Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Updating RFT (More Field than Frame) and its Implications for Process-based Therapy

  • Theoretical Article
  • Published:
The Psychological Record Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The current article presents a response to the recent call for a focus on psychological processes of change in psychotherapy. In addressing the need for a more process-based focus, the need for clarity in defining psychological processes per se becomes apparent, before it is possible to develop process-based therapy. In grappling with this challenge, the current article is divided into two parts. In Part I, we present a modern view of behavioral processes as they apply specifically to verbally sophisticated humans. The view we offer is based on one of the main approaches to human language and cognition within behavioral science, relational frame theory (RFT), which has been updated in recent years. In Part 2, the view of behavioral processes, as seen through the lens of an updated RFT, is used to begin to develop a process-based approach to the assessment and treatment of human psychological suffering. The article ends with two case summaries and a series of brief take-home messages that aim to capture the core elements of the RFT-driven process-based therapy we are currently developing.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. The use of the term “updated” is employed here to reflect the fact that the current article proposes a number of new concepts for RFT that do not appear in the seminal volume by Hayes et al. (2001). It is also worth noting that the authors of the current article are not alone in “updating” RFT. For example, Hayes, Sanford, and Chin (2017) have recently proposed an up-dated view of how RFT connects with evolutionary science, with a focus on the role of cooperation in the evolution of human language itself (Hayes & Sanford, 2014). Furthermore, a number of new RFT-based concepts have also been proposed in a recent volume on the clinical application of RFT (Villatte, Villatte, & Hayes, 2015).

  2. Relational frames have been defined as consisting of three properties: mutual entailment, combinatorial entailment, and the transformation of functions, which we are not challenging here. As will become apparent, however, the MDML framework is focused on arbitrarily applicable relational responding in general, not relational frames in particular. In the context of the MDML framework, therefore, it seems wise to refer to two general properties of AARRing: entailment and transformation of functions.

  3. According to RFT, it is the exemplar training that is critical in establishing derived relational responding, not naming per se (see Luciano, Gomez Becerra, & Rodriguez-Valverde, 2007); naming is seen as just one way in which multiple-exemplar training may occur in the natural verbal environment.

  4. The reader should note that within RFT Crel and Cfunc properties are not separable units of analysis but separate properties of the single unit (i.e., the relational frame). In the scientific act of any given experimental, applied, or conceptual analysis, a greater or lesser focus may be targeted on the Crel or Cfunc properties of a particular pattern of AARRing. However, it would be a mistake to think that a Cfunc property may be isolated meaningfully from a Crel property, or vice versa. Indeed, as pointed out by Dymond and Barnes (1994, p. 264) a quarter of a century ago, “the relational-frame account . . . views . . . equivalence responding and derived transfer of function . . . as products of the single behavioral process of arbitrarily applicable relational responding. . . . In effect, the observed pattern of a transfer of functions defines the entailed relations, and thus the entailed relations . . . do not exist as a behavioral event until a specific transfer of functions has occurred.” Or to put it another way, whenever a Cfunc property of a stimulus is identified in a particular analysis it must be defined in terms of a particular Crel property. That is, virtually all psychological acts for verbal humans involve the process of entailment. We shall return to this issue below.

  5. The term “deictic” is used here to refer to verbal relations that specify an individual as located in a particular space (e.g., “here” rather than “there”) and time (e.g., “now” rather than “then”).

  6. Relational complexity (and indeed the other dimensions) may be defined along more than one dimension, such as number of relata, and/or frames, and/or contextual cues in a network. In some cases, therefore, identifying a single continuum of relational complexity (or some other dimension) may require appropriate multidimensional scaling (e.g., Borg & Groenen, 2005).

  7. The participants in the studies reported by Leech et al. (2016, 2017) were recruited randomly from normative samples and thus were not formally categorized as high and low in levels of self-reported fear of spiders or in their tendency to approach actual spiders. Nevertheless, self-reported fear, and performance on a behavioral approach task, were found to vary within the sample, and thus at least some evidence of a correlation between the IRAP performances and behavioral approach might be expected.

