Robert R. Carkhuff, Ph.D.
Science in the Service of Humankind
An Annotated Body of Work
Contents
1. Introduction and Overview
2. Helping and Human Relations
3. Socioeducational Applications
4. Human and Organizational Processing
5. Possibilities Science
6. Freedom-Building
7. Generativity
8. Summary and Transition
1. Introduction and Overview
Carkhuff was 15 years out of graduate studies when the world of science first took note of his scientific contributions in 1978. In terms of frequency of citations of books in psychology, Carkhuff ranked among the leading contributors to Clinical Psychology with three books: Two volumes of Helping and Human Relations and one volume of Toward Effective Counseling and Psychotherapy (see Table 1).
Table 1.
Most-Cited Books in Clinical Psychology [1]
Bandura, A. Principles of Behavior Modification (1969)
Carkhuff, R. R. Helping and Human Relations, Vols. I and II (1969)
Kelly, G. A. The Psychology of Personal Constructs (1955)
Truax, C. B. & R.R. Carkhuff Toward Effective Counseling and Psychotherapy (1967)
Fenichel, O. The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (1945)
Freud, S. Zur Geschichte der Psychoanalytischen Bewegung (On the History of the Psychoanalytic Movement) (1914)
2. Helping and Human Relations
Carkhuff led the revolution of the helping professions from theoretical to operational treatment in the late 1960s. He and his associates defined the effective ingredients of helping in operational terms:
· Toward Effective Counseling and Psychotherapy. Chicago: Aldine, 1967 (with C. B. Truax)
· Sources of Gain in Counseling and Psychotherapy. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1967 (with B. G. Berenson)
· Beyond Counseling and Therapy. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1967
Basically, the helping dimensions, such as empathy and respect, facilitated helpee exploration leading to indices of therapeutic personality change. The book with Truax (Aldine, 1967) was listed among the most-cited books in clinical psychology. [2]
Carkhuff extended these core findings to all helping and human relations. Simultaneously, he developed training programs for learning these operational skills in the practice of helping:
· Helping and Human Relations. Volume I: Selection and Training. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1969
· Helping and Human Relations. Volume II: Practice and Research. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1969
· The Art of Helping. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 1971
Operationally, the helper’s skills were refined to emphasize responding, personalizing, and initiating in order to facilitate the helpee’s process which was expanded to incorporate exploring, understanding, and acting, all of which led to therapeutic change. Now in its 9th edition, The Art of Helping has sold more than one million copies. In turn, the two volumes of Helping and Human Relations were among the most-cited books in social sciences. [3]
Along with his three books, Carkhuff was, himself, identified among the most-referenced social scientists by The Institute of Scientific Information. [4] [5] [6] Altogether, these works culminated the operationalization of previously theoretical processes.
3. Socioeducational Applications
In the 1970s and 1980s, Carkhuff transferred his findings to human and community development in the private as well as public sectors:
· The Development of Human Resources: Education, Society and Social Action. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1971
· Toward Actualizing Human Potential. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 1981
· The Exemplar: The Exemplary Performer in the Age of Productivity. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 1983
· Sources of Human Productivity. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 1984
Operationally, Carkhuff defined the productive human performer in the productive organizational system which, in turn, is defined in the productive community development system.
John T. Kelly, Director Emeritus, Advanced Systems Design, IBM, Inc., offered this evaluation of Carkhuff’s work:
“Carkhuff offers us a vision of the future. It is a vision of a great Age of Productivity, an age in which the human products and services are effectively increased so that all people can share. It is a vision of an age in which the resource inputs, natural and otherwise, are efficiently invested so that no people are deprived of their birthrights.”
