Carl Ransom Rogers (1902-1987)

Tara Walker

Psychology 106-751RL

April 20, 2008

Carl Ransom Rogers (1902-1987)

Carl Rogers was born on January 8, 1902 in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. The fourth of six children, his father was a successful civil engineer and his mother was a housewife and devout Christian. His education started in the 2nd grade, because he could already read before kindergarten.

Rogers was an American psychologist who originated the nondirective, or client-centered therapy and counseling, student-centered education, and person-centered approaches to human relations and community. He profoundly humanized psychology of human potential which has been embraced by not only American culture but by much of the developed world.

He attended the University of Wisconsin, but his interest in psychology and psychiatry originated while he was a student at Union Theological Seminary, New York City. After two years he left the seminary and took his M.A. (1928) and his Ph.D. (1931) from Columbia University’s Teacher’s College. While completing his doctoral work, he engaged in child study at the Society for prevention of Cruelty to Children, Rochester, N.Y., becoming the agency’s director in 1930.

From 1935 to 1940 he lectured at the University of Rochester and wrote The Clinical Treatment of the Problem Child (1939), based on his experience in working with troubled children. In 1940 he became professor of clinical psychology at Ohio State University, where he wrote Counseling and Psychotherapy (1942).

While a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago (1945-1957), 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).

Past president of the American Psychological Association, honored with its Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award in 1956, and recipient of its Professional Achievement Award in 1972. Rogers achieved significant recognition from mainstream psychology.

However it was outside academics, in the daily work of practitioners and ordinary people, where his work had its biggest impact. Now in the 21st century, Rogers’ ideas are deeply embedded in all understanding of human behavior, and their contemporary way of life.

Rogers is best known for his contributions to therapy. His therapy has gone through a couple of name changes along the way: He originally