Unconditional Positive Self-Regard,Intrinsic Aspirations,and Authenticity: Pathways to Psychological Well-Being

Abstract

Unconditional positive self-regard (UPSR) is regarded by humanistic psychologists as an important determinant of well-being. However, until recently, it has received little empirical attention. The current study aims to examine the association between UPSR and several key constructs consistent with the ideas of well-being within contemporary humanistic and positive psychology. Study 1 is a confirmatory factor analysis of the UPSR scale. The significant best fit for the data was a related two-factor model. Study 2 used the two-factors of the UPSR scale to explore the association with intrinsic aspirations. The study showed positive self-regard was significantly positively correlated with the intrinsic aspirations-total scale and with each of the separate scores for intrinsic aspirations-importance and intrinsic aspirations-chance. Unconditionality of regard was significantly negatively correlated with intrinsic aspirations-importance but was not significantly correlated to either the intrinsic aspirations-total or intrinsic aspirations-chance scores. Study 3 considers the association between UPSR, intrinsic aspirations, and authenticity. Unconditionality of regard was significantly positively correlated with the authenticity scale score. Only intrinsic aspirations-chance scores showed a statistically significant and positive correlation with authenticity. The remaining correlations between intrinsic aspirations and authenticity were not statistically significant. Results call for further empirical attention to UPSR within humanistic and positive psychology research.

Keywords

unconditional positive self-regard authenticity intrinsic aspirations psychological well-being

Introduction

In recent years, there has been much interest in well-being and its determinants (e.g., Huta, 2015; Seligman, 2011). However, although of much contemporary interest, psychological theorizing about the nature of well-being dates back to the humanistic psychologists, such as Carl Rogers. Rogers (1961) defined the fully functioning person as someone who was open to experience, able to live in the moment, trusting of their own judgments, free in making choices, and not governed by the values of others.

Studies in the psychology of well-being are concerned with describing, defining, and delineating the path to psychological well-being. The current study aims to examine several key constructs that are consistent with the ideas of well-being from within contemporary humanistic psychology as influenced by the theoretical framework of Rogers (1959).

Rogers (1959) hypothesized that as infants develop, the inherent determination for survival leads to a learned need for positive regard. However, without exception, caregivers’ positive regard is only available inconsistently and is thus variable; at times, it is consistent with the infant’s valuing and at other times it is inconsistent with the infant’s valuing. Hence, the infant might find that a behavior perceived as satisfying (such as hitting a sibling) leads to disapproval from a caregiver. The infant comes to learn that disapproval is not pleasurable and that even though behaviors that invoke some temporal sense of satisfaction, the urge to do it again will be either denied or distorted so as not to attract further withdrawal of positive regard from a caregiver. The infant introjects the values from the caregiver and eventually comes to experience these values as their own. As a result, the infant comes to learn that some self-experiences are not acceptable to significant social others. All other experiences of this kind, or related self-experiences, subsequently become denied or distorted. When the infant behaves in accord with introjected values, as if they were their own, they are considered to be acting in a way that is consistent with a condition of worth (Standal, 1954). The infant is now no longer acting on their intrinsic, organismic valuing of experience. Gradually, distance from personal valuations and feelings are increased and a state of incongruence between organismic experience and self-concept arises (Rogers, 1959). Incongruence between self-concept and experience is considered to be the single source of maladjustment that accounts for the degree of subjective sense of well-being or distress that a person experiences.

As the person develops a need for positive regard and internalizes values from significant social others, they also, in denying or distorting their experience to fit the self-concept, become their own internal social other (Standal, 1954). The development of conditions of worth enables the satisfaction of the need for positive regard. This process can be termed positive self-regard and is used to describe the satisfaction of self-experiences that an individual has independently of the regard they receive from others.

The concept of conditions of worth and positive self-regard are supported by empirical studies in the field of contingent self-worth (Crocker, Luhtanen, Cooper, & Bouvrette, 2003; Crocker & Wolfe, 2001). Emergent in the literature on contingent self-worth is the notion of implicit self-worth (Bos, Huijding, Muris, Vogel, & Biesheuvel, 2010). The implicit self-worth is not related to psychological disturbance, whereas global and contingent self-worth is thought to have both interactive and independent associations with psychopathology.

