Changing Cultural Practices

Changing Cultural Practices

Part of the ACT/ RFT movement is a "grand vision" to affect positive change on the culture more generally. Groups and organizations engage in practices that harm individuals, families, and the environment, yet there is little scientific understanding of how to bring about changes in these practices.

A number of professionals throughout the world are conducting research on such topics as stigma, prejudice, prevention, advertising, child rearing, and environmental preservation among other important issues.

Here is where you will find information on specific applications of ACT to cultural issues with links to relevant researchers and studies.

Jason Lillis

ACT/ RFT and Prejudice

ACT/ RFT and Prejudice

Despite decades of social concern, racial, ethnic, and religious prejudice persists. Few cultural issues seem more important than figuring out why people hate and how to reduce discriminatory and violent behavior due to prejudice. It seems our survival may depend on our ability as human beings to solve this issue. ACT/ RFT is relevant not just to the needs of the victims of prejudice, discrimination, and terrorism, but also to the understanding and modification of psychological processes that lead to the perpetration of hateful and discriminatory acts.

From an ACT/ RFT perspective, prejudice can be defined as theobjectification and dehumanization of human beings because of their participation in verbal evaluative categories. Prejudice, defined this way, is a kind of verbal entanglement. It is difficult to avoid because some of the same cognitive processes that permit problem-solving also seem to foster prejudice. In addition, may of the things humans do to try and change or eliminate prejudice are either inert or prone to making these processes more resistant to change. Indeed, validated methods for reducing prejudice are very limited.

In this section are links to various ACT and RFT papers related to this topic.

Conceptual papers discussing prejudice/terrorism from an ACT/RFT perspective.

RFT studies related to prejudice and stereotyping

Empirical papers examining the impact of ACT on prejudice and stigma.

  • Self related stigma regarding weight: Lillis, J. (2008). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for the treatment of obesity-related stigma and sustained weight loss. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Nevada, Reno.
  • Prejudice towards ethnic minorities: Lillis, J., & Hayes, S. C. (2007). Applying acceptance, mindfulness, and values to the reduction of prejudice: A pilot study. Behavior Modification, 31(4), 389-411.
    Undergraduates enrolled in two separate classes on racial differences were exposed Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and an educational lecture drawn from a textbook on the psychology of racial differences in a counterbalanced order. Results indicate that only the ACT intervention was effective in increasing positive behavioral intentions at post and a 1-week follow-up. These changes were associated with other self-reported changes that fit with the ACT model.
  • Stigma towards mental health problems: Masuda, A., Hayes, S. C., Fletcher, L. B., Seignourel, P. J., Bunting, K., Herbst, S. A., Twohig, M. P., & Lillis, J. (2007). The impact of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy versus education on stigma toward people with psychological disorders. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45(11), 2764-2772.
    An RCT comparing ACT and education in 95 college students. ACT reduced mental health stigma significantly regardless of participants’ pre-treatment levels of psychological flexibility, but education reduced stigma only among participants who were relatively flexible and non-avoidant to begin with.
Jason Lillis