Exploring the Effects of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy on the Irrational Beliefs and Self-Determined Motivation of Triathletes

The present study addresses proposals that Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) can influence self-determined motivation. Triathletes received REBT education, followed by either Rational Emotive Personal-Disclosure Mutual-Sharing (REPDMS) or Personal-Disclosure Mutual-Sharing. Measurements of irrational beliefs and self-determined motivation were collected prior to REBT (baseline), during the REBT education period, and after the REPDMS session (postintervention). An ABC single-case design was adopted, allowing for statistical and visual analysis of data over time and between groups. Findings indicate that REBT led to decreased irrational beliefs and increased self-determined motivation. REPDMS appeared to have no influence on irrational beliefs over and above REBT education.     

CAN RATIONAL-EMOTIVE BEHAVIOR THERAPY (REBT) AND ACCEPTANCE AND COMMITMENT THERAPY (ACT) RESOLVE THEIR DIFFERENCES AND BE INTEGRATED?

Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is a pioneering form of Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is part of the new wave of CBTs. In this article, I discuss the papers of Ciarrochi, Robb, and Godsell, and of Ciarrochi and Robb, who propose that REBT and ACT can be quite suitably integrated, and the paper of Steven Hayes, the originator of ACT and of Relational Frame Theory, who is skeptical about the feasibility of Ciarrochi, Robb, and Godsell’s proposals. My own view is that ACT and REBT significantly overlap in their theory and practice and that they can be successfully integrated if both therapies make some changes.     

Frustration Intolerance: Therapy Issues and Strategies

This article aims to provide an overview of the Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) concept of frustration intolerance. Therapeutic issues regarding these beliefs are discussed, including engagement, the use of disputation, and behavioral techniques.     

Irrational and Metacognitive Beliefs Mediate the Relationship Between Content Beliefs and GAD Symptoms: A Study on a Normal Population

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) and Metacognitive Therapy (MCT) models show both similarities and differences in conceptualizing anxiety. This work assumes that REBT’s irrational and MCT’s metacognitive beliefs play a mediation role while CBT’s disorder specific content beliefs act as triggers. This hypothesis is tested using a regression model in which metacognitive and irrational beliefs play a mediation role while content disorder beliefs are independent variables. This paper applied this model to generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), a psychiatric diagnosis in which anxiety is the major feature. In GAD, the specific content beliefs are negative problem orientation and intolerance of uncertainty. Therefore, 149 non clinical subjects completed 4 self-report questionnaires: the Negative Orientation to the Problems Questionnaire and the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale as measures for content cognitive beliefs, the Attitudes and Beliefs Scale for irrational beliefs, and the Metacognitive Questionnaire 30 Items Version for metacognitive beliefs. The generalized anxiety disorder questionnaire was chosen in order to measure anxiety as dependent variable. Regression analyses confirmed that irrational and metacognitive beliefs mediate the relation between cognitive content beliefs and GAD. We clinically interpret mediation as a second level regulation.     

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy Successes and Failures: Eight Personal Perspectives

Eight experts in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) provided personal examples of their own successes and failures in applying REBT to themselves. The experts actively talked to themselves both rationally and irrationally. Understandably, there were far more shoulds, oughts, musts, and have to's in the narratives in which the experts described when they failed to use REBT than when they succeeded in using REBT. Rational self‐talk was more prevalent in the examples of how REBT was successfully used by the experts.     

Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy: An Interview with Albert Ellis

Over the past 50~years, Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) has been developed and refined by Albert Ellis. REBT provides a framework for therapy that appears useful for many therapists and most clients. This paper includes a recent interview with Dr. Ellis, examining issues related to the development, application, and ongoing refinement of REBT as a useful and effective approach to psychotherapy.     