Unconditional Positive Self-Regard

Inconsistent, conditional positive regard from caregivers is associated with the development of psychological maladjustment. Unconditional positive regard, on the other hand, is associated with healthy development. When a person experiences unconditional positive self-regard (UPSR), they do not discriminate between any self-experiences as being more worthy or valid than any other self-experience. The extent to which a person does not discriminate between any self-experiences as more or less worthy refers directly to the extent one experiences unconditionality of self-regard. The unconditionality of positive self-regard can be thought of as a proxy of psychological well-being. The more unconditionally self-accepting a person is whatever their desires, intentions, motives, and behaviors, the less distress will be experienced. Higher levels of unconditional self-regard will, hypothetically, be accompanied by a greater sense of psychological well-being.

The main determinant of fully functioning behavior according to Rogers (1959) is UPSR. Despite the centrality of UPSR to humanistic theories and therapies, little research has yet investigated its relationship to well-being. Two recent studies, however, have shown evidence that unconditional positive self-regard is related to higher levels of well-being. In the first, it was found that over time UPSR predicted changes in perceived posttraumatic growth and actual increase in well-being (Flannagan, Patterson, Hume, & Joseph, 2015). In the second, the association between UPSR and posttraumatic growth was found to be partially mediated by intrinsic aspirations (Murphy, Demetriou, & Joseph, 2015). Building on these two studies, further work is needed to understand the relation of UPSR to other variables also thought to be associated with psychological well-being. As already mentioned, Rogers used the term fully functioning to refer to what we now consider to be psychological well-being. Expressed in the language of contemporary psychological concepts, to be fully functioning is to be authentic (Joseph, 2016), to live according to one’s intrinsic values/goals (Kasser & Ryan, 1993), and to be self-determining and not reliant on the views or values of others to guide behavior (Ryan & Deci, 2000).

In this article, we report three studies to develop an understanding of UPSR. In the first study, we examine the construct of UPSR and the association between unconditionality and positive regard. Having established the two separate dimensions of unconditionality and positive regard in the second and third studies, we examine their associations with authenticity and intrinsic values.

Study 1

Introduction

The concept of UPSR was originally proposed by Standal (1954) and later by Rogers (1959) as an indicator of psychological well-being. To assess UPSR, Patterson and Joseph (2006) developed a 12-item scale. After carrying out principal components analysis on data collected, Patterson and Joseph (2006) determined a scale of UPSR. As predicted, their results identified two factors. One factor indicated the level of positive self-regard and the second factor indicated unconditionality of regard. The study carried out by Patterson and Joseph (2006) was exploratory and as yet no confirmatory factor analytic study has been carried out to test the factor structure of the 12-item UPSR scale. The aim of this study was to conduct confirmatory factor analysis of the UPSR scale.

Method

Design

In this study, we carried out a confirmatory factor analysis using LISREL v 9.10 (student edition) to test the factor structure of the UPSR scale. Where exploratory factor analysis was used by Patterson and Joseph (2006) to determine the likely factors structure of items relating the concept of UPSR, their study was not able to test the probability of whether the data fit the two-factor structure they proposed. Accordingly, a confirmatory factor analysis is required to test the probability that the two-factor structure can be confirmed by the data. In confirmatory factor analysis, the data must fit and not significantly differ from the proposed or hypothesized model. Based on the theory of UPSR, a related two-factor model, where the two related factors are self-regard and unconditionality, was proposed. To test the model that provided the best fit for the data of the two, further models were also proposed and tested. These were a one-factor model with UPSR as a single factor, and the unrelated two-factor model with self-regard and unconditionality as unrelated factors.

Participants

Data were collected from 239 participants with a mean age of 30.9 years. Participants included 109 men (45.6%) and 130 women (54.4%). Of these 137 were Caucasian (53.7%), 56 (27.2%) were Asian, 19 (7.9%) were mixed ethnic origin, and 17 (7.1%) identified as Black African/African Caribbean. The participants completed the UPSR scale as part of postgraduate student research dissertation studies and were collated here into one sample for the purpose of the confirmatory factor analysis.

Results

The statistical fit for the two-factor related, two-factor unrelated and one-factor models were tested using the maximum likelihood estimation method of confirmatory factor analysis on LISREL v9.10 (student version). The results for two goodness-of-fit indices are presented in Table 1 for the three models.

Table 1.

Two Goodness-of-Fit Measures for the Three Models.

Model	χ²	df	p	RMSEA
One-factor	204.11	54	.0000	.108
Unrelated two-factor	164.69	54	.0000	.091
Related two-factor	119.48	53	.0000	.072

Note. df = degrees of freedom; RMSEA = root mean square error of approximation.

