Ostaszewski, P., Malicki, S. (2013). Człowiek – zwierzę werbalne: wprowadzenie do Teorii Ram Relacyjnych. Przegląd Psychologiczny, 56 (1), 45-57.
The purpose of the paper is to introduce the reader to Relational Frame Theory, which is a contemporary behavioral account of language and its implications for human behavior. Relational Frame Theory focuses on mechanisms that underlie response to stimuli which are related arbitrarily (i.e. whose relations are based on social agreement rather than on their physical properties). Some of such relations result from direct learning, and some are derived on the basis of previous experience with similar relations. Response to a stimulus arbitrarily related to other stimuli is called relational framing. A reaction to a stimulus based on its arbitrarily derived relation to other stimuli may be diametrically different from a previously learned or natural reaction to the same stimulus. In other words, relational framing results in transformation of stimulus function. According to RFT, responding to stimuli on the basis of their arbitrarily derived relations may be seen as the core of language. The ability to derive arbitrary relations enables humans to learn very fast by drawing vast relational networks, and transformation of stimulus function makes it possible to attach new meanings to events. However, the mechanism of arbitrary derivation of stimulus-stimulus relation, resulting in transformation of stimulus function, may elicit and sustain behaviors classified as psychopathological symptoms. In the past decade Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, a psychotherapy based on Relational Frame Theory, has been gaining increasing empirical evidence of its efficiency. These results seem to support the theoretical assumptions of RFT.