In the most general sense, congruence is understood as the consistency of various elements or instances of something with each other. This term has a special meaning in psychology.
Instructions
Step 1
In psychology, it is customary to call the integrity, adequacy of the personality, inner harmony and the absence of conflicts by congruence. That is, this is a state of a person in which his external manifestations correspond to his internal state. The simplest example of congruence is that the person is having fun and genuinely laughs. As an example of incongruent behavior, deception, flattery, or situations where a person consciously or unconsciously (as a psychological defense) hides his true feelings (for example, laughs when he is sad) are considered.
Step 2
The term "congruence" was originally introduced into psychology by Karl Rogers. In his theory of self-concept, using this word, several concepts were designated: firstly, the correspondence of the “I”, “ideal I” and experience in the life of the individual, and secondly, the state of the psychotherapist, in which his personal experiences, emotions, attitudes and other components of the inner experience are adequately realized, lived and expressed while working with the client. Those. in his theory, congruence is used to describe the ability of a person to accept without judgment, to be aware of his real feelings, experiences and problems, and also to adequately express them in words and actions.
Step 3
Thus, three links in the chain are considered: experience - awareness - expression. Inconsistency can manifest itself not only when a person consciously hides his feelings, but also when he is not even adequately aware of them. You can consider a situation where a person spent time bored at a party, but, nevertheless, thanks the hosts for a pleasant pastime. Here words and feelings diverge. You can also consider a situation when a person in an argument with someone feels anger, which is expressed in his autonomic reactions, but at the same time he himself is sure that he is absolutely calmly making logical arguments. This is where sensations and their awareness diverge.
Step 4
In social psychology, congruence is understood as the achievement of the correspondence of assessments given by one person to a certain object and to another person who evaluates this object in a similar way. It is easier to consider this situation with an example: a person is pleased with some acquaintance, he considers him smart and good, but at the same time this acquaintance suddenly begins to praise something that is perceived as negative in the person's mind, for example, the activity of some politician or a new one. law. A person is accustomed to perceive a friend and his judgments positively, but at a particular moment the positions diverge. In this case, the person is faced with a choice: to admit that the acquaintance is not so smart and good, to reconsider his position, because it is the acquaintance who is right, or to realize that the acquaintance is wrong in something, and the position of the person himself is not so correct … The last option is precisely called congruence - the best way to restore harmony in assessments.
Step 5
In the opposite direction, this principle can also work: if a person who is unpleasant to you suddenly begins to praise what you like (for example, the work of an artist or writer), he will no longer be perceived as negatively as before. These examples were described in the theory of congruence by Osgood and Tannenbaum, American psychologists. Their theory considered the idea that in order to overcome the cognitive dissonance that appears in such situations, a person will strive to simultaneously change his attitude towards two conflicting sources of information.