  8. It is important to note that the DAARRE model remains a work in progress, and as such is being used to interpret a range of effects that have been observed in IRAP performances (e.g., Kavanagh, Matthyssen, Barnes-Holmes, Barnes-Holmes, McEnteggart, & Vastano, 2019). We have not covered this work here, however, because the key point has been made—the AARRing involved in relatively simple relational networks, even when responses must occur within relatively brief periods of time (i.e., in an IRAP), typically involves a complex cluster of controlling variables.

  9. The ROE is a new and relatively broad conceptual unit of analysis within RFT. For example, the ROE is clearly broader than the concept of a relational frame, in that it aims to capture the most basic to the most complex patterns of AARRing from mutual entailing, to framing, to complex relational networking, to relating relations, and finally to relating relational networks. The concept of the ROE may thus encourage conceptual analyses that extend beyond the level of the frame and also encourage analyses that explicitly consider the role played by the Crel and Cfunc properties of the stimuli or events that participate in any given instance of AARRing. The potential benefits of encouraging these broader types of conceptual analyses, while remaining closely linked to experimental and applied analyses, will be illustrated in Part 2 of the current article.

  10. In suggesting that the relational networks involving stomach tightening and feelings of inadequacy are appetitive, we mean this in a purely functional-analytic way. That is, Sarah is quite willing to use these terms to describe her struggle, but as we shall see subsequently there are other terms that she is far less willing to use in this context, which would be more appropriately described as aversive.

  11. The reader should note that orienting functions may arise from complex relational responses, which is why the ROE is presented earlier as a nonlinear, dynamical system that is constantly in motion as human beings navigate their internal and external psychological worlds.

  12. We suspect that establishing a new, coherent narrative around the deictic-I is a key aim in many therapeutic regimes.

References

  • Bargh, J. A., & Ferguson, M. J. (2000). Beyond behaviorism: On the automaticity of higher mental processes. Psychological Bulletin, 126(6), 925.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Barnes, D., Hegarty, N., & Smeets, P. M. (1997). Relating equivalence relations to equivalence relations: A relational framing model of complex human functioning. Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 14, 57–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barnes, D., & Holmes, Y. (1991). Radical behaviorism, stimulus equivalence, and human cognition. The Psychological Record, 41(1), 19–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barnes, D., Smeets, P. M., & Leader, G. (1996). New procedures for establishing emergent matching performances in children and adults: Implications for stimulus equivalence. Advances in Psychology, 117, 153–171.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barnes-Holmes, D. (2018). The double edged sword of human language and cognition: Shall we be Olympians or fallen angels? [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://science.abainternational.org/the-double-edged-sword-of-human-language-and-cognition-shall-we-be-olympians-or-fallen-angels/rrehfeldtabainternational-org/

  • Barnes-Holmes, D., & Barnes-Holmes, Y. (2000). Explaining complex behavior: Two perspectives on the concept of generalized operant classes. The Psychological Record, 50(2), 251–265.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barnes-Holmes, D., Barnes-Holmes, Y., Luciano, C., & McEnteggart, C. (2017). From the IRAP and REC model to a multi-dimensional multi-level framework for analyzing the dynamics of arbitrarily applicable relational responding. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 6, 434–445.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barnes-Holmes, D., Finn, M., McEnteggart, C., & Barnes-Holmes, Y. (2018). Derived stimulus relations and their role in a behavior-analytic account of human language and cognition. Perspectives on Behavior Science, 41, 155–173.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Barnes-Holmes, D., Hayden, E., Barnes-Holmes, Y., & Stewart, I. (2008). The implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP) as a response-time and event-related-potentials methodology for testing natural verbal relations: A preliminary study. The Psychological Record, 58(4), 497–516.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barnes-Holmes, D., Murphy, A., Barnes-Holmes, Y., & Stewart, I. (2010). The implicit relational assessment procedure: Exploring the impact of private versus public contexts and the response latency criterion on pro-white and anti-black stereotyping among white Irish individuals. The Psychological Record, 60(1), 57–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barnes-Holmes, D., O’Hora, D., Roche, B., Hayes, S. C., Bissett, R. T., & Lyddy, F. (2001). Understanding and verbal regulation. In S. C. Hayes, D. Barnes-Holmes, & B. Roche (Eds.), Relational frame theory: A post-Skinnerian account of human language and cognition. New York (pp. 103–117). New York, NY: Plenum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnes-Holmes, Y. (2001). Analysing relational frames: Studying language and cognition in young children (Unpublished doctoral thesis). National University of Ireland Maynooth.

