Editing Carl Rogers (section)

=== Development of the personality ===
With regard to development, Rogers described principles rather than stages. The main issue is the development of a self-concept and the progress from an undifferentiated self to being fully differentiated.

{{blockquote|'''Self Concept''' ... the organized consistent conceptual gestalt composed of perceptions of the characteristics of 'I' or 'me' and the perceptions of the relationships of the 'I' or 'me' to others and to various aspects of life, together with the values attached to these perceptions. It is a gestalt which is available to awareness though not necessarily in awareness. It is a fluid and changing gestalt, a process, but at any given moment it is a specific entity. (Rogers, 1959)<ref name="r59">{{cite book|last=Rogers|first=Carl.|editor=S. Koch|title= Psychology: A study of a science. Vol. 3: Formulations of the person and the social context.|year=1959|publisher=McGraw Hill|location=New York|chapter=A theory of therapy, personality relationships as developed in the client-centered framework.}}</ref>}}

In the development of the self-concept, he saw conditional and unconditional positive regard as key. Those raised in an environment of unconditional positive regard have the opportunity to fully actualize themselves. Those raised in an environment of conditional positive regard feel worthy only if they match conditions (what Rogers describes as ''conditions of worth'') that others have laid down for them.