The important ideas proposed by Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow are :

(A) People have a tendency to maximise self concept through self actualisation.
(B) There is a collective unconscious consisting of archetypes
(C) Behaviour is goal directed and worthwhile people try to express capabilities, potentials and talents to the fullest possible extent.
(D) An atmosphere of unconditional positive regard must be created in order to ensure enhancement of one's self concept.
(E) Human beings display a wide range of variations in psychological attributes (and it is possible)

Choose the correct answer from the options given below :

(A), (C), (D) only

Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow have particularly contributed to the development of humanistic perspective on personality.

Rogers suggests that each person also has a concept of ideal self. An ideal self is the self that a person would like to be. When there is a correspondence between the real self and ideal self, a person is generally happy. Discrepancy between the real self and ideal self often results in unhappiness and dissatisfaction. Rogers’ basic principle is that people have a tendency to maximise self-concept through self-actualisation (A). In this process, the self grows, expands and becomes more social.

Rogers makes two basic assumptions about human behaviour. One is that behaviour is goal-directed and worthwhile (C). The second is that people (who are innately good) will almost always choose adaptive, self-actualising behaviour. According to Rogers, an atmosphere of unconditional positive regard must be created in order to ensure enhancement of people’s self-concept (D). The client-centred therapy that Rogers developed basically attempts to create this condition.

Jung claimed that there was a collective unconscious consisting of archetypes or primordial images. (B)

Trait theories are mainly concerned with the description or characterisation of basic components of personality. They try to discover the ‘building blocks’ of personality. Human beings display a wide range of variations in psychological attributes, yet it is possible to club them into smaller number of personality traits. (E)