Joe's Story - Suggested Answers
Question 1
It is clear that Joe has a poor ‘self concept’. Describe four main points of Carl Rogers’ theory of self concept. (You should aim to write about 200 words)
The theory of self-concept is about how we form a view or
opinion about ourselves and what influences that.
According to his theory, we are always striving for actualisation which means we are always striving to reach our full potential. We are driven to work towards our ‘ideal self’. We may aspire, for example, to be very intelligent, kind, good at sports and very popular with others. When our self concept, and our ‘ideal self’ are ‘far apart’, then we can experience some emotional problems such as anxiety or depression.
The organismic self is a person’s 'true' or 'real' self. It is this organismic self that strives to become our ‘ideal self’. This organismic self may need to be angry at times, cry at other times, get comfort or to feel happy ... it will do whatever is necessary to achieve what it aspires to be. This development, though, is affected by our environment or by other people. These other people are important because Rogers says we need something called 'positive regard'. This means that we need significant people in our lives to view us in a positive way - to accept us and not disapprove of us. If we grow up with people around us saying positive things to us, encouraging us and making us feel good about ourselves then we are likely to have a positive self-regard. In other words we ‘like’ ourselves.
This, though, can be influenced by ‘conditions of worth’. These could include things like only being considered to be of worth or value only if we behave, think and feel in ways that others have told us are worthy of love. If we often get the message that we are only valued or loved if we don't show anger, are pretty, or always ‘do well’, then we learn to deny our feelings of anger, get depressed if we don’t feel pretty or work really hard to ‘be successful'. These conditions of worth mean we change our behaviours to 'meet' the conditions ... in other words, we 'dance to the tune' of the conditions that are imposed on us, and this can mean we are no longer being honest with ourselves.
This can be quite damaging and so, in situations like this, we may need support to develop a better and more positive self concept where we can disregard these unhealthy conditions of worth.
This is what Carl Rogers called an external or an internal locus of evaluation. We are either dependent on what other people think of us - an external locus - to develop a positive self concept, or we may have to rely on what we have decided about ourselves which is our internal locus.
If we have experienced either no or only a little positive regard in life we are more likely to have an external locus based on the criticisms of others, or standards set by others, which means we could go on to develop a poor self concept. In this case, we may need help to develop a more positive internal locus that isn’t dependent on other people’s opinion of us.
Carl Rogers felt that, no matter what challenges we face, our organismic self will always strive for self actualisation, or for things to be ‘better’.
Question 2
With reference to Carl Rogers’ theory of Self Concept, explain two ways you can help Joe develop a more positive self-esteem. (You should aim to write around 150 words. Remember that observing the 3 Core Conditions count as 1 way of helping Joe)
Carl Rogers describe 3 essential Core Conditions, and observing these is one way we can help Joe.
Empathy is one of these, and involves the worker understanding the person’s world, ‘putting themselves in the place’ of the other person and try to understand their experiences and feelings. This is not the same as sympathy … empathy means being able to put yourself in the shoes of the other person to genuinely understand their emotional state. It is important to be able to reflect this back to the client, so that they know and understand that you, the support worker, genuinely ‘gets it’.
This approach means the person feels understood, they become more aware of their feelings, and they are more likely to work with their support worker to explore their feelings and thoughts.
If Joe is treated in this way, he will feel accepted and safe and will be more likely to explore what he feels about himself and why, and this may help to change his low opinion of himself.
The second condition is Unconditional Positive Regard. This means being non judgemental, and accepting someone as they are. It means we can accept them for who they are, free of criticism or judgement.
If a support worker accepts Joe for who he is and doesn’t judge him or criticise him, then Joe is more likely to accept himself. If someone is always judged or cticised, they learn to fear judgement, and so alter their behaviours to avoid it. For Joe, an environment where there is unconditional positive regard feels like an emotionally safe place to ‘open up’ and explore how he feels and, as and if necessary, why he feels the way he does.
Carl Rogers does not promote ‘hanging on’ to past events, but working with the ‘here and now’, although it is acknowledged that past events can be part of the reason for someone requiring intervention.
This Unconditional Positive Regard will help increase his self-esteem. With no ‘conditions of worth’ being placed upon him, he will not fear ‘getting it wrong’ and this means he will free to be who he is without shame, embarrassment or any sense of ‘discomfort’ at ‘opening up’.
Congruence or Genuineness is the third core condition. This is when the support worker doesn’t pretend to be an expert or something they aren’t. This means that the support worker won’t come across as being an intimidating barrier to Joe ‘opening up’ and exploring his issues. He will trust the support worker, and won’t feel he has to ‘pretend to be something’ he isn’t because he feels he ought, in some way, to ‘live up to’ expectations.
Observing the 3 core conditions is one way of supporting Joe, and the other way is to simply be encouraging. Joe appears to be depressed and has low self esteem. We need to encourage Joe to allow himself to like himself, and to NOT see himself as a failure. We can encourage him to think about why he feels the way he does and gently challenge him, keeping, of course, the 3 core principles uppermost in our mind … we should challenge but not in a judgemental way, or in a way that might appear to condemn him in any way. We need to encourage him to ‘reframe’ his way of thinking of himself. He may feel a failure, but why is that, and what evidence does he have that he IS a failure ? At all times, we must keep in mind that what he feels is his ‘reality’ but is it an actual reality or is it just an opinion that he has developed over time and can’t move on from ? It’s not a case of saying “You are wrong, you are not a failure” … that is far to ‘shallow’ a way of approaching it, and ultimately won’t help with his self concept. As support workers, we need to help our clients dig down to find the root of the problem, and deal with that. To use a medical analogy … we can’t just stick a plaster on it … we have to treat the injury properly in order for it to heal, and to do that, for Joe, we need to encourage him, to get to the root of why he feels the way he does, and then we need to encourage him to try to develop a more healthy and positive self concept.
Question 3
Keeping the 3 core conditions in mind, how should you respond to the story where Joe described injuring Anna ? (You should aim to write about 120 words)
Joe has revealed that he, in the past, has been violent towards Anna, and this revelation may be one that challenges us. Domestic violence can never be excused, and so, as a support worker, it may be that our initial reaction would be to condemn Joe for what happened. However, if we remember the three Core Conditions, we need to demonstrate Unconditional Positive Regard, Empathy and Congruence.
In other words, while we need to be honest and genuine (congruent) in our work with Joe, we need to be able to focus on the NOW rather than on the past. We need to concentrate on how he is feeling now, and acknowledge events in the past without in any way criticising or judging him (unconditional positive regard). We need to develop a very real understanding of how this event makes him feel now (empathy), and work with his willingness to explore his feelings about the event NOW to help him move forward. We can’t change the past, after all, and, if we can help Joe to ‘open up’ and explore his feelings, understanding, as we do, that he is feeling genuine remorse for what happened, we can use THIS ‘aspect’ of the Joe we see TODAY to move forward. It can be a challenge to ‘park’ our own feelings in relation to a client’s behaviours or predilections, but, to support that person to move forward towards congruence, where they feel they are more ‘fulfilled’ with better self esteem, needs us to remember that they have entered into the support environment BECAUSE they have identified that something is ‘wrong’. It is THAT, which we should ‘grab onto’ and work with, acknowledging but largely ignoring the disagreeable events of the past.