Relational Frame Theory: A Précis

Abstract

Summarizes some of the key features of Relational Frame Theory (RFT) and addresses some of the common behavioral criticisms of this approach. The authors describe RFT as a behavior analytic approach to human language and cognition which treats relational responding as a generalized operant, and thus appeals to a history of multi-exemplar training. Specific types of relational responding, termed relational frames, are defined in terms of the three properties of mutual and combinational entailment, and the transformation of functions. Relational frames are arbitrarily applicable, but are typically not necessarily arbitrarily applied in the natural language context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved) (from the chapter)