Toward an RFT-based basic behavioral process analysis of fusion and defusion at the single-participant level.

• Grant number: 19/24210-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: November 01, 2021
• End date: July 10, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Experimental Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Júlio César Coelho de Rose
• Grantee: Colin Harte
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 14/50909-8 - INCT 2014: Behavior, Cognition and Teaching (INCT-ECCE): relational learning and symbolic functioning, AP.TEM
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/09493-1 - Applying updates in RFT to the experimental analysis of analogy and its potential implications for process-based analyses of human psychological suffering, BE.EP.PD

Abstract

Historically, Relational Frame Theory (RFT) has been seen as providing the basic science foundation for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Recently, conceptual advances in RFT have suggested that the ACT-based concept of defusion may be conceptualized in terms of the relative dominance of one property of relational framing over another (i.e., the dominance of the relational properties of a stimulus, Crels, over its functional properties, Cfuncs). However there is currently no empirical evidence to support this suggestion. The proposed program of research aims to test and develop this conceptual analysis by conducting two lab-based studies employing single-case experimental designs. The first would involve replicating a robust experimental effect involving an RFT-based methodology, known as the implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP), that demonstrates the dominance of Cfunc over Crel properties (i.e., fusion). The second study would involve testing therapy-based defusion techniques as a means of reducing Cfunc dominance over Crel control. Overall, the proposed research program would aim to work towards a more thoroughly RFT process-based experimental analysis of the impact of defusion exercises as found in the ACT literature.

Scientific publications

(11)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

PEREZ, WILLIAM F.; HARTE, COLIN; BARNES-HOLMES, DERMOT; GOMES, CAINA T.; MOHOR, BARBARA; DE ROSE, JULIO C.. Generalized contextual control based on nonarbitrary and arbitrary transfer of stimulus functions. JOURNAL OF THE EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR, v. 119, n. 3, p. 13-pg., 2023-03-22. (14/50909-8, 19/24210-0)

BARNES-HOLMES, DERMOT; HARTE, COLIN. Relational frame theory 20 years on: The Odysseus voyage and beyond. JOURNAL OF THE EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR, v. 117, n. 2, p. 27-pg., 2022-01-11. (19/24210-0)

GOMES, CAINA T.; PEREZ, WILLIAM F. F.; BARNES-HOLMES, DERMOT; HARTE, COLIN. Relating relational networks: An initial experimental analysis. JOURNAL OF THE EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR, v. 120, n. 2, p. 13-pg., 2023-05-12. (17/10037-0, 19/24210-0, 08/57705-8, 16/05935-6)

BARNES-HOLMES, DERMOT; HARTE, COLIN. The IRAP as a Measure of Implicit Cognition: A Case of Frankenstein's Monster. PERSPECTIVES ON BEHAVIOR SCIENCE, v. 45, n. 3, p. 20-pg., 2022-07-29. (19/24210-0)

HARTE, COLIN; BARNES-HOLMES, DERMOT; SIVARAMAN, MAITHRI; LESLIE, JULIAN C.; DE ROSE, JULIO C.. Leave Your Weapons at the Door: Introduction to the Special Issue on Modern Behavior Analyses of Human Language and Cognition. PSYCHOLOGICAL RECORD, v. N/A, p. 4-pg., 2024-12-02. (23/09493-1, 19/24210-0)

BIANCHI, PAULO HENRIQUE; PEREZ, WILLIAM FERREIRA; HARTE, COLIN; BARNES-HOLMES, DERMOT; TEIXEIRA E SILVA, ANTONIO. Relational Coherence, Speaker Preference, and Rule-Following: A Replication and Extension of Bianchi et al. (2021). PSYCHOLOGICAL RECORD, v. 75, n. 1, p. 15-pg., 2025-03-01. (19/24210-0, 17/10037-0, 16/05935-6, 08/57705-8)

REGACO, ALCEU; HARTE, COLIN; BARNES-HOLMES, DERMOT; LESLIE, JULIAN; DE ROSE, JULIO C.. Naming, Stimulus Equivalence and Relational Frame Theory: Stronger Together than Apart. PERSPECTIVES ON BEHAVIOR SCIENCE, v. N/A, p. 18-pg., 2025-01-09. (21/09616-0, 14/50909-8, 23/09493-1, 19/24210-0, 23/09657-4)

HARTE, COLIN; BARNES-HOLMES, DERMOT; DE ROSE, JULIO C.; PEREZ, WILLIAM F.; DE ALMEIDA, JOAO H.. Grappling with the Complexity of Behavioral Processes in Human Psychological Suffering: Some Potential Insights from Relational Frame Theory. PERSPECTIVES ON BEHAVIOR SCIENCE, v. N/A, p. 23-pg., 2022-12-08. (14/50909-8, 19/24210-0)

BORTOLOTI, RENATO; SCHMIDT, MARGARETE; HARTE, COLIN; BARNES-HOLMES, DERMOT. Feel the Func: Interpreting IRAP Performances Based on Cfunc versus Crel Stimulus Properties. PSYCHOLOGICAL RECORD, v. N/A, p. 11-pg., 2023-08-28. (19/24210-0, 14/50909-8)

MARIN, RAMON; HARTE, COLIN; DAS GRACAS DE SOUZA, DEISY. Merging meaningful classes and abstract equivalence classes by exclusion. JOURNAL OF THE EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR, v. 122, n. 1, p. 10-pg., 2024-05-15. (19/24210-0)

SBROCCO, GUILHERME; HARTE, COLIN; DE ROSE, JULIO C.. The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend: Adults Derive Arbitrary Sameness Relations through Trained Opposition. PSYCHOLOGICAL RECORD, v. N/A, p. 19-pg., 2025-03-12. (14/50909-8, 23/09493-1, 19/24210-0)