Definition
The fully functioning person is a central term in Carl Rogers’s person-centered theory of personality, developed to describe the essence of a good life. Three elements are particularly important in his conceptualization: to be open to new experiences, to live in an existential fashion, and to find ones’ organism trustworthy. The general idea that goodness can be defined with reference to functioning was not born with Rogers though. Both Plato and Aristotle proposed theories about goodness in which functioning worked as the most central concept. Arguments about goodness and functioning keep developing in contemporary work on human goodness. The work of Sen, Staudinger, and Tomasello serves as renowned examples.
Fully Functioning
Historical Background
In Plato’s book The Republic, Socrates...
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Straume, L.V., Vittersø, J. (2020). Fully Functioning Person. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_1469
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