  • Barnes-Holmes, Y., Barnes-Holmes, D., Smeets, P. M., Strand, P., & Friman, P. (2004). Establishing relational responding in accordance with more-than and less-than as generalized operant behavior in young children. International Journal of Psychology & Psychological Therapy, 4(3), 531–558.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnes-Holmes, Y., Boorman, J., Oliver, J. E., Thompson, M., McEnteggart, C., & Coulter, C. (2018). Using conceptual developments in RFT to direct case formulation and clinical intervention: Two case summaries. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 7, 89–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blount, R. L., Bunke, V. L., & Zaff, J. F. (2000). The integration of basic research, treatment research, and clinical practice in pediatric psychology. In D. Drotar (Ed.), Handbook of research in pediatric and clinical child psychology (pp. ). Issues in Clinical Child Psychology. Boston, MA: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bouton, M. E. (1993). Context, time, and memory retrieval in the interference paradigms of Pavlovian learning. Psychological Bulletin, 114(1), 80.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chomsky, N. (1959). A review of BF Skinner's verbal behavior. Language, 35(1), 26–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Craske, M. G., Treanor, M., Conway, C. C., Zbozinek, T., & Vervliet, B. (2014). Maximizing exposure therapy: An inhibitory learning approach. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 58, 10–23.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Dougher, M. J., Hamilton, D. A., Fink, B. C., & Harrington, J. (2007). Transformation of the discriminative and eliciting functions of generalized relational stimuli. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 88(2), 179–197.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Dymond, S., & Barnes, D. (1994). A transfer of self-discrimination response functions through equivalence relations. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 62(2), 251–267.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Dymond, S., & Barnes, D. (1995). A transformation of self-discrimination response functions in accordance with the arbitrarily applicable relations of sameness, more than, and less than. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 64(2), 163–184.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Dymond, S., & Barnes, D. (1997). Behavior-analytic approaches to self-awareness. The Psychological Record, 47(2), 181–200.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finn, M., Barnes-Holmes, D., Hussey, I., & Graddy, J. (2016). Exploring the behavioral dynamics of the implicit relational assessment procedure: The impact of three types of introductory rules. The Psychological Record, 66(2), 309–321.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finn, M., Barnes-Holmes, D., & McEnteggart, C. (2018). Exploring the single-trial-type-dominance-effect on the IRAP: Developing a differential arbitrarily applicable relational responding effects (DAARRE) model. The Psychological Record, 68, 11–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gomes, C. T., Perez, W. F., de Almeida, J. H., Ribeiro, A., de Rose, J. C., & Barnes-Holmes, D. (2019). Assessing a derived transformation of functions using the implicit relational assessment procedure under three motivative conditions. The Psychological Record, 69, 487–497.

  • Harte, C., Barnes-Holmes, Y., Barnes-Holmes, D., & McEnteggart, C. (2017). Persistent rule-following in the face of reversed reinforcement contingencies: The differential impact of direct versus derived rules. Behavior Modification, 41(6), 743–763.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Harte, C., Barnes-Holmes, D., Barnes-Holmes, Y., & McEnteggart, C. (2018). The impact of high versus low levels of derivation for mutually and combinatorially entailed relations on persistent rule-following. Behavioural Processes, 157, 36–46.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hayes, S. C. (1984). Making sense of spirituality. Behaviorism, 99–110.

