The Relationship of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) to Social Psychology

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) includes several main theories and practices, especially the hypotheses that people are both constructivists and destructivists. It holds that they have powerful innate and socially acquired tendencies to often be self-helping and rational but also self-defeating and irrational. REBT largely derives its method of therapy from many clients seen by the author, from hundreds of therapy studies, and from the social psychology literature. This article shows how REBT formulations overlap with some of the findings of social psychology, how these findings can appreciably be used to improve REBT practice, how some of the unique theories and methods of REBT may contribute to the field of social psychology, and how social psychologists can help to research some of the main REBT principles.