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy: A Tough-Minded Therapy for a Tender-Minded Profession

Objections to Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) seem to exceed the mere rational preference for one approach over another. Ziegler suggested that James's dichotomy between Tough- and Tender-Mindedness might explain REBT's appeal to some and its failure to attract others. REBT is a predominantly Tough-Minded therapy, but the counseling profession is largely Tender Minded. In this article, the author examines why Tender-Minded counselors may not accept REBT, what common misperceptions of REBT may contribute to this rejection, and how the two might be reconciled. Intervention strategies for Tender-Minded counselors are suggested.     

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy Compared to Client-Centered Therapy for Outpatients: A Randomized Clinical Trial with a Three Months Follow up

Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy - This study evaluated the effectiveness of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) for outpatients with GAD and mild depression and...     

The Concept of Psychological Health in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy

The argument has been made that if Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is to survive and prosper in the 21st century, its underlying personality theory requires further development and clarification. In this spirit, the concept of psychological health in REBT theory is examined in the present article. The concept of psychological health in personality theories is discussed briefly, as are the core aspects of the REBT view of emotional disturbance. Given that necessary context, a definition of the essence of psychological health in REBT theory is proposed and discussed. The clinical implications of the proposed definition are then explored.     

Case Study: The Case of Joyce F.

This case review identifies the use of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) and Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) principles and concepts while detailing the plight and fight of one woman in overcomingagoraphobia with panic attacks. It illustrates how the frequency of anxiety disorder symptoms can be lessened, their intensity minimized and their duration reduced. Techniques plus the value of persistence, boldness, risk taking, eagerness to learn, gumption and guts in confronting her symptoms cognitively, emotively and behaviorally are meant to come through the following narrative explanation.     

How to Supervise the Use of Homework in Cognitive Behavior Therapy: The Role of Trainee Therapist Beliefs

Encouraging and facilitating homework completion is a core cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) skill. Consequently, it represents an important part of training practitioners. Oftentimes the process of integrating homework into therapy is rushed, poorly executed, or forgotten, and trainees are surprised to find that some patients do not complete homework. We advocate for increased therapist responsibility in accounting for homework nonadherence. Therefore, problems with the use of homework in therapy are frequently an agenda item in the supervision of trainee cognitive behavior therapists. In our experience, trainee CBT practitioners exhibit a number of interrelated automatic thoughts, assumptions, and in-session behaviors that influence their use of homework assignments. The Cognitive Behavior Therapy Homework Project has proposed a “model for practice” to guide the use of homework in CBT [Kazantzis, N., MacEwan, J., & Dattilio, F. M. (2005). A guiding model for practice. In: Kazantzis, N., Deane, F. P., Ronan, K. R., & L’Abate, L. (Eds.), Using homework assignments in cognitive behavior therapy (pp. 359–407). New York: Routledge]. The present article will draw from those practice recommendations and discuss the role and impact of the therapeutic relationship and therapist beliefs on the use of homework assignments, with reference to the different levels of CBT conceptualization. Clinical examples from the supervision of trainees enrolled in the practicum component of the Massey University Postgraduate Diploma in Cognitive Behavior Therapy are used to illustrate supervising the use of homework assignments.     

Frustration and Discomfort Intolerance: Introduction to the Special Issue

This article aims to provide an overview of the Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) concept of frustration intolerance. Therapeutic issues regarding these beliefs are discussed, including engagement, the use of disputation, and behavioral techniques.     

The Construct Of Personality In Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (Rebt) Theory

In this article it is argued that, if Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is to survive and prosper in the next century, it will require a more comprehensive and detailed theory of personality at its base. Ideally, REBT personality theory preferably should avoid certain basic shortcomings of other personality theories. Toward these ends, an explicit definition of the term personality is proposed for REBT theory emphasizing psychological individuality, cognition, emotion, and behavior, and their interrelationships. The central concepts in the proposed definition are then explored along with related broad-based hypotheses generally amenable to empirical test. Finally, some implications of the proposed definition of personality for treatment are then discussed.     

