 months . According to him the experience in Beijing have changed his beliefs about religion and even begun to question the basic religious truths that he believed in (Kirschenbaum , 1979 . Right after his graduation , he married Helen Elliot and transferred to New York City and delved into his theological inclinations and enrolled in the Union Theological Seminary which was then known for its liberal teachings . Carl Roger 's change of heart from religion to psychology was caused by his attending a seminar entitled Why am I entering the ministry ' This seminar significantly altered Carl 's career , he realized that he did not really had the right reasons for joining the ministry . After which , Carl joined the clinical psychology program at Columbia University and earned his doctoral degree in 1931 . His clinical training was at the Rochester Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children wherein he did his initial work and studied under the influence of Otto Rank (Kirschenbaum , 1979 . His experience in this clinic has inspired him to develop his own approach and theory . He joined the psychology department of Ohio State in 1940 as a full professor and by 1942 he had completed his first book Counseling and Psychotherapy . He was called upon by the University of Chicago in 1945 to establish a counseling center . His major work Client-Centered Therapy ' was completed in 1951 where he outlined his basic theory of personality (Kirschenbaum , 1979 . Carl Roger 's then became one of the celebrated personality theorists and his therapeutic approach gained popularity . He returned to the University of Wisconsin in 1957 , but his academic career was short lived for the psychology department in his alma mater was in shambles and he became disenchanted in academic life that he gratefully accepted the research post in La Jolla , California . He kept himself...