The present paper reviews the clinical utility of behavioral momentum and matching theory. It is suggested that these concepts--deriving from operant psychology--outline powerful interventions that are sometimes, incorrectly, thought of as contrary to behaviorism. It is also suggested that these concepts, and the interventions deriving from them, are consistent with DeGrandpre's (2000) notion that behaviorism is a theory of the construction of meaning. ********** In a paper recently published in the American Psychologist, Richard DeGrandpre (2000) suggested the importance of operant psychology to the development of a science of meaning. He noted that operant psychology holds as its subject matter the nature of how meaning arises from a social and historical context. As illustrated in both its empirical procedures and its philosophical underpinnings, operant psychology champions the notion that meaning does not reside in objects or activities per se, but rather is established through a history of organism-environment interactions. In other words, meaning derives from the coming together of the self and object at a, developmentally speaking, particular time and place. (p. 723). Behaviorism, according to DeGrandpre, is a theory of development in which a primary unit of analysis is choice. A focus on choice is ultimately an inquiry into how value is attained and maintained, and the conditions under which it is lost. According to this conceptualization, behaviorism involves recognizing the process whereby organisms generate meaning out of past experience. Of concern is the nature of how organisms distribute their efforts between concurrently available reinforcement contingencies. For example, under what conditions will an individual choose a larger yet delayed reward as opposed to a smaller yet more immediate reward (Green, Fry, & Myerson, 1994; Mischel, Shoda, & Rodriguez, 1989)? From this perspective, the job of the applied behavior analyst is not simply to alter an immediate context such that some behavior or set of behaviors is supported or extinguished. Rather, it is to identify and bring about life experiences that are consistent with maximizing overall value functions (Rachlin, 2000). That is, applied behavior analysis is concerned with helping individuals maximize their rewards over an extended time frame. This is contrasted with being captivated by immediate and ultimately less rewarding value functions. It is the capacity to maximize one's long-term well being that defines freedom for the behaviorist. A BASIC FRAMEWORK FOR BEHAVIOR THERAPY Operant psychology has been identified by many as having little or no practical significance for clinical psychology (Cullen, 1981). This argument is generally based on the specious conclusion that operant psychology is overly simplistic with respect to its conceptualization of human nature, and that its interventions undermine free will. Contrary to these arguments, however, operant psychology has generated several principles and paradigms of study that recognize and reflect the complexity of human behavior (c.f., Fantino, 1998). Many of these principles derive from the conceptualization of behavior as choice. They support a broad range of clinical interventions that heretofore have been considered contrary to behavioral theory (Strand, 2000a). In the remainder of this paper I will identify and discuss two of these principles--behavioral momentum and matching theory. These principles are concerned with the persistence of behavior in the absence of reinforcement and the relativity of reinforcement, respectively. Although they differ with respect to the behavioral processes they refer to, these principles are united in that each presents a challenge to an overly simplistic interpretation of the Law of Effect--one suggesting an absolute relationship between stimuli and behavior. It is this overly simplistic account of behaviorism's most basic statement that triggered pronouncements that behaviorism is irrelevant with respect to generating a theory of the construction of meaning (Bruner, 1990). …