Understanding And Applying Relational Frame Theory

A comprehensive treatise on how to understand complex language, and use language effectively as a behavior analyst. Language changes everything. From infancy through adulthood, language shapes how we live our lives and interact with other people, in increasingly complex ways. Language also shapes how we exist in the world as professionals—and how we operate as a profession. As behavior analysts working with others to effect change, words matter. A comprehensive understanding of complex language is therefore critical to practicing effectively as a behavior analyst. Understanding the functions of complex language, allows us to skillfully use language as an intervention tool. Relational frame theory (RFT) is a behavior analytic theory of human language. RFT suggests that the building block of human language and higher cognition is relating—in other words, the human ability to create links between one thing and another using words. Understanding and Applying Relational Frame Theory outlines the essential principles of RFT, and offers practical applications and tools to help clients live better lives and to establish the conditions necessary for all of us to thrive. With a central focus on establishing psychological flexibility, prosociality, and cooperative contexts for change, at all levels of analysis—from the self to overarching systems and cultures—in this book, you will: Learn the theoretical basis of RFT, including how relational operants are learned, from their roots in early social interactions to the complex relating of relations and relational networks seen in analogical and metaphorical reasoning. Explore how complex verbal repertoires affect individual behavior, introducing the development of the self and the influence of rule-governed behavior and private events. Examine relational framing in the context of groups—including the speaking and listening skills needed for supervision, mentorship, effective messaging, and prosociality within and between organizational systems. Discover the implications of applying a behavior analytic understanding of complex language to a variety of settings, including education, mental health, and business. Learn how RFT can be applied to issues of diversity and inclusion, and global sustainability. Finally, you’ll find a thorough discussion of how behavior analysts can use the principles outlined in this book to extend the reach of the field into a range of socially significant and critical areas for behavior change.

Relational frame theory, or RFT, is the little-understood behavioral theory behind a recent development in modern psychology: the shift from the cognitive paradigm underpinning cognitive behavioral therapy to a new understanding of language and cognition. Learning RFT presents a basic yet comprehensive introduction to this fascinating theory, which forms the basis of acceptance and commitment therapy. The book also offers practical guidance for directly applying it in clinical work. In the book, author Niklas Törneke presents the building blocks of RFT: language as a particular kind of relating, derived stimulus relations, and transformation of stimulus functions. He then shows how these concepts are essential to understanding acceptance and commitment therapy and other therapeutic models. Learning RFT shows how to use experiential exercises and metaphors in psychological treatment and explains how they can help your clients. This book belongs on the bookshelves of psychologists, psychotherapists, students, and others seeking to deepen their understanding of psychological treatment from a behavioral perspective.

As acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) increases in popularity among clinicians, it becomes more and more vital to understand its theoretical basis, relational frame theory (RFT). RFT is a psychological theory of human language and cognition, developed by Steven C. Hayes. It focuses on how humans learn language and how language connects them to their environment. In essence, our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are dependent on our experiences and the context that these experiences provide. Edited by leading relational frame theory (RFT) scholars, Simon Dymond, PhD, and Bryan Roche, PhD, Advances in Relational Frame Theory presents advances in all aspects of RFT research over the last decade, and provides a greater understanding of the core principles of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). The book also contains chapters written by Steven C. Hayes and Kelly Wilson, both research-active experts from the RFT community around the world. Because ACT is focused largely on accepting one’s thoughts, it is important to understand where these thoughts come from. And while many books on RFT are abstract and require extensive knowledge of behavior analysis, this is the first book to comprehensively but accessibly introduce RFT to ACT mental health professionals. Gaining a deeper knowledge of the relational concepts of RFT can help you understand why a person's behavior does not always match up with their self-professed values. Whether you are a mental health professional, or simply someone who is interested in the connection between language and experience, this book is an invaluable resource.

This volume goes beyond theory and gives the empirical and conceptual tools to conduct an experimental analysis of virtually every substantive topic in human language and cognition, both basic and applied. It challenges behavioral psychology to abandon many of the specific theoretical formulations of its most prominent historical leader in the domain of complex human behavior, especially in human language and cognition, and approach the field from a new direction. It will be of interest to behavior theorists, cognitive psychologists, therapists, and educators.

In 1934, at the age of 30, B. F. Skinner found himself at a dinner sitting next to Professor Alfred North Whitehead. Never one to lose an opportunity to promote behaviorism, Skinner expounded its main tenets to the distinguished philosopher. Whitehead acknowledged that science might account for most of human behavior but he would not include verbal behavior. He ended the discussion with a challenge: "Let me see you," he said, "account for my behavior as I sit here saying, 'No black scorpion is falling upon this table.'" The next morning Skinner began this book. It took him over twenty years to complete. This book extends the laboratory-based principles of selection by consequences to account for what people say, write, gesture, and think. Skinner argues that verbal behavior requires a separate analysis because it does not operate on the environment directly, but rather through the behavior of other people in a verbal community. He illustrates his thesis with examples from literature, the arts, and sciences, as well as from his own verbal behavior and that of his colleagues and children. Perhaps it is because this theoretical work provides a way to approach that most human of human behavior that Skinner ofter called Verbal Behavior his most important work.

Copublished with Context Press Derived Relational Responding offers a series of revolutionary intervention programs for applied work in human language and cognition targeted at students with autism and other developmental disabilities. It presents a program drawn from derived stimulus relations that you can use to help students of all ages acquire foundational and advanced verbal, social, and cognitive skills. The first part of Derived Relational Responding provides step-by-step instructions for helping students learn relationally, acquire rudimentary verbal operants, and develop other basic language skills. In the second section of this book, you'll find ways to enhance students' receptive and expressive repertoires by developing their ability to read, spell, construct sentences, and use grammar. Finally, you'll find out how to teach students to apply the skills they've learned to higher order cognitive and social functions, including perspective-taking, empathy, mathematical reasoning, intelligence, and creativity. This applied behavior analytic training approach will help students make many substantial and lasting gains in language and cognition not possible with traditional interventions.

"Approachable and user-friendly." —The Professional Counselor The use of metaphor is central to the implementation of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and is a powerful tool for all practicing psychotherapists. In Metaphor in Practice, psychotherapist Niklas Törneke presents the first practical book to combine the behavioral and linguistic sciences of metaphor, and illustrates how and when to apply metaphors in practice for better treatment outcomes. The use of metaphors and experiential exercises can help clients gain a deeper understanding of the problems that cause their disorders. Metaphors help clients connect with their values, and often spark the inspiration and motivation needed to make a commitment to change. And while metaphor is central to relational frame theory (RFT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), research now shows its usefulness has an even broader reach. In this book, you’ll find a scientific analysis of metaphor based on over thirty years of research, as well as trends in research over the last ten years. The book includes an overview of RFT, how metaphor has influenced the community of behavior analysis, as well as available clinical research on metaphor use. You’ll also discover how to create metaphors for functional analysis, distance of observation, and things that matter to your client. Most importantly, you’ll find practical examples of metaphors and clinical exercises you can use in-session. There are many books on metaphor and psychotherapy, but this is the first book to make the connection between the science of metaphor and the detailed clinical process of using that knowledge. If you are a mental health professional—or simply interested in the science of metaphor—this book will provide everything you need to understand and apply this approach.