Theories of behavior therapy: Exploring behavior change.

Abstract

Many new theoretical directions have emerged within behaviour therapy over the past 20 years, but researchers and practitioners often have not had opportunities to explore their details or implications. This book compiles and explicates the spectrum of major theories relevant to contemporary behaviour therapy - with much of the material written by the leading proponents of the theories described. This book explores theories of reciprocal inhibition, reinforcement, moral regulation, traumatic memory, learned alarms, bioinformation, self-control and self-efficacy, coercion, attribution, information processing and relapse prevention - as well as evolutionary, feminist, Marxist, dialectical, and paradigmatic perspectives and the matching law and two-factor fear theories. It examines hypothesis-based interventions for clinical decision making, functional analytic psychotherapy and interbehavioural psychology. For each theory, a recognized expert in the field presents a thorough description - including underlying assumptions, scope and structure and specific assertions - and highlights important features. The discussions cover evaluations of the theories, including how they stand up to rival theories and examine clinical applications and implications. O'Donohue and Krasner set the stage with an overview of what theory is in general and what role it plays in science, discussing influential figures from Skinner to Laudan. They present a brief history of behaviour therapy and its theoretical foundations, including an argument that the newly popular term cognitive-behaviour therapy is in fact an oxymoron.