Психология и социология/Психология развития

Bozhok N.O.

National University of Food Technologies (Kyiv)

THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF RATIONAL EMOTIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY

In general, rational emotive behavioral therapy (REBT) is a form of cognitive behavioral therapy developed by A. Ellis. Founded in 1950, REBT was one of the earliest form of what became known as cognitive behavioral therapy. It was successfully adapted for children and adolescences in 1980s (Bandura&Joyce, 1984) and studied extensively and shown to be effective in this population (Gonsalez, Nelson, 2004).The essential premise of rational emotive behavioral therapy is that people cause themselves distress and dysfunction by their habitual irrational beliefs and these maladaptive thinking patterns can be changed, with resultant improvement in emotional states and functioning [4]. REBT theory posits four irrational beliefs and their rational alternatives. In the opinion of W. Dryden, irrational beliefs are evaluative ideas that have the following characteristics, they are: 1) rigid or extreme; 2) inconsistent with reality; 3) illogical or nonsensical and 4) they lead largely to dysfunctional consequences [2].

At the same time Froggatt presents three criteria for describing a belief as irrational [3]:

- It blocks a person from achieving their goals, creates emotions that persist and which distress and immobilise, and leads to behavior that harm oneself, others and one’s life in general.

- It distorts reality (it is a misinterpretation what is happening and is not supported by the available evidence;

- It contains illogical way of evaluating oneself, others, and the world: demandingness, awfulising, discomfort-tolerance and people-rating.

On the other hand, rational beliefs have the following characteristics, they are [2]:

1. flexible or non-extreme;

2. consistent with reality;

3. logical or sensible;

4. and they lead largely to functional consequences

REBT theory posits four irrational beliefs and their rational alternatives.

In the opinion of A. Ellis, of all irrational beliefs it is the demands that are the very core of many psychological problems. In W. Dryden’s view, demands can be placed on:

1. oneself (I must do well);

2. others (you must treat me well);

3. life conditions “Life must be fair”

In the view of A. Ellis and W. Dryden, the healthy alternative to the demand is a full preference. W. Dryden interprets full preferences as flexible ideas that people hold about how they want things to be without demanding that they want them to be that way. Full preferences can relate to:

1. oneself, e.g. “I want to do well, but I don’t have to do so

2. others, e.g. “I want you to treat me well, but unfortunately you don’t have to do so.

3. life conditions, e.g. ‘I want life to be fair with me very much, but unfortunately it doesn’t have to be the way I want it to be.

Again, A. Ellis position is that of all rational beliefs it is these full preferences that are the very core of healthy psychological responses to healthy life responses.

In our opinion, the best way to transform irrational beliefs into full preferences is to dispute the irrational beliefs in the constructive way. Our point of view is confirmed with ABCDE technique of rational emotive behavioral therapy. According to this technique, (A) actual external events automatically elicit (B) beliefs and irrational thoughts that entail (C) consequent emotions that may be irrational, maladaptive, unrealistic) that must be disputed (D), attacked, challenged so that effective rational thoughts can take their way(E).

Applying this ABCDE process, F. Michler Bishop suggests a five step approach to the client. In his view, the first step is to start at C: ask the client what problem behavior or psychological, emotional upset he wants to address in REBT session. The second step is to explore the A: ask clients what the actual event apparently activated the problem behavior or psychological, emotional upset. The third step is to ask the client what he was thinking, what he was telling himself, about actual event and identify the irrational element in the client’s perception and interpretation of the actual external event. The forth step is to encourage D: Help the client to dispute his irrational thoughts. The fifth step is to assist E: Help the client to find more rational thoughts about actual event, so that the client can diminish his behavioral or emotional problems [1]. Basically, the core elements of REBT is recognizing (as we have already mentioned) and disputing irrationality.

Literature:

1. Bishop F.M. “Helping clients manage addictions with REBT”. Journal of Rational-Emotive therapy”, 18, 2006 – 127-151 p.

2. Dryden W. “A reason to change: A rational emotive behavioral therapy (REBT) workbook.” London: Bruner/Routlage, 2001-280 p.

3. Ridgway R. I. “Theory&Practice 2: Lecture 6”, 2005-7. - 12p.

4. Rosner R. “Albert Ellis’ Rational Emotive Behavioral therapy”. Adolescent Psychiatry, 1, 2011- 82-87 p.