  • Hayes, S. C. (1989). Rule governed behavior: Cognition, contingencies, and instructional control. New York, NY: Plenum.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hayes, S. C., Barnes-Holmes, D., & Roche, B. (2001). Relational frame theory: A post-Skinnerian account of human language and cognition. New York, NY: Plenum.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hayes, S. C., & Brownstein, A. J. (1986). Mentalism, behavior-behavior relations, and a behavior-analytic view of the purposes of science. The Behavior Analyst, 9(2), 175–190.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Hayes, S. C., Hofmann, S. G., Stanton, C. E., Carpenter, J. K., Sanford, B. T., Curtiss, J. E., & Ciarrochi, J. (2019). The role of the individual in the coming era of process-based therapy. Behaviour Research & Therapy, 117, 40–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hayes, S. C., & Sanford, B. T. (2014). Cooperation came first: Evolution and human cognition. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 101(1), 112–129.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hayes, S. C., Sanford, B. T., & Chin, F. T. (2017). Carrying the baton: Evolution science and a contextual behavioral analysis of language and cognition. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 6(3), 314–328.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Healy, O., Barnes-Holmes, D., & Smeets, P. M. (2000). Derived relational responding as generalized operant behavior. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 74(2), 207–227.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Hofmann, S. G., & Hayes, S. C. (2019). The future of intervention science: Process-based therapy. Clinical Psychological Science, 7(1), 37–50.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, S., & Barnes-Holmes, D. (2014). Associative concept learning, stimulus equivalence, and relational frame theory: Working out the similarities and differences between human and non-human behavior. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 101(1), 156–160.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, S., & Barnes-Holmes, D. (2016a). Relational frame theory: The basic account. In R. D. Zettle, S. C. Hayes, D. Barnes-Holmes, & A. Biglan (Eds.), The Wiley handbook of contextual behavioral science (pp. 129–178). West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, S., & Barnes-Holmes, D. (2016b). Relational frame theory: Implications for the study of human language and cognition. In R. D. Zettle, S. C. Hayes, D. Barnes-Holmes, & A. Biglan (Eds.), The Wiley handbook of contextual behavioral science (pp. 179–226). West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kavanagh, D., Matthyssen, N., Barnes-Holmes, Y., Barnes-Holmes, D., McEteggart, C., & Vastano, R. (2019). Exploring the use of pictures of self and other in the IRAP: Reflecting upon the emergence of differential trial-type effects. International Journal of Psychology and Psychological Therapy, 19, 323-336.

  • Keuleers, E., Diependaele, K., & Brysbaert, M. (2010). Practice effects in large-scale visual word recognition studies: A lexical decision study on 14,000 Dutch mono-and disyllabic words and nonwords. Frontiers in Psychology, 1(174), 1–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lashley, K. S., & Wade, M. (1946). The Pavlovian theory of generalization. Psychological Review, 53(2), 72.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lattal, K. A. (1975). Reinforcement contingencies as discriminative stimuli 1. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 23(2), 241–246.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Leech, A., Barnes-Holmes, D., & Madden, L. (2016). The implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP) as a measure of spider fear, avoidance, and approach. The Psychological Record, 66(3), 337–349.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leech, A., Barnes-Holmes, D., & McEnteggart, C. (2017). Spider fear and avoidance: a preliminary study of the impact of two verbal rehearsal tasks on a behavior–behavior relation and its implications for an experimental analysis of defusion. The Psychological Record, 67(3), 387–398.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lipkens, R., Hayes, S. C., & Hayes, L. J. (1993). Longitudinal study of the development of derived relations in an infant. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 56(2), 201–239.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Luciano, C., Becerra, I. G., & Valverde, M. R. (2007). The role of multiple-exemplar training and naming in establishing derived equivalence in an infant. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 87(3), 349–365.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Maloney, E., & Barnes-Holmes, D. (2016). Exploring the behavioral dynamics of the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure: the role of relational contextual cues versus relational coherence indicators as response options. The Psychological Record, 66(3), 395–403.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maxwell, S. E., Lau, M. Y., & Howard, G. S. (2015). Is psychology suffering from a replication crisis? What does “failure to replicate” really mean? American Psychologist, 70(6), 487–498.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McHugh, L., Barnes-Holmes, Y., & Barnes-Holmes, D. (2004). Perspective-taking as relational responding: A developmental profile. The Psychological Record, 54(1), 115–144.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, G. A. (2003). The cognitive revolution: a historical perspective. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(3), 141–144.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • O'Hora, D., Barnes-Holmes, D., Roche, B., & Smeets, P. (2004). Derived relational networks and control by novel instructions: A possible model of generative verbal responding. The Psychological Record, 54(3), 437–460.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O'Hora, D., Barnes-Holmes, D., & Stewart, I. (2014). Antecedent and consequential control of derived instruction-following. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 102(1), 66–85.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pavlov, I. P., & Thompson, W. H. (1897/1902). The work of the digestive glands. Charles Griffin.

