Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy

A Newcomer's Guide

Walter Matweychuk, Windy Dryden

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351675956
• Topic: Psicologia
• Subtopic: Salute mentale in psicologia

This straightforward guide introduces the newcomer to the core theoretical principles and therapeutic strategies of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT). Starting with the ABC model of emotion popularized by Albert Ellis from the outset when he developed his approach to CBT, the guide then shows how REBT distinguishes between unhealthy and healthy negative emotions. From there it outlines the four irrational attitudes theorized to be at the core of emotional and behavioural disturbance. Finally, the newcomer to REBT will develop an appreciation for how REBT inoculates clients against future problems and teaches them to maintain and extend their treatment gains.

This Newcomer's Guide will be a useful contribution to counsellors and psychotherapists in training, either in Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy or another cognitive-behavioural approach.

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1    REBT’s distinctive ABC model of emotion

REBT’s distinctive model

REBT has a distinctive ABC model. Dryden (2015) has called this the situational ABC model of emotional disturbance. Here, the person is in an actual situation and infers what is going on in the world at A, brings to this inference basic attitudes at point B and experiences consequences at C. These are consequential emotions, behaviours (overt or inclinations to act) and subsequent distorted cognitions similar to Beck’s (1976) cognitive distortions. Note that cognitions occur at all three points of REBT’s distinctive ABC model. According to this ABC model, in psychological disturbance, the cognitions at A and C tend to be biased inferences while the key cognitions at B are rigid and extreme basic attitudes.

Clients typically enter therapy with an incomplete version of the generic ABC model. They know about their adversity at A and how they respond at C, but they tend to be unaware of the role cognition plays at point B in the ABC model. With this A–C model, clients are at a disadvantage to cope with the adversities they face. The A–C model invites three ways of coping. These are to change the A, avoid the A or to attempt not to feel the C through various escape behaviours and poor choices. All three strategies have disadvantages as a first line of defence.

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Note that not all problems at A can be changed quickly or at all. Furthermore, avoiding A may have significant drawbacks. For example, if A is a job-related adversity, consider for a moment the downside of choosing to cope with this adversity by not reporting to work due to one’s emotional disturbance at point C. Is this feasible?

Secondly, making the choice not to feel the disturbed emotion at C is often equally problematic. Ingestion of psychoactive substances works temporarily, but after they are metabolized the relief afforded goes away. Behaviours like exercise, sexual activity and eating all can be powerfully distractive, but if used to excess, inappropriately or in an unhealthy way, they can produce their own problems.

Initially addressing basic attitudes

REBT helps clients to liberate themselves by addressing their rigid and extreme basic attitudes at point B about what they infer is going on at point A. Clients are shown that events do not directly cause self-defeating emotions and behaviours at point C. This is an epiphany to many clients.

REBT shows clients that, upon examination, rigid and extreme attitudes are the proximal link to disturbance. Said another way, REBT shows clients that adverse events (at A) do not directly cause emotional disturbance (at C). When these adversities occur, clients have a choice of what basic attitudes to adopt towards A. If they adopt a set of rigid and extreme attitudes (at B) towards the adversity, then they will disturb themselves (at C) emotionally, behaviourally and cognitively. However, if they adopt a set of flexible and non-extreme attitudes (at B) towards the same adversity, they will respond to it in a constructive manner, emotionally, behaviourally and cognitively. Therefore, the REBT model holds that the client is responsible for their basic attitudes at point B and the subsequently produced disturbed feelings, behaviours and downstream cognitive distortions at point C.

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Application to events of the past

The REBT model is very useful when clients are disturbed about past events. When people hold inferences at A about past events, REBT’s ABC model can be liberating. Events of the past cannot be changed. Clients sometimes believe that emotional disturbance experienced in the present is the result of unchangeable past events. REBT shows clients that a more liberating model is that present basic attitudes at B about past events maintain emotional disturbance about past events. By modifying current attitudes, clients can liberate themselves from the disturbance that has been tied to distant adverse events.

Application to future events

REBT’s model also applies to inferences made in the present about anticipated future events. When people make inferences at A about future events, they may hold rigid and extreme basic attitudes at point B, which sets the stage for emotional disturbance in the present. By teaching clients the ABC model of REBT and helping them to adopt it, REBT inoculates clients against future adversities that might occur. Relinquishing currently held rigid and extreme attitudes towards possible future adversity increases the chance of more accurate informational processing as the future comes into the present. Said another way, rational attitudes towards the future increase the chances of perceiving reality more accurately as it unfolds.

It is important to note the great advantages that REBT’s model offers. Often, adversities at point A are slow to change, require persistent effort to modify or are so challenging that only poor options are available. When one adopts the REBT model, change at point B will produce emotional improvement at point C even when A is slow to change, cannot be modified or can only be imperfectly addressed. Adoption of the REBT model offers emotional leverage which clients probably didn’t utilize before exposure to REBT. Eliminating emotional disturbance about adverse events enables client persistence, creative problem-solving and skilful execution of the selected strategies clients choose to attempt to change A.