Empirically Documenting Clinically Significant Change in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy

The purpose of the present article is to outline the conceptual foundation and practical methodology of the Jacobson-Truax Clinically Significant Change index, derived from psychotherapy outcome research. This way of considering what constitutes clinically significant change in psychotherapy puts a premium on social validation. It empowers clinicians to evaluate the meaningfulness of their client's progress and to communicate that progress to third parties such as other clinicians, researchers, and insurers. Application of the method is demonstrated in the case of a client treated with Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT). The discussion focuses on the advantages of this procedure for satisfying the intellectual interest of the practitioner-scientist and for furthering informed discussion of the value in various applications of REBT to clinical problems.     

Muscularity rationality: An examination of the use of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) upon exercisers at risk of muscle dysmorphia

Research in the area of body image suggests that muscularity dissatisfaction is a prominent concern among men and women. At its apex, this concern manifests into a convoluted and debilitating body image disorder termed muscle dysmorphia (MD), characterised by a marked preoccupation with ones (subjective) muscularity and leanness inadequacy. Prevention of MD is critical, however, empirical evidence informing intervention protocols are profoundly scarce. The principal aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a one-to-one Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) intervention, comprising five, 60-min one-to-one sessions, in decreasing MD symptomatology, irrational beliefs and increasing unconditional self-acceptance in a mixed-sex cohort of four exercisers at-risk of MD. A single-case, staggered multiple-baseline across participant A-B design was adopted to examine the effects of REBT. Visual and statistical analyses, and social validation data, indicated reductions in MD, irrational beliefs, and increases in unconditional self-acceptance across all participants from pre-post intervention phases, with reductions upheld at a 6-month follow-up. This study highlights the potential role of rational and irrational beliefs in the onset and maintenance of MD. This study is the first to report the application of a CBT approach to MD symptomology, and has demonstrated the use of REBT as a potential preventative approach for individuals at risk of MD. Practitioners working with individuals at risk of MD should take a benefit-focussed approach to support individuals in developing unconditional self-acceptance beliefs, as well as a problem-focussed approach to support individuals in reducing irrational beliefs.     

Post‐September 11th Perspectives on Religion,Spirituality, and Philosophy in the Personal and Professional Lives of Selected REBT Cognoscenti

The purpose of this article was for selected Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) cognoscenti to examine the impact of the events of September 11th, 2001, on their beliefs about religion, spirituality, and their personal philosophy—including the role of evil in the universe and the implications of these issues on their use of REBT. The degree of consistency of the authors' views with classical REBT theory and philosophy was examined. The authors are current or former members of the Albert Ellis Institute's International Training Standards and Policy Review Committee, of which Albert Ellis, REBT's founder, is also a member.     

Self-Compassion,Self-Esteem,and Irrational Beliefs

Assumptions associated with Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) suggest that self-compassion, but not self-esteem, should be incompatible with irrational beliefs and with the emotional disturbances that they produce. In this study, 184 university students responded to a self-compassion scale along with measures of irrational beliefs, self-esteem, depression, and anxiety. As expected, self-compassion correlated negatively with irrationality, predicted better mental health, and explained inverse connections of self-esteem with irrational beliefs. In support of REBT, the irrationality of low frustration tolerance also partially mediated the inverse self-compassion relationship with anxiety. Other findings for self-esteem and for the irrational belief of self-worth, nevertheless, suggested complexities for the REBT conceptual framework. These data most importantly confirmed self-compassion as part of what REBT would describe as an effective personal philosophy.     

Responses to criticisms of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) by Ray Digiuseppe,Frank Bond,Windy Dryden,Steve Weinrach,and Richard Wessler

Responses to the criticisms of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) by Ray DiGiuseppe (1996), Frank Bond and Windy Dryden (1996), Steve Weinrach (1996), and Richard Wessler (1996). In particular their points about the untestabilility of the REBT hypotheses about the primacy of absolutistic musts and of the distinction between healthy and unhealthy emotions are considered and answered.