Both of the measures suggest that the one-factor model was not a satisfactory fit, as chi-square is significant and the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) was larger than .100. Chi-square for the unrelated two-factor model and related two-factor model suggested that neither model was a satisfactory fit. However, chi-square is not necessarily the best goodness-of-fit test for confirmatory factor analysis as it is more likely to be statistically significant the greater the number of participants entered into the model (Cramer, 2003). The RMSEA is not so susceptible to this bias. A value of RMSEA below .100 suggests a good fit for the data (Loehlin, 2004). Both of the two-factor models provided a good fit for the data. However, the chi-square difference test shows the related two-factor model was a statistically significant better fit than the unrelated two-factor model (χ² = 45.21, df = 1, p < .001). This suggests that the related two-factor model was a statistically significant good fit for the data. Figure 1 shows the path diagram for the related two-factor model.

Figure 1.

Path diagram for the related two-factor model.

Study 2

Introduction

Now that the measure of UPSR has been confirmed, further studies of the association between the two dimensions of unconditionality and positive self-regard and other variables can be conducted.

UPSR represents the extent that an individual perceives none of their self-experience as being more worthy of positive regard than any other. The concept can be thought to represent a person’s perceived degree of self-acceptance. If a person is accepting of their self-experiences, then there is little need for the use of defense systems that become active when experience presents a threat to the satisfaction of the need for positive regard. In Rogers’s (1959) theory of personality, he suggested that two forms of psychological defense are used. These were distortion and denial. Distortion is used as a defense to transform experience that is not permissible into awareness because it does not fit with the existing self-concept. Direct experience is transformed through being symbolized into an experience in awareness that fits with the existing self-concept. Denial is used for the same reason except the experience is not symbolized in awareness. The experience is totally denied access to awareness.

Within Rogers’s (1959) theory, defensive behavior results from conditions of worth. Conditions of worth develop through the introjection of values of significant others. When people have high conditions of worth they tend to act in line with the values and goals of others, to feel acceptable to them, and neglect their intrinsic valuing system. However, people will follow their intrinsic valuing system when they are able to accurately symbolize experience into awareness without distortion or denial.

Intrinsic motivation reflects the organisms’ need to engage in activities that interest them rather than for attaining a reward or to avoid a negative consequence (Ryan & Deci, 2000); thus, they develop and expand their capabilities (Sansone & Harackiewicz, 2000). According to Deci and Ryan (1985), intrinsic motivation energizes significant growth-oriented behaviors, such as seeking out new challenges, pursuing one’s interests, and exercising skills. Subsequently, intrinsic motivation is frequently considered to be a fundamental contributor to self-determination (Deci & Ryan, 1985). People that experience higher well-being act more in accord with their intrinsic aspirations and are likely to engage in fulfilling life goals that feel most personally rewarding or satisfying and less likely to seek fulfilment of goals that others consider more valuable (Kasser & Ryan, 1993). These goals are referred to in the literature as intrinsic aspirations and have been shown repeatedly to be associated with well-being (Kasser, 2002).

Within person-centered psychology intrinsic aspirations can be considered a measure of the organismic valuing process. That is, the level of behavior that is being guided by intrinsic aspirations can be thought to represent the extent a person acts in accord with their own valuing compared with that of other external demands. Research demonstrates that people who value more extrinsic goals experience less well-being than those who value more intrinsic goals (Ryan et al., 1999). Evidence in support of the intrinsic aspiration construct can be found when looking at behavior within academic achievement (Gottfried, Marcoulides, Gottfried, & Oliver, 2009), organizational psychology (Tremblay, Blanchard, Taylor, Pelletier, & Villeneuve, 2009), eating behaviors (Jutta et al., 2009), reading literacy (Becker, McElvany, & Kortenbruck, 2010), and schizophrenia (Barch, Yodkovik, Sypher-Locke, & Hanewinkel, 2008). Each shows that intrinsic aspiration is a factor associated with more satisfying achievements. In summary, people that act in line with their intrinsic valuing will exhibit less defensive behavior because they are more self-accepting and have fewer or less intense conditions of worth that require the defensive transformation of experience through denial or distortion.

The aspirations index has been used to assess the differences between intrinsic and extrinsic values and goals. Kasser and Ryan (1996) found that intrinsic goals were correlated with better psychological well-being and more self-acceptance. Extrinsic aspirations on the other hand were found not to be associated with well-being (Ryan et al., 1999). Intrinsic aspirations within the aspiration index are related to the underlying factors of self-acceptance, affiliation, and community feeling. However, there is some uncertainty with regard to the concept of aspirations and how this is related to the concept of UPSR. For example, the notion of holding aspirations for one’s own self might contradict the idea of unconditional acceptance of self-experiences and is counterintuitive to the idea of acceptance of self as one currently is. Thus, aspirations might conceivably be related to conditionality as these could be indicative of self-discrepancy, that is, a discrepancy between self-concept and experience. The discrepancy in this instance would be between the real self-concept and an ought-to-be-self. Further work is required to understand the connection between these variables and based on this we conducted an investigation to look at the correlation between the variables of UPSR and intrinsic aspirations.