(Kelly, Foreword, Sources of Human Productivity, 1984, p. xii)
During this period, Carkhuff and his associates launched a series of training products in teaching, training and instructional systems design:
· The Skills of Teaching Series, Volumes I – IV. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 1977 – 1981
· Instructional Systems Design, Volumes I and II. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 1984
· Training Delivery Skills, Volumes I and II. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 1984
Systematically, these works broke teaching and training down into four skill sets: interpersonal skills, content development skills, lesson planning skills, teaching delivery and classroom management skills. The educational initiatives culminated in the issue of the journal, Education, dedicated to Carkhuff. [7]
4. Human and Organizational Processing
In the late 1980s, Carkhuff created systematic skills for human processing or thinking with applications for the development of Human and Information Capital:
· Interpersonal Skills and Human Productivity. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 1984
· Human Processing and Human Productivity. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 1986
· The Age of the New Capitalism. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 1988
· Empowering: The Creative Leader in the Age of the New Capitalism. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 1989
Carkhuff’s mentor, B. R. Bugelski, a protégé of Clark Hull, one of the founders of American Psychology, commented as follows:
“This work rationalizes all of our efforts in learning theory and promises the culmination of psychology in a science of processing.”
(Bugelski, Review, Human Processing and Human Productivity, 1984)
Carkhuff summarizes the research of the effects of individual, interpersonal, and organizational processing systems in hundreds of studies of more than 150,000 recipients. Basically, Carkhuff defined Human Capital Development or HCD as generative thinking. Carkhuff’s work was reviewed by the distinguished social scientist, C. H. Patterson, University of Illinois:
“This revolution has an important social significance also. I have stated elsewhere that the extent to which a society and its institutions, including its economic systems, facilitate the development of self-actualizing persons constitutes the criterion for the goodness of that society. To the extent that our society incorporates Carkhuff’s system, it will become a better society for all its members.”
(Patterson, Foreword, Interpersonal Skills and Human Productivity, 1983, p. 5)
5. Possibilities Science
In the 1990s and 2000s, Carkhuff, Berenson and associates introduced the “Science of Possibilities” to drive the historical “Science of Probabilities”:
· The New Science of Possibilities, Volume I. The Processing Science. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 2000
· The New Science of Possibilities, Volume II. The Processing Technologies. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 2000
· Human Possibilities. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 2000
· The Possibilities Leader. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 2000
· The Possibilities Organization. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 2000
· The Possibilities Economy. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 2005
Dr. David N. Aspy, renowned scientist, educator, and protégé of Robert Oppenheimer, commented on Carkhuff’s contribution to the advancement of civilization:
“To support his views, Carkhuff does not simply offer up the science of science. He also presents the most exhaustive body of research and demonstration on relating and empowering ever presented in behavioral science. Moreover, he engaged in the most advanced demonstrations of phenomenal potential, including human, ever attempted…
Together, these process-centric breakthroughs will lead us to a grand new Age of Enlightement—The Age of Ideation, and in the process, The Science of Freedom.”
(Aspy, Window on the Universe, The Science of Freedom, 2007, p. 224)
6. Freedom-Building
Early in the 21st century, Carkhuff and associates introduced the models and systems for freedom-building:
· The Freedom Doctrine. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 2003
· Freedom-Building. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 2004
· The Freedom Wars. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 2004
In evaluating the contributions of Carkhuff to the advancement of civilization, John R. Cannon, Chief Executive Officer, Human Technology, Inc., summarizes Carkhuff’s contributions [8] [9]:
“Together, these works represent the contributions of The Possibilities Science to generating The Human and Ideational Sciences that define The Science of Freedom.
In this context, there is nothing more powerful than the human brain enriched by possibilities experience… All of his books and all of his demonstrations, collectively from the earliest to the latest, are the products of this processing phenomenon, profound alternatives for individuals, organizations, communities, cultures and nations; indeed, for The Global Village and its Marketplace. The Sources of Freedom are Possibilities!”