  • Pinker, S. (1994). How could a child use verb syntax to learn verb semantics? Lingua, 92, 377–410.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roche, B., & Barnes, D. (1997). A transformation of respondently conditioned stimulus function in accordance with arbitrarily applicable relations. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 67(3), 275–301.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Ruiz, F. J., & Luciano, C. (2011). Cross-domain analogies as relating derived relations among two separate relational networks. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 95(3), 369–385.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz, J. M., Stapp, H. P., & Beauregard, M. (2005). Quantum physics in neuroscience and psychology: A neurophysical model of mind-brain interaction. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 360(1458), 1309–1327.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seligman, M. E. (1974). Depression and learned helplessness. New York, NY: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shimp, C. P. (1982). On metaknowledge in the pigeon: An organism’s knowledge about its own behavior. Animal Learning & Behavior, 10(3), 358–364.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sidman, M. (1971). Reading and auditory-visual equivalences. Journal of Speech, Language, & Hearing Research, 14(1), 5–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sidman, M. (1994). Stimulus equivalence: A research story. Boston, MA: Authors Cooperative.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sidman, M., & Tailby, W. (1982). Conditional discrimination vs. matching to sample: An expansion of the testing paradigm. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 37(1), 5–22.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Skinner, B. F. (1966). An operant analysis of problem-solving. In B. Kleinmuntz (Ed.), Problem solving: Research, method, teaching (pp. 225–257). New York, NY: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skinner, B. F. (1974). Walden two. New York, NY: Hackett.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stewart, I., & Barnes-Holmes, D. (2004). Relational frame theory and analogical reasoning: Empirical investigations. International Journal of Psychology & Psychological Therapy, 4(2), 241–262.

    Google Scholar 

  • Villatte, M., Villatte, J. L., & Hayes, S. C. (2015). Mastering the clinical conversation: Language as intervention. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson, J. B., & Rayner, R. (1920). Conditioned emotional reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 3(1), 1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, D. S. (2012). Making contextual behavioral science part of the united ivory archipelago. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 1, 39–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, D. S., Hayes, S. C., Biglan, A., & Embry, D. D. (2014). Evolving the future: Toward a science of intentional change. Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 37(4), 395–416.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolpe, J. (1968). Psychotherapy by reciprocal inhibition. Conditional Reflex: A Pavlovian Journal of Research & Therapy, 3(4), 234–240.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Availability of Data and Materials

The current article is conceptual and therefore has no associated data or materials.

Funding

This research was conducted with funding from the Odysseus Programme at FWO, awarded to the first author.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Experimental, Clinical, and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan, 2, B-9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Dermot Barnes-Holmes, Yvonne Barnes-Holmes & Ciara McEnteggart

Authors
  1. Dermot Barnes-Holmes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yvonne Barnes-Holmes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ciara McEnteggart
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ciara McEnteggart.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This article was prepared with the support of an Odysseus Group 1 grant awarded to the first author by the Flanders Science Foundation (FWO).

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Barnes-Holmes, D., Barnes-Holmes, Y. & McEnteggart, C. Updating RFT (More Field than Frame) and its Implications for Process-based Therapy. Psychol Rec 70, 605–624 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40732-019-00372-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40732-019-00372-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation