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Rogerian Self-Actualization

A Clarification of Meaning

Department of Psychology, Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212.

Carl Rogers's construct of self-actualization changed significantly in its theoretical meaning and usage. In an early period, self-actualization identified Rogers's central motivational construct, which centered on optimal functioning. In later theoretical periods, the tendency toward self-actualization became part of a larger and more dynamic motivational model in which there exists the very good chance that self-actualization will conflict with the realization of optimal functioning-quite a change from its former optimal-functioning meaning. There is evidence that a number of psychologists, even scholars and critics of Rogerian theory, are unclear regarding the accurate meaning and implication of self-actualization in contemporary person-centered theory. This appears to represent a naivet6 about Rogers's two core theoretical works. The goal of this article is to provide a brief review of these with emphasis on the constructs of self-actualization and actualization.

Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Vol. 31, No. 2, 101-111 (1991)
DOI: 10.1177/0022167891312011


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