Method

Participants

Data were collected from a subset of the sample used in Study 1. Questionnaires were completed by 199 respondents for a master’s degree in counselling studies. Participants were 110 (55.3%) women and 89 (44.7%) were men with a mean age of 31.4 years (SD = 11.3). The sample consisted of 121 (60.8%) identified as Caucasian, 51 (25.6%) were Asian, 15 (7.5%) mixed ethnicity, and 12 (6%) identified as Black African/African Caribbean.

Measures

Aspirations index

The aspirations index was originally developed by Kasser and Ryan (1993) and adapted for use in this study. Twelve-items were used in the analysis with 4-items from each domain of personal growth, relatedness, and community service. There are several approaches to scoring the intrinsic aspirations scale (Ryan et al., 1999); for the current study, each item is rated twice on a 5-point Likert-type scale, first for the importance of aspirations and second for the future expectation of attaining these aspirations. As such the AI yeilds two subscale scores for importance and chance, respectively. Each subscale has a possible range of 12 to 60. A total score can also be calculated by summing both subscales. Scores on the total AI can therefore range from 24 to 120. The sample for Study 2 provided an intrinsic aspirations mean score of 56.02 (SD = 5.90) and item mean score 4.31. Cronbach’s alpha reliability was .85 for the intrinsic aspirations items.

UPSR scale (Patterson & Joseph, 2006)

A detailed explanation of the USPR scale is provided in Study 1. Items from the UPSR scale had a mean score of 45.64 (SD = 5.0) and an item mean score 3.80. Cronbach’s alpha reliability was .72 for the UPSR scale.

Results

Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to explore the associations between each of the self-regard and unconditionality of regard subscales for UPSR scale with intrinsic aspirations-total score and the separate scores for importance and chance of achieving intrinsic aspirations. Table 2 shows that positive self-regard was statistically significantly positively correlated with the intrinsic aspirations-total scale and with each of the separate scores for intrinsic aspirations-importance and intrinsic aspirations-chance. Unconditionality of regard was statistically significantly negatively correlated with intrinsic aspirations-importance but was not statistically significantly correlated to either the intrinsic aspirations-total or intrinsic aspirations-chance scores.

Table 2.

Intercorrelations, Means, and Standard Deviation for Self-Regard, Unconditionality of Regard, Importance, and Chance of Achieving Intrinsic Aspirations.

	1	2	3	4	M	SD
1. Positive self-regard					4.0	0.48
2. Unconditionality	.293**				3.1	0.48
3. IA-total	.311**	−.092			4.0	0.44
4. IA-importance	.201**	−.226**	.860**		4.3	0.45
5. IA-chance	.337**	.038	.907**	.565**	3.7	0.55

Note. N = 199; IA = intrinsic aspiration.

p < .05, **p < .01 (Correlation are significant at the levels; 2-tailed).

Regression Analysis

In this analysis, we tested the interaction between positive self-regard and unconditionality of regard to predict intrinsic aspirations. Table 3 shows the results from the regression analysis. First, all variables were standardized using the z transformation facility in SPSS. A linear regression was conducted using the standardized intrinsic aspiration score entered as the dependent variable. Then, standardized positive self-regard and unconditionality of regard scores were entered into the regression as the predictor variables. Finally, an interaction term was created for the standardized self-regard and unconditionality of regard scores and entered into the model.

Table 3.

Regression Model With Self-Regard, Unconditionality, and Intrinsic Aspirations Combined Score as Dependent Variable.

Model	Unstandardized coefficients		Standardized coefficients	t	95% CI for β		ΔR²
Model	β	SE	β	t	Lower	Upper	ΔR²
Model 1
(Constant)	−.023	.068		0.000	−.133	.133
Self-regard	.311	.068	.311	4.494**	.178	.445	.097**
Model 2
(Constant)	.013	.066		0.000	−.131	.131	.037**
Self-regard	.370	.070	.370**	5.318**	.233	.507
Unconditionality	−.200	.070	−.200	−2.882**	−.338	−.063
Model 3
(Constant)	−.023	.068		−0.344	−.158	.111	.009 (ns)
Self-regard	.377	.070	.377**	5.416**	.240	.514
Unconditionality	−.212	.070	−.212	−3.038**	−.350	−.074
Interaction (self-regard × Unconditionality)	.080	.057	.094	1.408	−.032	.193

Note. CI = confidence interval; SE = standard error.

p < .05, **p < .01

Only positive self-regard and not unconditionality of regard significantly predicted variance in intrinsic aspirations-total; the interaction between self-regard and unconditionality of regard did not predict changes in intrinsic aspirations-total scores.

