This page and the pages linked to it are here largely for historical purposes since the lab is no longer taking students due to Steve's age (he was born in 1948) and his retirement from UNR in 2023. His last student received a PhD in July 2025. Steve no longer takes post-docs, nor sabbaticants. In the area of research he works with professionals world wide, especially the "One Size Fits None" research team of Joe Ciarrochi, Stefan Hofmann, Baljinder Sahdra, Clarissa Ong,and Cristobal Hernandez. Steve is also President of a 501c3 charity: the Institute for Better Health.
Some of the very early history of Steve's lab can be found in this JCBS article: Hayes, S. C. & King, G. (2024). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: What the history of ACT and the first 1,000 randomized controlled trials reveal. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 33, 100809. Doi: 10.1016/j.jcbs.2024.100809 and it is covered to a degree in his book "A Liberated Mind."
Over its 50 years of existence from 1975 to 2025 Steve's lab was focused on creating a scientific paradigm that supports human transformation, now known as "Contextual Behavioral Science."
It sought the development of a coherent, pragmatically useful, innovative, empirical, idiographic, behavioral approach to psychological science that will enable significant steps forward in our understanding of human beings, the creation of human progress, and in the alleviation of human suffering.
It consciously tried to give away its research program by supporting the development of successful research laboratories with these goals world wide.
The lab was at the forefront in the development of functional contextualism, Relational Frame Theory, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Process-Based Therapy, and idionomic analysis.
As a "tongue in cheek" processes from the beginning of his lab doctoral graduates who also choose to agree to a "science oath" receive the "Behavioralis Junkus degree" and learn the secret behavioral handshake. Four persons have received this "degree" on an honorary basis as of 2025, including the late Tuna Townsend, Takashi Muto, Jason Luoma, and Gijs Jansen. All persons with a "BJD" can award the degree to others and some do; they in turn can award it to their graduates. Four generations of "BJD's" exist as of 2025. The reason that this is mentioned here is that the oath is worth reading -- it is explicitly NOT an oath to Steve's ideas -- it is a oath to the important of free scientific inquiry. The oath can be found below.
Below are links to a list of lab graduates, the science oath, and a comprehensive list of all dissertations to come out of the lab. A vita as of 2025 is also available ... but more recent versions may be available on the UNR psychology faculty website or at www.stevenchayes.com