Forsyth, J. P., & Eifert, G. H. (1996). The language of feeling and the feeling of anxiety: Contributions of the behaviorisms toward understanding the function-altering effects of language. The Psychological Record, 46, 607-649.
This is an early paper outlining an ACT/RFT account of language in the context of understanding anxiety disorders. It compares a behavior analytic approach to anxiety with a paragdigmatic behavioral (PB) account of language and emotion. PB has explained the acquisition of verbal-emotive functions from a respondent semantic conditioning perspective, whereas ACT/RFT describes similar emotive functions from an operant perspective. This review attempts to provide some points of synthesis between both behaviorisms by highlighting their commonalities, limitations, and differences in the context of understanding anxiety-related phenomena. Both positions maintain that language behavior is at the core of an adequate account of emotional phenomena in humans. Each position has also addressed how people come to know their feelings, the functions that emotions serve, and how they can be changed or modified in therapy. Some avenues for synthesis are suggested that span experimental, conceptual, and therapeutic areas. We conclude that the differences between PB and RB are far outweighed by their respective contributions toward addressing how people come to know their feelings and how emotional dysfunction can be changed in language-based cognitive-behavioral therapies.