Experience and Openness to Experience

By experience, Rogers referred to

all that is going on within the envelope of the organism at any given moment which is potentially available to awareness. It includes events of which the individual is unaware, as well as all the phenomena which are in consciousness. . . . It includes the influence of memory and past experience, as these are active in the moment, in restricting or broadening the meaning given to various stimuli. It also includes all that is present in immediate awareness or consciousness. (1959, p. 197)

Experience includes the person’s awareness of his or her behavior. Synonyms include the experiential field and phenomenal field, and this concept encompasses thoughts, feelings, sensations, and images.

When the person is open to experience, he or she readily takes in information arising from within or from the external environment without defensiveness. Openness to experience is critical to optimal functioning because it enables the person to receive and process any and all experiences and draw from those experiences to make effective decisions in daily life. Conversely, defensiveness reduces the person’s receptivity to experience, capacity to process, make sense of, and act on experience that may be threatening to the self. Simply put, sometimes what one may benefit from knowing is not necessarily what one may be willing or able to know and examine. A woman who makes excuses for her boyfriend’s failure to make time for her or show much interest in her may be failing to access information critical to her dealing effectively with him. Failing to do so renders her vulnerable to self-blame, insecurity, anxiety, or depression.

Positive Regard and Unconditional Positive Regard

People experience positive regard when they perceive that some aspect of their self-experience (e.g., feelings, beliefs) or behavior makes a positive difference to or is valued by someone else. In this state the person is likely to feel warmth, liking, respect, and acceptance from others. Rogers (1959) views the need for positive regard as a basic need that is essential to one’s well-being. We experience unconditional positive regard when we perceive that any experience or behavior is accepted without conditions by another person. Thus, a person may act in ways of which he or she is not proud but still find that he or she is accepted by another. Rogers (1959) states, “This means to value the person, irrespective of the differential values which one may place on his specific behaviors” (p. 208). When clients experience unconditional positive regard from their therapists, they are likely to feel accepted and prized, which in turn enables them to develop more tolerant and accepting feelings toward themselves. While unconditional positive regard is theoretically possible, some have argued that it is an unachievable ideal. However, when clients feel predominantly accepted and consistently valued for who they are by their therapists or significant others, they are likely to develop positive and accepting views of themselves. This desire to be seen accurately and be accepted seems to be a powerful and universal need in people. Therapists display unconditional positive regard toward their clients when they are accepting toward experiences or behaviors of which clients may sometimes be proud and, at other times, ashamed. Consequently, clients learn to accept themselves as flawed but worthy persons.

Clients experience positive self-regard when they are accepting of their behavior independently of whether the behavior is accepted or prized by others. Unconditional self-regard is experienced when an “individual perceives himself in such a way that no self-experience can be discriminated as more or less worthy of positive regard than any other” (Rogers, 1959, p. 209). That is, the person continues to value himself or herself regardless of his or her experiences or behavior. Again, while unconditional self-regard is theoretically possible, it is more likely that persons generally accept themselves while being aware they sometimes fail to live up to their own standards.