Discussion

In this study, we partially supported the hypothesis that UPSR would be related to intrinsic aspirations. UPSR is a measure that attempts to capture the extent to which a person perceives their experience through conditions of worth or is evaluating experiences through their organismic valuing. That is, people that score highly on this scale would also be expected to score highly on measures that assess the extent a person is following their intrinsic aspirations. In this study, the finding was supported. Importantly, positive self-regard was related to intrinsic aspirations-total score and both subscales for importance and chance of attaining intrinsic aspirations. However, unconditionality of self-regard provided some more interesting findings. Unconditionality of self-regard was not correlated to the intrinsic aspirations-total score or the intrinsic aspirations-chance subscale but was statistically negatively correlated with the intrinsic aspirations-importance subscale. That means, people with high unconditionality of self-regard (free from conditions of worth) seem to find intrinsic aspirations as being of less importance.

There might be a number of explanations for this finding. One possible interpretation is relying on aspirations measured using the intrinsic aspirations index. In this scale, aspirations are worded as future oriented and thereby require the participant to project themselves into a different view of themselves than what they currently experience, whereas unconditionality of self-regard requires the respondent to consider themselves as they currently are. Consequently, intrinsic aspirations are possibly more indicative of a concept of the self that is desired but does not represent the self as perceived currently; therefore, intrinsic aspirations for the future being measured by the scale might be more representative of a self-ideal or an ought-to-be-self. Both the concepts of a self-ideal, and ought-to-be-self, are more susceptible to being influenced by conditions of worth. Where the self-ideal, or ought-to-be-self, is widely discrepant to the current real self-concept the person is in a state of incongruence and will experience low unconditionality of self-regard but might feel it is important to achieve their aspirations in the future.

Study 3

Introduction

There appear to be two methods for assessing a state of well-being within Rogers’s (1959) theory of personality. First is that the person is free from conditions of worth and thus experiences a high degree of UPSR. This idea was first proposed by Standal (1954). The theory of a need for positive regard and a need for positive self-regard relates to the development of psychological maladjustment, readjustment, and psychological maturity required for maintaining a state of well-being. It also relates directly to the therapist who provides a relationship climate in which the need for positive regard can be satisfied unconditionally. The second way to conceptualize psychological well-being within Rogers’s (1959) theory is through the self-consistency approach. The second approach presents a model of incongruence that proposes psychological maladjustment arises due to the threat posed by self-experiences that are perceived as being inconsistent with the self-structure. A state of incongruence is associated with psychological maladjustment and feeling distressed, whereas congruence is indicative of psychological well-being. Congruence refers to when self-experience is accurately represented and symbolized in awareness, without denial or distortion. When a person experiences being in a state of congruence, there is no need for the defense system to become active. The person’s experiences can be symbolized in awareness without there being a threat to the self-concept. Experiences and the self-concept are “congruent” with one another. When someone is in a state of congruence, their outward behavior is thought to be consistent with their inner experiencing. Rogers (1959) suggested that the person is outwardly being their inner feelings. In a state of congruence, experience, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are, metaphorically speaking, symmetrically aligned with each another. The person is in a state of balance, equilibrium—they are being authentic.

Authenticity is identified and quantified as a useful individual difference (Wood, Linley, Maltby, Baliousis, & Joseph, 2008). Various approaches to counseling and clinical psychology use authenticity as a way to conceptualize psychological distress. The construct of authentic being sits at the intersection of person-centered (Rogers, 1959), psychodynamic (Horney, 1951; Winnicott, 1965), positive psychology (Joseph & Linley, 2005), and social psychological (Sheldon, 2004) perspectives. Wood et al. (2008) offer a tripartite conceptualization of authenticity that includes self-alienation, authentic living, and accepting external influence. Although their conceptualization can be understood in terms of a wide range of psychological theories, the influence of Rogers’s (1959) theory of personality and behavior is central and reconceptualizes the notion of congruence. The construct of authenticity provides not only a more contemporary approach to well-being but also presents it as a relational construct that considers both intrapersonal, interpersonal, and environmental relations.

