On Grieger's (1985) contextual model of the ABCs of RET

Several features of Grieger's (1985) contextual model of the ABCs of RET are criticized. It is argued that (a) Grieger fails at various points to give due regard to the interactive nature of evaluative and interpretive thinking and that he fails to show clearly how people's evaluative thinking can color the interpretations that they make about A; (b) Grieger fails to distinguish clearly between the terms create and influence; (c) Grieger's claim that Life Positions are dichotomous is not valid; (d) the Life Position of Living Psychologically implies a philosophy toward psychological events, a point neglected by Greiger; (e) Grieger's statements about individuals being totally responsible for their wellbeing are overgeneralizations; (f) Grieger fails to show clearly how some invalid and unempirical declarations can be signs of emotional disturbance; and (g) Grieger's view that emotional disturbance can be seen asirrelevant encourages clients' indifference rather than rational concern. Nevertheless, Grieger has introduced an interesting and thought provoking model into the RET literature. Several suggestions are made to improve the model.Grieger (1985) has outlined a complex model of the ABCs of RET which he terms contextual. It is in many ways an excellent and ambitious model which will, as he hopes, promote much debate among rational-emotive theorists and therapists. However, in my opinion, the model has certain deficiencies and in response to his request for comments on his paper, I will outline these and will indicate how his model could be improved.Windy Dryden Ph.D. is Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Goldsmiths' College (University of London), England and Co-Editor of the Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy: An International Quarterly.     

Beliefs and inferences: a test of a rational-emotive hypothesis: 2. On the prospect of seeing a spider

96 subjects were asked to imagine that they were about to enter a room in which there may have been one or more spiders. They were also asked to imagine that (a) they either held a rational or an irrational belief about spiders, (b) they were about to enter the room either alone or with someone, and (c) that the room was either dark or light. Having absorbed their assigned role, the subjects were then asked to make inferences about various elements of their situation. The results supported the hypothesis that holding an irrational belief leads to more negative inferences. It was also found that the lighting conditions in the room and whether the subject was alone or with someone affected the negativity of the inferences made. In addition, there were several two-way and three-way interactions between the independent variables which indicated that entering a light room or being with someone else tended to moderate the negativity of inferences made by those holding a rational belief rather than the opposite, amplifying the negativity of inferences made by those holding an irrational belief. The results supported Ellis's (1985) recent formulation concerning the complex relationship between events and inferences (A), beliefs (B), and emotional and behavioral consequences of beliefs (C).     

The use of chaining in rational-emotive therapy

The focus of this paper is on the concept of chaining in rationalemotive therapy. Four types of chains are discussed and illustrated: (a) inference chains; (b) inference-evaluative belief chains; (c) disturbance about disturbance chains and (d) complex chains.Windy Dryden Ph.D. is a Lecturer in Psychology at Goldsmiths' College, University of London.     

Vivid RET II: Disputing methods

Summary In this article, I have outlined a variety of ways in which therapists can make the disputing process more vivid and memorable for clients. I have underlined that tailoring interventions to fit clients' idiosyncracies is most important and have suggested ways of doing this. The point was made that what might work for one client may very well not work for another. In conclusion, I would encourage therapists to adopt an experimental attitude toward their interventions and to continually monitor the effect of them by requesting feedback from clients as Beck et. al. (1979) advocate. This would help therapists to construct, for each client, a profile of the types of disputing tactics that are effective and the types that prove ineffective.     

Cognitive Aspects of Social Failure: Some Implications for Social-Skills Training

It is argued that negative self-beliefs and other irrational thoughts are a central and neglected component in explaining the failure of many clients to benefit from social-skills training. Evidence is reviewed showing that clients suffering various neurotic disorders tend to negatively distort feedback about others' reactions and their own performance in such a way as to bolster negative self-evaluation, and that this in turn inhibits and in other ways interferes with social performance. These negative self-evaluations may also interfere with training objectives, particularly durability and generalisation of new skills. Ways of changing self-beliefs are suggested, and various aspects of cognitive therapy and rational-emotive therapy are recommended as solutions to these problems.     