(Cannon, Preface, Science of Freedom, 2007, p. xiii)
7. Generativity
Carkhuff’s lifelong passion has been generativity or generative human processing. His recent work has focused upon resolving the socioeconomic problems of our time through generative processing at all levels of community, culture, and economy:
· The Generativity Solution: Building the New Economy. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 2009
· The Generativity Solution, Volume III: Community Generativity. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 2009
· The Generativity Solution, Volume IV: Cultural Generativity. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 2009
· The Generativity Solution, Volume V: Economic Generativity. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 2009
Working with his colleagues, he has generated the first technologies in human and organizational processing:
· The New 3Rs: Relating, Representing and Reasoning. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 2010 (with D. Benoit)
· ION: Interdependent Object Navigation Software. McLean, VA: GenStar, 2009 (with C. J. Carkhuff and George Paley)
Barry Cohen, Executive Vice President, Parametric Technology Corporation, summarizes Carkhuff’s contributions as follows:
“His body of research has constituted the foundation for revolutions in all areas of human endeavor: human, information, and organizational resource development: government, corporate and community development; cultural, national, and now global economic growth. In short, he has changed the world by making social science a ‘true science.’
(Cohen, Foreword, Generativity Solution, 2009, p. ix)
Hernan Oyarzabal, Executive Director Emeritus, International Monetary Fund, summarizes Carkhuff’s theory of the prepotency of generativity as follows:
“It is indeed the ‘Generativity of Human Brainpower’ and not the ‘Economic Theory of Stasis’ that hold the interdependent, enlightened, and entrepreneurial keys to our Prosperous, Participatory, and Peaceful future.”
(Oyarzabal, An Open Letter on the Economy, Generativity Solution, 2009, p. xiii)
8. Summary and Transition
In summary, Carkhuff’s body of work has differentiated him from all others in the history of science. Primary among his contributions has been the operationalization and application of Possibilities Science, and Generativity.
Carkhuff’s greatest contributions may lie ahead—the transfers of possibilities science to his current list of generativity projects in a troubled world. It is left to his lifelong colleague, Bernard G. Berenson, an Einsteinian scholar, to place Carkhuff’s work in historical perspective:
“Carkhuff’s contributions to universal processing, alone, qualify him for leadership among the greatest scientists of history. His ‘nesting, encoding, and rotating of processing systems’ are the core processes of Nature’s Generativity. In creating The Human Sciences, Carkhuff belongs in the Pantheon of Science along with the work of DaVinci, Newton, and Einstein.”
(Berenson, B. G. How Nature’s Generativity Works. In press, HRD Press, 2009)
In this context, Carkhuff is dedicated to the values of Albert Einstein, his exemplar:
“It is a very high goal: free and responsible development of the individual, so that he may place his powers freely and gladly in the service of all mankind.”
(Einstein, An Ideal of Service to Our Fellow Man, 1950, p. 59)
[1] Garfield, E. The 100 Books Most Cited by Social Scientists. Number 37, Institute for Scientific Information.
[2] Garfield, E. The 100 Books Most Cited by Social Scientists. Number 37, Institute for Scientific Information.
[3] Garfield, E. The 100 Books Most Cited by Social Scientists. Number 37, Institute for Scientific Information.
[4] Garfield, E. The 100 Most Cited Social Scientists. Number 45, Institute for Scientific Information.
[5] Endler, Rushtore, and Rogdeger. Productivity and Scholarly Impact. American Psychologist, Vol. 33, Number 12, 1062–1082.
[6] Heesacker, Heppner, and Rogers. Classics and Emerging Classics. Journal of Counseling Psychology, Vol. 29, No. 4, 400–406.
[7] Carkhuff. “Leader in Human Resource Development.” Education, Volume 106, No. 3.
[8] Berenson, B. G. and Cannon, J. R. The Science of Freedom. McLean, VA: American Noble Prize, 2007.
[9] Carkhuff, R. R. The Age of Ideation. McLean, VA: American Noble Prize, 2007.
Robert R. Carkhuff, Ph.D. 