Positive self-regard has been shown to be significantly positively related to intrinsic aspirations. This finding supports the theoretical proposition that people who do not have to rely on their worth through the values of others are more likely to act in accord with their own values and follow their intrinsic aspirations. However, unconditionality of self-regard was negatively correlated with the importance of intrinsic aspirations. For this reason, it is important to understand the association of these variables for guiding future research and clinical intervention. Likewise, there is a need to further understand the relationships, at the construct level, between UPSR and authenticity—as the two primary approaches to defining psychological well-being within Rogers’s (1959) theory of personality. This is important for the practice of person-centered therapists.

In this study, we sought to explore the associations between UPSR, intrinsic aspirations, and authenticity. Each of these variables needs to be understood in the unique way it contributes to a sense of psychological well-being.

Method

Participants

Data were collected using a questionnaire with a convenience sample of university students (N = 100). Just over half of the students were (n = 53) were undertaking counseling training courses at either postgraduate or undergraduate level. The respondents (n = 47) were studying for programs that did not contain any credits related to counseling. Fifty five were female (55%) and 45 (45%) were male; the mean age of respondents was 31.4 years (SD = 8.1). The sample consisted of 22 (22%) identified as Caucasian, 51 (51%) were Asian, 15 (15%) mixed ethnicity, and 12 (12%) identified as Black African/African Caribbean.

Measures

Participants completed the UPSR Scale (Patterson & Joseph, 2006). Detailed explanation of this scale is presented above in Study 1. For the present sample, the scale showed reliability with Cronbach’s α = .24, which is surprisingly low. The aspirations index (Kasser & Ryan, 1996) measures the extent people are following their intrinsic aspirations. The study used the measure in the same way described in Study 2. In the current study, the scale showed good reliability with Cronbach’s α = .85.

The third measure used in this study was the Authenticity Scale (Wood et al., 2008). The Authenticity Scale is a 12-item self-report measure involving three components: (a) self-alienation, representing an inconsistent identity and the extent to which a person’s self is incongruent with actual experiences and deeply held beliefs (e.g., “I feel as if I don’t know myself very well”); (b) accepting external influence, instead of self-directing (e.g., “I always feel I need to do what others expect me to do”); and (c) authentic living, or behaving in ways consistent with beliefs and values (e.g., “I think it is better to be yourself, than to be popular”).

Self-alienation and accepting external influence represent inauthenticity, whereas authentic living represents authenticity. Each item is rated in a 7-point scale (where 1 = does not describe me at all and 7 = describes me very well) such that scores on each subscale have a possible range of 4 to 28. With items summed to indicate greater authenticity, higher scores indicating greater resistance to external influence, greater self-alienation, and greater authentic behavior. The current study showed reliability with Cronbach’s α = .58.

Results

Correlation Analyses

Correlational analyses were carried out to test the association both of the self-regard and unconditionality of self-regard subscales, with intrinsic aspirations and authenticity. Intrinsic aspiration was scored as a total scale score, and separate correlations were calculated for the importance and chance of achieving aspirations indices. The results are reported in Table 3. Self-regard was statistically significantly positively correlated with the total score for intrinsic aspirations and the intrinsic aspirations-chances subscale but was not statistically significantly correlated with intrinsic aspirations-importance subscale or the total score for authenticity. The unconditionality subscale was statistically significantly negatively correlated with both the total intrinsic aspiration scale and the intrinsic aspirations-importance score but was not significantly correlated with intrinsic aspirations-chance subscale. Unconditionality of regard was also statistically significantly positively correlated with the authenticity scale score. Finally, only the intrinsic aspirations-chance score showed a significant and positive correlation with authenticity, the remaining correlations between intrinsic aspirations and authenticity were not statistically significant.

Regression Analyses

Linear regression in SPSS using the Enter method was used to explore the interaction of self-regard and unconditionality of regard as a predictor of both authenticity and intrinsic aspirations. There were no significant interaction effects when using the total scores of authenticity and intrinsic aspirations (Table 4). However, based on the correlations in Table 3 above and in Study 2, we explored the interaction effect of positive self-regard and unconditionality of self-regard on the importance subscale of intrinsic aspirations. Table 5 shows the β coefficients with intrinsic aspiration—importance subscale as the dependent variable. The interaction of positive self-regard and unconditionality of self-regard was a significant predictor of change in the importance of intrinsic aspirations.

Table 4.

Correlation Matrix for Subscales of UPSR, Intrinsic Aspirations, and Authenticity Total Score.

