Joseph Frank Rychlak is a psychologist

Psychologist

Psychologist is a professional or academic title used by individuals who are either:* Clinical professionals who work with patients in a variety of therapeutic contexts .* Scientists conducting psychological research or teaching psychology in a college...

 especially well known for his work with theoretical and philosophical psychology. He developed a theoretical stance known as "Rigorous Humanism." This term refers to Rychlak's blending of agentic

Action theory (philosophy)

Action theory is an area in philosophy concerned with theories about the processes causing willful human bodily movements of more or less complex kind. This area of thought has attracted the strong interest of philosophers ever since Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics...

 or volitional psychological theories with rigorous empirical methods and tests traditionally used in the natural sciences.

Rychlak's capstone work entitled "Logical Learning Theory" was published in 1994 by the University of Nebraska Press.

Rychlak is now retired but was the Maude C. Clark Professor in Humanistic Psychology at Loyola University

Loyola University Chicago

Loyola University Chicago is a private Jesuit research university located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1870 under the title St...

 in Chicago, Illinois. He received his B.S. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison

University of Wisconsin–Madison

The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...

 and his M.A.

Master of Arts (postgraduate)

A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...

 and Ph.D.

Ph.D.

A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 from Ohio State University

Ohio State University

The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...

, the latter in 1957. Once a student of George Kelly

George Kelly (psychologist)

George Kelly or George Kelley was an American psychologist, therapist and educator. He was best known for developing Personal Construct Psychology.- Biography :...

 at OSU, Rychlak continued in the personal construct tradition through his neo-Kantian

Neo-Kantianism

Neo-Kantianism refers broadly to a revived type of philosophy along the lines of that laid down by Immanuel Kant in the 18th century, or more specifically by Schopenhauer's criticism of the Kantian philosophy in his work The World as Will and Representation , as well as by other post-Kantian...

 analysis of causality

Causality

Causality is the relationship between an event and a second event , where the second event is understood as a consequence of the first....

. Rychlak's work can be roughly divided into two main areas: theoretical and empirical. The theoretical area of his work is centered on exploring and understanding the theoretical and philosophical foundations of psychology. The empirical area of his work, on the other hand, focuses on scientific experiments designed to empirically test his logical learning theory (LLT).

Family

Joseph Rychlak is married to Lenora Rychlak. They have two children and eight grandchildren.

Notable works

• Introduction to Personality and Psychotherapy: A Theory Construction Approach. Rychlak outlines the history of theory and philosophy in psychology, distinguishing all theories into either Lockean
  John Locke
  John Locke FRS , widely known as the Father of Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social...
  
  , Kantian
  Immanuel Kant
  Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment....
  
  , or mixed-model approaches.
• A Philosophy of Science for Personality Theory. This text has been a foundational work for a subfield of psychology, "theoretical psychology
  Theoretical psychology
  Theoretical psychology is concerned with theoretical and philosophical aspects of the discipline of psychology. It is an interdisciplinary field involving psychologists specialising in, amongst others, cognitive, social, developmental, personality, clinical, perceptual, neurological, biological,...
  
  ."
• The Psychology of Rigorous Humanism. Rychlak conducts a thorough review of psychology and its efficient/material causal bent. He then proposes a more formal/final causal (telic
  Telos (philosophy)
  A telos is an end or purpose, in a fairly constrained sense used by philosophers such as Aristotle. It is the root of the term "teleology," roughly the study of purposiveness, or the study of objects with a view to their aims, purposes, or intentions. Teleology figures centrally in Aristotle's...
  
  ) perspective that culminates in his Logical Learning Theory for psychology.
• In Defense of Human Consciousness. Rychlak defies trends in psychology, sociology, and science that reduce the role of human intention in thought and behavior. Unlike the many descriptions of the human psyche that rely on behavioralist or biophysical, mechanistic views, this volume presents a model of the mind that reinforces the important role of free will in consciousness.