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Therapists also profit from the adoption of the ABC model in ways similar to clients. Therapists often encounter client resistance which can be viewed as an A. Therapists who adopt the ABC model avoid emotional disturbance at point C, which interferes with the execution of interventions for addressing resistance, by developing and holding a set of flexible and non-extreme attitudes towards client resistance at B. A therapist who has truly adopted an attitudinal system based on flexibility and being non-extreme becomes an authentic role model of the approach, and is more likely to display creativity in addressing client resistance. In so doing, they have a better chance of helping the client.

In the next chapter we will make clear REBT’s position on the distinction between unhealthy and healthy negative emotions.

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2 Unhealthy and healthy negative emotions

Characteristics of unhealthy and healthy negative emotions

Unhealthy and healthy negative emotions share the characteristic that they are both negative in tone. The distinction between these two groups of emotions is not their tone, but the functionality of behaviour and degree of realism in thinking that co-occur at point C.

Unhealthy negative emotions and self-defeating behaviour

REBT teaches that unhealthy negative emotions stemming from rigid and extreme attitudes are dysfunctional because they co-occur with behaviour that tends to be self-defeating. People experiencing unhealthy negative emotions usually do not solve problems as effectively as they would if they were experiencing healthier negative emotions. Unhealthy negative emotions are more likely to be associated with extreme behaviour (e.g. shouting in the case of unhealthy anger), impulsive or short-sighted behaviour, a lack of persistence or a lack of creative problem solving.

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Unhealthy negative emotions and cognitive consequences

The rigid and extreme attitudes that spawn unhealthy negative emotions may also produce negative cognitive consequences. Cognitive distortions like jumping to conclusions, mind reading and overgeneralization, among others, are more likely to co-occur when a client is holding a rigid and/or extreme attitude. These cognitive distortions will tend to interfere with the client’s quality of thinking needed to attain important goals in the face of adversity.

If clients are shown how to respond to adversity with healthy negative emotions through holding a set of flexible and non-extreme attitudes, it is likely that these emotions will be associated with constructive behavioural and cognitive responses resulting in increased resiliency and effort to achieve one’s goals.

Negative emotions and terminology

Dryden (2015) noted the limited word choices in English for negative emotions and proposed eight different labels for the unhealthy and healthy negative emotions. The labels proposed are shown in Table 2.1.

From a therapeutic perspective, what is important is not that therapist and client use the terminology proposed in Table 2.1, but that they employ terms that discriminate between healthy and unhealthy negative emotions which make sense to the client.

Inferential themes of unhealthy negative emotions

Dryden (2009), drawing on the work of Beck (1976), delineated the typical inferences at A that are associated with each of the eight basic unhealthy negative emotions at C. Newcomers to REBT would be well advised to acquaint themselves with these inferential themes, as this will enhance diagnostic skill when assessing both the A and C of a client’s emotional episode. In Table 2.2, you will see the eight basic Unhealthy Negative Emotions and their inferential themes at A.

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Table 2.1 Unhealthy negative emotions (UNEs) and healthy negative emotions (HNEs) in RBT theory.

Note that our language does not provide words for labelling both the unhealthy and healthy variants of anger, jealousy and envy. Therefore, it is helpful to use the modifier “unhealthy” or “dysfunctional” before anger, jealousy and envy in order to indicate that the reference is to the unhealthy version of these emotions.

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Table 2.2 Unhealthy negative emotions (UNEs) and their corresponding inferential themes in REBT theory.

According to REBT theory, the inferences at A flavour the emotion at C when rigid and extreme, or flexible and non-extreme, attitudes are held at point B. For example, a client needs to infer the presence of a threat and bring a rigid and/or extreme attitude to that inference to experience anxiety. Depression results from the inference at point A of a loss, failure or underserved plight combined with a rigid and/or extreme attitudes at B. Guilt is a function of not living up to one’s moral code and/or hurting someone along with the presence of rigid attitudes and/or extreme thinking about one’s behaviour. It is worth underscoring a distinguishing aspect of REBT theory: the inference at A associated with major adversities is necessary but not sufficient to produce any of the eight unhealthy negative emotions at C. The inferences in Table 2.1 above interact with rigid and extreme attitudes at point B, producing unhealthy negative emotions at point C.

Inferential themes of healthy negative emotions

You may be wondering how healthy negative emotions are conceptualized as coming into existence in the ABC model. Like unhealthy negative emotions, the client makes the same eight inferences at point A in order to construct their healthy negative emotion at point C. Ho...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy
• Routledge Focus on Mental Health
• Praise
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1 REBT’s Distinctive ABC Model of Emotion
• 2 Unhealthy and Healthy Negative Emotions
• 3 Rigidity and Flexibility in Human Attitudes
• 4 Awfulizing and Non-Awfulizing Derivative Attitudes
• 5 Discomfort Intolerance and Discomfort Tolerance Derivative Attitudes
• 6 Devaluation and Acceptance Derivative Attitudes
• 7 REBT’s Distinctive Therapeutic Process
• 8 Facilitating Intellectual Insight
• 9 Emotional Change Follows Intellectual Insight
• 10 Teaching Clients to Become Their Own REBT Therapist
• References
• Index