Reason and emotion In psychotherapy: Thirty years on

Summary In summary, then, in 1962 RET displayed important features still current. These include the interrelatedness of cognitive, emotive and behavioural processes, the important role that cognition plays in psychological problems, its humanistic view of the self and the futility and dangers of self-rating. The emphasis on perpetuation rather than acquisition processes of emotional disturbance holds good now as it did then, and the core view of therapeutic change is essentially the same now as it was in 1962, despite further, more recent elaborations. Also, one can find the beginnings of a model of psychological health in 1962 that has been more fully developed since that time. Significant change has occurred in RET since 1962 that updates several of Ellis's original ideas. These include the distinction between interpretations (or inferences) and evaluations, the primacy of musts in accounting for psychological disturbance, the clear distinction between healthy and unhealthy negative emotions and the greater role accorded to force and energy in the change process. Aspects of psychoanalytic theory, as well as conditioning theory featured in 1962 no longer appear, and a greater emphasis is placed on biological aspects of emotional disturbance now than thirty years ago. Finally, a greater range of cognitive, imaginal, emotive and behavioural methods are found in current RET literature than inReason and Emotion in Psychotherapy where Ellis restricts himself to illustrating a few cognitive and behavioural techniques. RET, then, has grown and developed over the past thirty years. In large part, this reflects the theory's flexibility and the competent people who have worked to make RET one of the most viable and widely used cognitive-behaviour therapies. Of these, I modestly include myself! This article was originally presented as an Inaugural Lecture at Goldsmiths' College, University of London, on December 8, 1992.     

The development of psychotherapists' theoretical orientation and clinical practice

There is a growing recognition on the part of psychotherapy researchers of the importance of studying therapist variables, recognising that they have a sizeable influence on both therapeutic process and outcome. A model of the development of therapists' theoretical orientation and clinical practice is outlined, based on the integration of data from 161 Portuguese therapists with the extant literature. The selection of initial orientation is addressed, showing that, regarding this choice, therapists from different persuasions appear to emphasise different variables. In terms of changes in the initial theoretical orientation, it seems not only that 'clinical experience' plays a central role, but also that therapists subscribing to different orientations may find different solutions to their theoretical development. Implications and suggestions for improving training are oudined.     

Therapist sexual abuse: An interview with Jill Sinclair

This interview, conducted in January 1991 with Jill Sinclair (Co-ordinator of the Support Network for those Abused by Therapists), covers: (a) the semantics of therapist sexual abuse, (b) its effect on clients, (c) suggestions for therapists working with clients abused by a previous therapist, (d) the current and future work of the Support Network, and (e) the question of whether or not therapists who have sexually abused their clients should be rehabilitated.     

Ellis and Epictetus: Dialogue vs. Method in Psychotherapy

Some recent commentators have found problems in the scientific status of Ellis's REBT, which seem not to be present in Beck's CBT. We argue that this may be partly because they drew differently from the traditions of thought available to them, which appears most clearly in their first published articles. Beck's articles were more in the modern medical tradition, whose history forms part of the search for method leading to abstract knowledge and control that has been so powerful a feature of Western culture. Ellis was more discursive in style and drew more explicitly on the dialogic tradition, in which obstacles to self-awareness and freedom are removed by enlisting the power of reason through question and answer. Socrates and Epictetus are the classical representatives of this tradition, and Ellis's first article shows clear signs of being modelled on Epictetus. Later, however, though continuing in this tradition in his personal style and popular self-help books, Ellis also developed abstract models and methods that belong to the medical tradition. His dual allegiance has made him vulnerable to criticism from both sides.     

Proactive and retroactive effects of negative suggestion

The negative effects of false information presented either prior to (proactive interference; PI) or following (retroactive interference; RI) true information was examined with word definitions (Experiment 1) and trivia facts (Experiment 2). Participants were explicitly aware of which information was true and false when shown, and true-false discrimination was evaluated via multiple-choice tests. Negative suggestion, defined as poorer performance on interference items than noninterference (control) items, consistently occurred when the wrong information followed the correct information (RI) but not when it preceded the correct information (PI). These effects did not change as a function of retention interval (immediate, 1 week, or 3 weeks) or number of incorrect alternatives (1 or 3). Implications of this outcome for experiencing incorrect information in both academic and nonacademic situations are considered.