Relational Frame Theory (RFT)

RFT Measures of Acceptance and Experiential Avoidance

• Levin, M.E., Haeger, J. & Smith, G.S. Examining the Role of Implicit Emotional Judgments in Social Anxiety and Experiential Avoidance. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 39, 264–278 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-016-9583-5
• Drake, C.E., Timko, C.A. & Luoma, J.B. Exploring an Implicit Measure of Acceptance and Experiential Avoidance of Anxiety. Psychol Rec 66, 463–475 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40732-016-0186-z

RFT Measures of Clinical Issues

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JCBS

Volume 6, Issue 3, July 2017, Pages 343-346

Authors:

Jan De Houwer, Sean Hughes

Abstract:

Learning can be defined functionally as the impact of regularities in the environment on behavior. The concept of environmental regularities is a crucial part of this definition because it (a) improves the scope and depth of the definition and (b) provides ways to differentiate between different types of learning. We argue that this concept is useful also for conceptualizing learning from the perspective of Relational Frame Theory. More specifically, even if all instances of learning qualify as instances of arbitrarily applicable relational responding, different types of learning could still be functionally different because they involve different types of proximal regularities.

JCBS

Volume 6, Issue 3, July 2017, Pages 329-342

Authors:

Shane McLoughlin, Ian Stewart

Abstract:

JCBS

Volume 6, Issue 3, July 2017, Pages 314-328

Authors:

Steven C. Hayes, Brandon T. Sanford, Fredrick T. Chin

JCBS

Volume 6, Issue 3, July 2017, Pages 308-313

Authors:

Nigel A. Vahey, Marc Bennet, Robert Whelan

Abstract:

Cognitive neuroscience has developed many approaches to the study of learning that might be useful to functionally oriented researchers, including those from a relational frame theory (RFT) perspective. We focus here on two examples. First, cognitive neuroscience often distinguishes between habit and goal-directed reinforcement learning, in which only the latter is sensitive to proximal changes in behavior-environment contingencies. This distinction is relevant to RFT’s original concerns about how rule-based processes can sometimes render an individual’s behavior maladaptive to changing circumstances. Second, the discovery of neurophysiological structures associated with fear extinction and generalization can potentially yield new insights for derived relational responding research. In particular, we review how such work not only informs new ways of modifying the functions transformed in derived relational responding, but also new ways of measuring derived relational responding itself. Overall, therefore, existing conceptual and methodological advances in the cognitive neuroscience literature addressing learning appear to generate functionally interesting predictions related to RFT that might not have surfaced from a traditional functional analysis of behavior.

JCBS

Volume 6, Issue 3, July 2017, Pages 298-307

Special Issue on Conceptual Developments in Relational Frame Theory: Research and Practice

Authors:

Jordan Belisle, Caleb R. Stanley, Mark R. Dixon

JCBS

Volume 7, January 2018, Pages 89-96

Authors:

Yvonne Barnes-Holmes, John Boorman, Joseph E. Oliver, Miles Thompson, Ciara McEnteggart, Carlton Coulter

Abstract:

The current paper is part of an ongoing effort to better connect RFT with the complexities of clinical phenomena. The paper outlines two broad areas, referred to as ‘verbal functional analysis’ and the ‘drill-down’, in which we believe the basic theory is showing increasingly direct application to therapy. The paper also comprises two case summaries in which verbal functional analysis and the drill-down featured strongly in case formulation and clinical focus. Case 1 involves an adult woman who presented with paranoia, had been diagnosed with psychosis, and had an extended history of familial and other abuse. Case 2 describes a teenager who had been placed in foster care, following parental neglect. For comparative purposes and to provide exemplars of similar functional-analytic processes, both case summaries are presented in a similar format. The article attempts to illustrate how therapeutic work can be connected to the basic theory and argues that it will be important in future work to further expand these connections with ongoing developments in RFT.

JCBS

Volume 7, January 2018, Pages 97-103

Special Issue on Conceptual Developments in Relational Frame Theory: Research and Practice

Authors:

Maarten De Schryver, Ian Hussey, Jan De Neve, Aoife Cartwright, Dermot Barnes-Holmes