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. Reprinted from Journal of Counseling & Development, January/February 1995, Volume 73. ACA. Reprinted with permission. No further reproduction authorized without written permission from the American Counseling Association. Stephen G. Weinrach, who maintained a private practice in Havertown, Pennsylvania, was a professor of counseling and human relations at Villanova University, Villanova, Pennsylvania, and a Fellow of the Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy in New York. He died in 2004. This article was based in part upon a presentation entitled, “Obstacles to a Wider Acceptance of RET,” given at the World Congress on Mental Health Counseling/35th Anniversary Conference on Rational-Emotive Therapy, Keystone, Colorado, June, 1990. The author extended his appreciation to his copresenters, Albert Ellis, Janet L. Wolfe, and Daniel J. Ziegler, as well as Michael E. Bernard, Joanne Christopher, Windy Dryden, Gerald L. Gandy, Martin Gerstein, and Allen Ivey.     

Reducing REBT’s “Wince Factor:” an insider’s perspective

The author discusses three aspects of rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) that occasionally make him wince. They are: REBT does not adequately address issues relating to diversity-sensitive counseling; there is a tendency for some REBT adherents to display poor interpersonel skills, and lack a philosophical commitment to the interdependence of humans on one another; and, there is a tendency for REBT to promise more than it can deliver. A list of 15 recommendations and wishes for a “new and improved” version of REBT are included. Reprinted from Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, 14(1), 63–78, 1996. The author expressed his appreciation to Dominic DiMattia and Ellen Finkelstein who provided valuable suggestion to a draft version of this article and to Windy Dryden who initiated this dialog and saw it through to its publication. Stephen G. Weinrach was a professor of counseling and human relations at Villanova, PA and a Fellow of the Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy in New York. He maintained a private practice in Havertown, PA. He died in 2004.     

Native Thai Speakers’ Acquisition of English Word Stress Patterns

The influence of syllabic structure, lexical class and stress patterns of known words on the acquisition of the English stress system was investigated in ten native Thai speakers. All participants were adult learners of English with an average length of residence in the US of 1.4 years. They were asked to produce and give perceptual judgments on 40 English non-words of varying syllabic structures in noun and verb sentence frames. Results of the production data suggested that syllables with a long vowel attracted stress more often than syllables containing a short vowel and nouns received initial stress more often than verbs. Additionally, regression analyses with the three factors as predictors suggested that Thai participants’ pattern of stress assignment on non-words was significantly influenced by the stress patterns of phonologically similar real words. These results were compared and contrasted to those found in previous work with Spanish–English and Korean–English bilinguals.     

Gender Role Orientation and Anxiety Symptoms Among African American Adolescents

The present study evaluated gender role theory as an explanation for the observed gender differences in anxiety symptoms among adolescents. Specifically, the relation between gender, gender role orientation (i.e., masculinity and femininity), self-esteem, and anxiety symptoms was examined in a community sample of 114 African Americans aged 14 to 19 (mean age 15.77; 57 girls). Results revealed that masculinity was negatively associated with anxiety symptoms whereas femininity was positively associated with anxiety symptoms. Gender role orientation accounted for unique variance in anxiety scores above biological gender and self-esteem, and self-esteem moderated the relation between femininity (but not masculinity) and overall anxiety symptoms. Consistent with research on children and Caucasians, findings supported gender role theory as a partial explanation for the observed gender disparity in anxiety symptoms among African American adolescents.     

Depression and engagement in a residential home for the elderly

Traditional residential care environments for the elderly have been criticized because of the observed low levels of residents' engagement. Behavioural models of depression suggest an inverse relationship between engagement in pleasant activities and depression. The present study examined the relationship between depression and engagement in the residents of a home for the elderly. Correlational analyses indicated no relationship between level of depression and level of engagement but an association was found between level of depression and engagement in activities subjectively most enjoyed. There was considerable variation in the residents' perception of their behaviour; some residents viewed active engagement negatively whilst clearly enjoying behaviour that is technically disengaged. It is suggested that the results of the study emphasize the importance both of individual differences in behaviour and of covert behaviour. Implications for the engagement concept are discussed. In particular it is suggested that programmes in care environments aimed at increasing engagement in order to enhance the quality of life should focus more on the individual and on his perception of his behaviour.     

Affect as a mediator of attributional egotism

A three-stage model of the relationships among achievement outcomes, outcome-related affect, attribution, and emotion is tested in two studies. It is suggested that success and failure elicit positive and negative affective states due to prior conditioning. These affective states then lead to an attribution process that serves to defend and enhance self-esteem. Next, emotional labels are chosen that are consistent with the affective states and the attributions. Two studies were designed to test the proposed relationships among achievement outcomes, affective states, and attributions. In the first study, subjects received information indicating that they were strongly or mildly aroused as a result of receiving outcome feedback on an achievement task. The results indicated that low arousal reduced egotistical attributions to internal factors. In the second study, subjects either succeeded or failed on an achievement task. Half of the subjects were provided with an opportunity to misattribute the arousal elicited by their outcomes to an irrelevant source. Subjects in the misattribution condition made less egotistical attributions to external factors than subjects who were given no opportunity to misattribute their arousal. The results of both studies suggest that outcome-related affect mediates the relationship between outcomes and attributions in achievement situations.     

Blocking acquisition of the rabbit's nictitating membrane response to serial conditioned stimuli

Three experiments demonstrated that prior training with one stimulus (CS1) would block acquisition of the rabbit's nictitating membrane response (NMR) to another stimulus (CS2) which was more contiguous to the US during serial compound training (CS1-CS2-US). Specifically, the CS1-US interval was 800 msec, which produces only a modest rate of CR acquisition, while the CS2-US interval was 400 msec, which is an optimal value for the NMR preparation. Experiment 1 demonstrated blocking when CS1 overlapped CS2, and Experiment 3 demonstrated blocking when CS1 and CS2 were presented in a strictly sequential fashion. Experiment 2 showed that the magnitude of blocking in the serial compound was comparable to that obtained in a simultaneous compound in which both the CS1-US and CS2-US intervals were 800 msec, thus making CS2 less contiguous with the US than in the serial compound. Moreover, the level of responding to CS2 in all serial compound groups (blocking and control) was lower than in the simultaneous compound groups. The present findings provide further evidence that the associative consequences of CS-US contiguity can be highly attenuated by processes of attention or competition for associative strength.     

Analysis of variances and covariances is misleading as a guide to a common factor model

The “factor” analyses published by Schultz, Kaye, and Hoyer (1980) confused component and factor analysis and led in this case as in many others to unwarranted conclusions. They used component analysis to develop factor models that were subjected to restricted (confirmatory) maximum likelihood analysis, but the final models for which good fits with the observed correlations were obtained were not common factor models. They were, however, discussed as such and conclusions drawn accordingly. When their correlation matrices are analyzed by the principal factors method, two factors are sufficient to account for the intercorrelations. These two factors generally support the a priori expectation of a difference between intelligence tasks and spontaneous flexibility tasks. They are also quite similar in younger and older subjects, when similarity is judged in terms of factor pattern. Factor loadings for the younger subjects, however, are much smaller than expectations based on the respective ranges of talent in the two groups of subjects or on past experience with similar tests in undergraduate student populations.