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| Generalization From the Therapy Room to Real-Life: Is There a Difference? |
| Saturday, May 26, 2012 |
| 3:30 PM–4:20 PM |
| 4C-4 (Convention Center) |
| Area: CBM/PRA; Domain: Theory |
| Chair: William C. Follette (University of Nevada, Reno) |
| ROBERT J. KOHLENBERG (University of Washington) |
| GLENN M. CALLAGHAN (San Jose State University) |
| GARETH I. HOLMAN (University of Washington) |
| Abstract: One issue that occurs in all applied clinical interventions is whether targeted behavior changes that occur in a treatment setting generalize to other naturalistic settings where the behaviors must be emitted and maintained. This panel will address the issue of stimulus properites and behaviors present in Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) promote the generalization of treatment improvements to the natural social environment. FAP produces its therapeutic effects by building a strong therapeutic relationship between the client and therapist so that the therapist supplies powerful, salient social reinforcing consequences to behavior change that occurs during sessions with the objective of having clinically useful behaviors generalize to other relationships. The panelists are all FAP researchers and trainers who will discuss several fundamental aspects of this question including: what are the therapist and client characteristics and training experiences necessary to produce change that might generalize; what exactly is the crucial behavior(s) that should generalize, i.e., is the generalized behavior of importance a response repertoire or a discrimination repertoire; how similar or different can the therapy environment be from the client’s natural environment and still observe generalized improvement; how do therapist behaviors change over the course of therapy in such a way that generalization is most likely to occur; how important is it that clients have a functional understanding of variables influencing their behavior inside and outside of therapy; what is the importance, if any, of assignments for the client to do in vivo exercises in the extra-therapy setting? Finally, the panel will address whether one can identify the properties along which generalization is expected to occur, i.e., are there formal stimulus properties of the outside environment that are sufficient to recognize or are derived stimulus relation necessary to understand the generalization process? The panel has a goal of inviting extensive audience participation. |
| Keyword(s): FAP, generalization, psychotherapy change |
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