	1	2	3	4	5	M	SD
1. Self-regard						3.9	0.30
2. Unconditionality	.025					3.0	0.42
3. IA-total	.325**	−.330**				3.8	0.3
4. IA-importance	.118	−.506**	.813**			4.1	0.37
5. IA-chance	.402**	−.115	.897**	.471**		3.5	0.49
6. Authenticity total	−.015	.400**	.060	−.179	.227*	6.6	0.74

Note. N = 199; IA = intrinsic aspiration; UPSR = unconditional positive self-regard.

p < .05, **p < .01 (Correlation are significant at the levels; 2-tailed).

Table 5.

Intrinsic Aspirations-Importance Score as Dependent Variable.

Model	Unstandardized coefficients		Standardized coefficients	t	95% CI for β		ΔR²
Model	β	SE	β	t	Lower	Upper	ΔR²
Model 1
(Constant)		.100		0.000	−.198	.198
Self-regard	.118	.100	.118	1.181	−.081	.317	.014
Model 2
(Constant)		.086		0.000	−.171	.171	.259**
Self-regard	.131	.087	.131	1.517	−.041	.303
Unconditionality	−.509	.087	−.509	−5.882**	−.681	−.337
Model 3
(Constant)	.006	.084		0.078	−.159	.172	.051*
Self-regard	.064	.087	.064	0.736	.109	.238
Unconditionality	−.483	.084	−.483	−5.711**	−.650	−.315
Interaction (self-regard × unconditionality)	−.260	.096	−.237	−2.698**	−.451	−.069

Note. CI = confidence interval; SE = standard error.

p < .05, **p < .01

Discussion

UPSR as a measure of psychological well-being, indicative of low conditions of worth and high positive self-regard, has been shown to have an acceptable factor structure for use as a two-factor measure. Having confirmed the factor structure, we now recommend that future research studies use the UPSR scale as a psychological measure of personality adjustment. Theoretically, people that score high on this measure can be considered to have developed a mature internal valuing system that is resilient to the influence of introjected values from others. The measure would be suitable for use in psychotherapy outcome studies researching personality change, particularly, those studies researching the efficacy of person-centered and experiential therapies.

As the organismic valuing system matures, it is more likely that a person will act in accord with and follow their intrinsic aspirations. This theoretical proposition has been partially supported by the current study. However, there is also some disagreement, wherein people that seem to have higher levels of conditions of worth, characterized by low scores on the unconditionality of self-regard scale, also appear to rate intrinsic aspirations as being of high importance. This finding is counterintuitive. Above in Study 2, we raised the possible problem with the future orientation of the aspirations index. Completing the scale could require participants to imagine a self that does not yet exist. This then might unintentionally require participants to base their ratings of aspirations in terms of a self that they would like to be. Whereas experiencing high unconditionality of self-regard points, at least theoretically, toward being self-accepting of the concept of self currently perceived. Thus, highlighting an erroneous discrepancy between intrinsic aspirations and self-regard. Another explanation for this finding is that people have developed conditions of worth that demand self-acceptance. Hence, they score high on positive self-regard but low on the unconditionality of self-regard. That is to say, their concept of self is that they “must,” “should,” or “ought” to be self-accepting. This too might explain the unexpected finding reported here.

According to person-centered theory, a mature intrinsic valuing system is considered to be a sign of psychological adjustment. It is also indicative of resilience to the introjection of values and is associated with positive self-regard. Likewise, we explored the links between authenticity and UPSR and intrinsic aspirations. Authenticity is proposed as a measure of personality trait (Wood et al., 2008) and provides an alternative way to conceptualize the psychologically mature person. This finding was supported in Study 3, where high unconditionality of self-regard was strongly statistically significantly correlated with authenticity scale scores. These two approaches to measuring well-being are possibly assessing different components of the subjective experience of well-being and each has a unique contribution to make for developing understanding about various pathways to further enhancing well-being. For example, authenticity relates to intrapersonal and interpersonal consistency as a pathway toward and a sign of greater well-being. UPSR, on the other hand, offers a pathway to well-being by accounting for the development of maladjustment within the personality, readjustment, and maintenance of well-being, while also providing a consistent explanation for the caregiver’s, parent’s, therapist’s, or any other significant social other’s role in the development of maladjustment, readjustment, and maintenance of well-being. The theory for UPSR is also grounded in a theory of how therapy helps people and therefore provides consistency across developmental and practical domains.

