Actualizing Tendency

Rogers defined the actualizing tendency as “the inherent tendency of the organism to develop all its capacities in ways which serve to maintain or enhance the organism” (1959, p. 196). This definition suggests that people naturally move toward differentiation, expansion in growth, wholeness, integration, autonomy and self-regulation, and effectiveness in functioning. The actualizing tendency is viewed as a biologically based master motive that subsumes other motives such as a reduction in needs, tensions, and drives as well as an inclination to learn and be creative. It is the bedrock on which person-centered psychotherapy is based. A core belief in an actualizing tendency is the basis for the client-centered therapist’s trust and optimism in clients’ resourcefulness and capacity to move forward and find solutions to their problems. Art Combs, speaking of the person’s fundamental drive toward fulfillment or health stated, “clients can, will and must move toward health, if the way seems open to them to do so” (1999, p.8, italics in original). Tageson believes that the “living organism . . . will always do the best it can to actualize its potentials . . . and it will do so as a unit along all dimensions of its functioning” (1982, p. 35, italics in original). While Rogers viewed the actualizing tendency as primarily constructive and prosocial, he and others (e.g., Bohart, 2007) acknowledged that persons may develop behaviors that are neither moral nor enhancing though they represent persons’ attempt to adapt as best they can (e.g., lying or stealing to get something one wants). Although life experiences may weaken the actualizing tendency, it is always assumed to exist as a potential on which clients can draw.

Self, Ideal Self, and Self-Actualization

The self (self-concept, self-structure) as defined by Rogers (1959) is the “organized, consistent conceptual gestalt composed of perceptions of characteristics of the ‘I’ or ‘me’ . . . together with the values attached to these perceptions”(p. 200). The self is a fluid and changing gestalt that is available to awareness and that is definable at a given time. Though relatively consistent over time, it is also malleable as new experiences alter the ways persons view themselves. The terms self or self-concept represent persons’ views of who they are, while the term self-structure represents an external view of the self. The ideal self represents the view of self the person would like to be. Often there is a discrepancy between the self one sees one self to be and the person one hopes or strives to be.

As the self-structure is developed, the “general tendency toward actualization expresses itself also in the actualization of that portion of the experience of the organism which is symbolized in the self” (Rogers, 1959, p. 196). Thus, when aspects of experience defined as the self are actualized (e.g., “I am athletic”), the process is one of self-actualization. The actualization of the self may be in harmony with the actualizing tendency to maintain and enhance the organism, or it may be at odds with the actualizing tendency, resulting in the development of aspects of the self that may be valued by the person but have adverse consequences. For example, the person may develop his or her capacity to be deceptive, thus gaining desired ends from others while such deception compromises the integrity of the person and therefore does not maintain or enhance the total organism/person.