A Preliminary Examination of Derived Relational Responding in the Context of Body Image

Abstract

Relational Frame Theory (RFT), a contemporary behavioral account of language and cognition, has been offered as an explanatory model of the development and maintenance of body image disturbance. RFT proposes derived relational responding (DRR) as a process through which the functions of a stimulus are transformed consistent with its relation with other stimuli (and absent direct learning contingencies. Conceptual work has assumed DRR to be central to the development and treatment of body image disturbance. This study offers the first empirical investigation of DRR with body-image stimuli, and untrained approach-and-escape functions. Participants readily demonstrated mutual and combinatorial entailment with stimuli they generated to represent their own body image, along with images fatter and thinner than themselves. Participants also readily demonstrated transformation of untrained approach-and-escape functions consistent with that of thinner and fatter body images. These findings provide a preliminary demonstration of DRR in the context of body image disturbance and support further research applying RFT in this area.