There are some other possible explanations for the findings in the current study. Ryan et al. (1999) studied intrinsic aspirations of an American and Russian sample of college students. They found that Americans more than Russians associated the intrinsic over extrinsic aspirations with better well-being. The cultural differences in this sample might be able to explain how those values and goals identified as intrinsic for some might be extrinsic for others or that intrinsic aspirations cannot always be associated with better well-being. An alternative approach for identifying intrinsic aspirations would be to have each individual participant identify their own unique intrinsic aspirations rather than select them from a predefined list, as was done in the Ryan et al. (1999) study. However, this is unlikely to solve the issue entirely because intrinsic aspirations are currently measured by being future oriented and actually requiring participants to engage in imagining themselves as they would like to be.

Implications for Practice

The findings suggest that for some people intrinsic aspirations might be considered a contraindicator to UPSR. As such, it may be that people with higher conditions of worth also have more future-oriented aspirations. If this is the case, there is an important implication for the practice of therapy. In therapy, expressions of intrinsic aspiration might be indicative of the client’s struggle. Hence, rather than accepting all intrinsic aspirations as inherently suggestive of well-being for the client, it might be helpful to listen for and be attuned to the possibility that some future-oriented intrinsic aspirations highlight a level of conditionality in self-regard, that is, a lack of self-acceptance of the self that one currently experiences. What might appear as figure in intrinsic aspiration might be set in the ground of conditional self-regard. Therapists will be most helpful to clients, therefore, when they respond with unconditional positive regard to each of these different experiences of the client.

Authenticity and UPSR might be related but independent factors that explain different pathways to well-being. The direction of a causal relation between authenticity and UPSR was not considered in the current study. However, because of the connection of UPSR with conditions of worth and the likelihood that conditions of worth shape the way humans process their experiences (Hook & Murphy, 2016), it is reasonable to assume that UPSR has a causal effect on authenticity. For practice, this implies that it would be most beneficial for clients when therapists maintain a goal for the experiencing of unconditional positive regard for the client in a bid to enhance client self-acceptance leading to greater authentic experiencing. One important factor for the experiencing of unconditional positive regard is the therapist’s own UPSR. For this, we suggest that all therapists pay constant attention to their own personal development and engage in activities then enable their positive self-regard to flourish and maximize their openness and availability to be present for their clients.

Conclusion

In this article, we have confirmed the two-factor structure of the unconditional positive regard scale. This scale is now recommended for use in process outcome studies of psychotherapy. The scale is also useful for research in the field of social psychology. Further work is required to understand the relationship between the concept of UPSR and intrinsic aspirations and the humanistic concept of authenticity. Developing our understanding of which aspects of personality function that are explained by UPSR and authenticity will be of use to those interested in psychotherapy, education, parenting, or other human development relationships and processes.

Additionally, in this study, we have furthered our understanding of the multifaceted nature of human well-being in the field of humanistic psychology. For example, being future oriented and accepting of one’s current self-concept is an area for future research to explore. The drive for change, for aspiring to growth, might need to be reconsidered in the light that aspirations have a complex relation with the unconditionality of self-regard.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Author Biographies

David Murphy, PhD, CPsycho, AFBPsS, is on the British Psychological Society’s Register of Psychologists specializing in psychotherapy as a person-centered experiential psychotherapist. He is the course director for the Master of Arts in Person-Centered Experiential Counselling and Psychotherapy at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. He is one of the author in “Relational Depth: New Perspective and Developments” (2012) Palgrave MacMillan and “Trauma and the Therapeutic Relationship” (2013) Palgrave MacMillan, and is currently editing the BPS-Wiley “Counselling Psychology: A Textbook for Practice and Study.” He is editor of the international journal Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapies.

Stephen Joseph, PhD, is a professor in the School of Education at the University of Nottingham, a registered counselling psychologist, and a senior practitioner member of the British Psychological Society’s Register of Psychologists specializing in psychotherapy. He is editor of “Positive Psychology in Practice: Promoting Human Flourishing in Work, Health, Education, and Everyday Life.” His latest book is titled “Authentic: How to be Yourself and Why it Matters.”

Evangelia Demetriou holds a bachelor degree in psychology and a master degree from the University of Nottingham in counselling children and young people. She is a life coach and a Certified Neurolinguistic Coach and Practitioner (ABNP) and currently training in Systemic Psychotherapy. She runs a private practice and founded the BeChild-Psychoeducation and Life Skills program for nursery schools. She also delivers psychoeducational and experiential seminars for parents in private and public schools and is a member of a university-based research team in Cyprus focusing on children psychological well-being.

Pegah Karimi-Mofrad is a person-centered counsellor having trained for the master of arts in counselling at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. She has experience of having worked with children and young people in a school counselling setting.

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