Several important changes in the way the woman viewed her real self
and her ideal self occurred during her treatment. The similarity between
her real and ideal self increased significantly over the course of the therapyand continued to grow even after she discontinued the sessions. At the be-
ginning of her treatment, her real and ideal self Q-Sorts were quite discrep-
ant, correlating at only .21. In other words, when she first entered CarlRogers ’office, she did not see herself at all as the kind of person she
wanted to be. However, as therapy progressed, the two descriptions becamemore and more alike. In particular, the client changed the way she viewedherself. We can tell this from the low correlation (.30) between the way
she described herself at the beginning of the therapy and the way she de-
scribed herself at the end. By exploring her feelings in these person-centeredsessions, the client came to see herself in very different and presumably
more accurate terms.
There also were some noticeable but less dramatic changes in the way the
woman described her ideal self. She may have come to realize throughBefore
Therapy51/2 months 7 months 5 months
After
TherapyFirst
Follow-UpSecond
Follow-UpSelfSelf-Ideal
.21 .47 .45 .69 .71 .79.72
.30.75
.39.78
.65
FIGURE 11.3 Changing Real and Ideal Self Q-Sorts for a 40-Year-Old Female Client
Source: From Rogers, C., International Journal of Social Psychiatry, June 1955; vol. 1: pp. 31 –41, Copyright © 1955. Reprinted by Permission
of SAGE.300 CHAPTER 11 The Humanistic Approach