PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

J F Rychlak

Publications and source records attributed to J F Rychlak.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

A psychotherapist's lessons from the philosophy of science.

A number of issues are discussed, but the major themes have to do with the way causation is understood in psychology, the resultant image of humanity as mechanical rather than teleological, and the fact that psychologists can and should be framing people as freely willing agents in their theories even as these views are submitted to rigorous empirical testing in the traditional scientific method. Although the scientific method unavoidably commits the fallacy of "affirming the consequent" in an if-then sequence of logical reasoning, the author opposes adopting substitutes for this approach to knowledge. Teleology needs to be furthered in psychotherapy because it is a genuinely accurate portrayal of human beings and because there is a pressing need for improvement in ethico-moral realms of behavior that mechanical models fail to capture.

Humans↗
PubMed1985

Personality assessment from the view of logical learning theory.

The gradual transition from clinical assessment to basic personality research in the author's professional development is reviewed, Thanks to the understanding and encouragement of Walter G. Klopfer the author found it possible to extend a line of teleological theorizing that has proven empirically viable for several years to date. This approach to human description is known as logical learning theory. The essentials of logical learning theory are reviewed and its application to personality assessment is highlighted.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1982

Role of affective assessment in modeling aggressive behavior.

This study examines the role of affective assessment, a self-generated influence in learning acquisition, in Bandura's original modeling-of-aggression procedure. Thirty-two first- and second-grade children (both sexes) rated toys and televised acts of aggression against an inflated doll according to their personal affective preference. A matched control group of 32 children was yoked to the affective preferences of the experimental subjects. Control subjects were not shown the televised aggression. All children were then introduced to a free-play situation in which toys and an inflated doll were present. In line with Bandura's findings, we predicted that observational learning would be demonstrated across experimental and control conditions. However, in line with the tenets and previous research findings in support of logical learning theory, we predicted that children would model affectively preferred aggressive acts and toys more readily than affectively dispreferred acts and toys. The experimental predictions were supported in the data collection. Boys and girls differed significantly only in their imitation of positively rated aggressive actions and not in their imitation of negatively rated aggressive actions. The broader theoretical implications of these results, as well as the ramifications of these findings for the televised violence and aggression issue, are discussed.

Affect↗
PubMed1981

A logical learning theory explanation of why personality scales predict behavior.

An explanation of why personality scales predict is drawn from the tenets of logical learning theory (Rychlak, 1977). This theory holds that behavior is not only responsive in nature, but also telosponsive, i.e., enacted intentionally for the sake of premises. Personality scales tap the subject's premises concerning some aspect of behavior, the meanings of which are then extended in behavior telosponsively so that a prediction to some criterion performance becomes possible. The subject in effect creates the behavior based on his or her premises. An important telosponse inhuman learning is that of affective assessment, which is operationalized as reinforcement value (like-dislike). Two experiments establish the role of reinforcement value in scale measurement and prediction. The first demonstrates that subjects score higher on personality dimensions which they like very much than on dimensions which they greatly dislike. The second experiment then establishes that a personality dimension which a subject both likes and scores highly on is more predictive to an independently assessed manifestation of this personality characteristic than is a comparable dimension which is disliked.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1981

Freud's confrontation with the telic mind.

Sigmund Freud's relations with four significant figures in his life are traced: Ernst Brücke, Josef Breuer, Wilhelm Fliess, and Carl G. Jung. In each of these relationships, Freud was confronted with the dilemma of wanting to describe people in what is obviously a teleological fashion while simultaneously meeting the strictures of natural-science reductions to the nontelic. Freud initially fell back on a dialectical theory, but later substituted libido theory as a concession to biological reductionism. Strangely enough, in depolarizing libido as the 'power behind the sexual drive' Freud lost the opportunity to portray the clear teleology his theory calls for.

Austria↗
PubMed1978

The role of affective assessment in intelligence testing.

Based on the tenets of logical learning theory and the research in its support, it was predicted that subjects (87 seventh and eighth graders) would score higher on subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children which they had assessed positively than on those which they had negatively assessed. This superiority on liked over disliked subtests was also predicted to be greater for Black than for White subjects and for lower class, compared with middle class, subjects. Subjects performed significantly better on their liked than on their disliked subtests, p < .01, supporting the telic human image advanced by logical learning theory. No racial or social class differences in this effect were seen.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1977

Causal orientation and personal adjustment of hospitalized veterans.

Continues a line of theory and research which sees human behavior as basically teleological. Groups of hospitalized male alcoholics, psychotics, and normals were administered the Causal Construct Scale, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, and the Shipley Institute of Living Scale. It was predicted that extent of pathology across experimental groups as well as general tendencies to abnormality would follow telic considerations. Intentional causal orientation was positively related and subtance causal orientation was negatively related to mental health. The impetus and pattern causal constructs failed to be predictive of personal adjustment.

Adult↗