The concept of cure is entirely inappropriate*

 Carl Rogers On Becoming a Person "Personality Change in Psychotherapy" (1954)

What is the Criterion for research in psychotherapy? this is the most perplexing issue which we faced early in our planning. there is widespread acceptance of the idea that the purpose of research in this field is to measure the degree of success in psychotherapy, or the degree of cure achieved. while we have not been uninfluenced by such thinking, we have, after careful consideration, given up these Concepts because they are undefinable, are essentially value judgments, and hence cannot be a part of the science of this field. there's no General agreement as to what constitutes success and - whether it is removal of symptoms, resolution of conflicts, improvement in Social behavior, or some other type of change. the concept of cure is entirely inappropriate, since in most of these disorders we are dealing with learned behavior, not with a disease 227

Thus from the theory of client-centered therapy we have drawn hypotheses such as these colon during therapy feelings which have previously been denied to awareness are experienced, and are assimilated into the concept of self; during therapeutic concept of the self becomes more congruent with the concept of the ideal self; during and after therapy The observed behavior of the client becomes more socialized and mature semicolon during and after therapy the client increases an attitudes of self-acceptance, and this is correlated with an increase in acceptance of others.  228 

 We asked instead, specific questions related to each hypothesis. what instrument can be used to measure the individual's concept of self? what instrument will be it will give a satisfactory measure of maturity of behavior? how can we measure the degree of an individual's acceptance of others?  229 

In order to obtain an objective indication of the client's self-per-ception, we made use of the newly devised Q-technique, developed by Stephenson (9). A large "universe" of self-descriptive statements was drawn from recorded interviews and other sources. Some typical statements are: "I am a submissive person"; "I don't trust my emotions"; "I feel relaxed and nothing bothers me"; "I am afraid of sex"; "I usually like people"; "I have an attractive personality"; "I am afraid of what other people think of me." A random sample of one hundred of these, edited for clarity, was used as the instrument.

Theoretically we now had a sampling of all the ways in which an individual could perceive himself. These hundred statements, each printed on a card, were given to the client. He was asked to sort the cards to represent himself "as of now," sorting the cards into nine piles from those items most characteristic of himself to those least characteristic. He was told to place a certain number of items in each pile so as to give an approximately normal distribution of the items. The client sorted the cards in this way at each of the major points, before therapy, after, and at the followup point, and also on several occasions during therapy. Each time that he sorted the cards to picture himself he was also asked to sort them to represent the self he would like to be, his ideal self.

We thus had detailed and objective representations of the client's self-perception at various points, and his perception of his ideal self.

These various sortings were then inter-correlated, a high correlation between two sortings indicating similarity or lack of change, a low correlation indicating a dissimilarity, or a marked degree of change.

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Eridence has been presented as to: the change in the self-concept of the cent, the degree to which the perceived self becomes similar to the valued self; the extent to which the self as perceived becomes more comfortable and adjusted; and the degree to which the client's perception of self becomes more congruent with a diagnostician's perception of the client. These findings tend to confirm the theoretical formulations which have been made as to the place of the self-concept in the dynamic process of psychotherapy.

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Essay “client-centered therapy in context of research”

A STUDY OF THE SELF-CONCEPT

Many investigations have been made of the changes in the client's concept of self, a construct which is central to the client-centered theory of thempy and personality. One, a study by Butler and Haigh (3), will be briefly reported here.

A method which has frequently been used for this purpose is the Q-technique developed by Stephenson (10), and adapted for the study of the self. Since an instrument based on this technique is used in the Butler and Haigh study, it may be simply described before giving the findings of the study itself.

From a number of recorded counseling cases a large population of all the self-referent statements was gleaned. From this a selection of 100 statements was made, and the statements edited for the sake of clarity. The aim was to select the widest possible range of ways in which the individual could perceive himself. The list included such items as: "I often feel resentful", "I am sexually attractive"; '1 really am disturbed"; "I feel uncomfortable while talking with some-one"; "I feel relaxed and nothing really bothers me."

In the Butler and Haigh study each person was asked to sort the cards containing the 100 items. First he was to "Sort these cards to describe yourself as you see yourself today." He was asked to sort the cards into nine piles, from those most unlike him, to those most like him. He was asked to place a certain number in each pile.

(The numbers in each pile were 1, 4, 11, 21, 26, 21, 11, 4, 1, thus giving a forced and approximately normal, distribution.) When he had completed this sort he was asked to sort the cards once more "to describe the person you would most like within yourself to be." This meant that for each item one would obtain the individual's self-perception, and also the value he attached to this characteristic.

It will be evident that the various sortings can be correlated. One can correlate the self pre-therapy with the self post-therapy, or the self with the ideal self, or the ideal self of one client with the ideal of another. High correlations indicate little discrepancy ar change, low correlations the reverse. Study of the specifie items which have been changed in their placement over therapy, for er-ample, gives a qualitative picture of the nature of the change. 256

He was interested, for example, in measuring the extent to which the client felt himself to be empathically understood. So he included items such as these regarding the therapist, to be rated by the client on a six-point scale from very true to very strongly not true. It will be evident that these represent different degrees of empathic under-standing.

He appreciates what my experience feels like to me.

He tries to see things thru my eyes.

Sometimes he thinks that I feel a certain way because he feels that way.

He understands what I say from a detached, objective point of view

He understands my words but not the way I feel.

A second element he wished to measure was the level of regard, the degree of liking of the client by the therapist. To measure this 

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there were items like the following, each one again rated from strongly true, to strongly not true.

He cares about me.

He is interested in me.

He is curious about "what makes me tick," but not really interested in me as a person.

He is indifferent to me.

He disapproves of me.

To measure the unconditionality of the regard, the extent to which there were "no strings attached" to the counselor's liking, items of this sort were included.

Whether I am expressing "good" feelings or "bad" ones seems to make no difference to the way he feels toward me.

Sometimes he responds to me in a more positive and friendly way than he does at other times.

His interest in me depends on what I am talking to him about.

In order to measure the congruence or genuineness of the therapist in the relationship, items of this sort were used.

He behaves just the way that he is, in our relationship.

He pretends that he likes me or understands me more than he really does.

There are times when his outward response is quite different from his inner reaction to me.

He is playing a role with me.

Barrett-Lennard also wished to measure another variable which he regarded as important —the counselor's psychological avail-

sort were used.

ability, or willingness to be known. To measure this, items of this

want to know them.

He will freely tell me his own thoughts and feelings, when I He is uncomfortable when I ask him something about himself.

He is unwilling to tell me how he feels about me.

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