Definition
Acceptance and commitment therapy is a third-wave behavioral psychotherapy based on relational frame theory (RFT), a comprehensive behavioral account of language and cognition, whose primary treatment goal is to increase psychological flexibility.
Description
Relational Frame Theory
A comprehensive account of language and cognition from a behavior analytic perspective has emerged: RFT [6]. Several dozen studies have tested the tenants of the theory (see [6] for a comprehensive review), which in brief claims that human beings learn at an early age to derive bidirectional relations among events in certain contexts and to alter the functions of events due to these relations. For example, a young child may learn that “cat” is the same as “C-A-T” and a small furry animal. With these two trained relations, (a) all bidirectional relations among these three events will probably be...
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Greco, L. A., & Hayes, S. C. (Eds.). (2008). Acceptance and mindfulness treatments for children and adolescents: A practitioners guide. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
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Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K. D., & Wilson, K. G. (1999). Acceptance and commitment therapy: An experiential approach to behavior change. New York: Guilford Press.
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Suggested Readings
Greco, L. A., & Hayes, S. C. (Eds.). (2008). Acceptance and mindfulness treatments for children and adolescents: A practitioners guide. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K. D., & Wilson, K. G. (1999). Acceptance and commitment therapy: An experiential approach to behavior change. New York: Guilford Press.
Hayes, S. C., & Strosahl, K. D. (Eds.). (2004). A practical guide to acceptance and commitment therapy. New York: Springer.
Suggested Resources
Association for Contextual Behavioral Science www.contextualpsychology.org
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Codd III, R.T., Hayes, S.C. (2011). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. In: Goldstein, S., Naglieri, J.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Child Behavior and Development. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-79061-9_3142
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-79061-9_3142
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