Michael E. Bernard

What Is Rational-Emotive Therapy (RET)?

To set the stage for the chapters on applications of rational-emotive therapy (RET) that comprise this book, we shall try to outline, in this introductory chapter, an up-to-date version of the origins and history of RET, its values and goals and its theory of personality and personality change. RET constantly changes and develops (as many chapters in this book will show). Here, in an introductory overview, is what it is like thirty years after Albert Ellis (1957a,b,c, 1958, 1962) first started to practice it in 1955.

Rational-Emotive Behavioral Approaches to Childhood Disorders: History, Theory, Practice and Research

Section I. Introduction, Rationale, and Basic Issues: Chapter 1. Rational Emotive Behavioral Approaches to Childhood Disorders: History, Theory, Practice and Research, Michael E. Bernard, Albert Ellis and Mark Terjesen. Chapter 2. REBT Assessment and Treatment with Children, Raymond DiGiuseppe and Michael E. Bernard. Chapter 3. REBT Assessment and Treatment with Adolescents, Howard Young. Chapter 4. Frustration Tolerance Training for Children and Adolescents, William J. Knaus. Chapter 5. Emotional Resilience Training for Children and Adolescents, Michael E. Bernard and Daniela Pires. Section II. Disorders Of Childhood: Chapter 6. A Developmental, Rational Emotive Behavioral Approach for Working with Parents, Marie Joyce. Chapter 7. Depression in Children and Adolescents: REBT Approaches to Assessment and Treatment, Ann Vernon. Chapter 8. Childhood Anxieties, Fears, and Phobias: A Cognitive-Behavioral, Psychosituational Approach, Russell Grieger and John Boyd. Chapter 9. Treating Aggressive Children: A Rational-Emotive Behavior Systems Approach, Raymond DiGiuseppe and Jill Kelter. Chapter 10. Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy and Attention Deficit Disorders, Kristene Doyle and Mark Terjesen. Chapter 11. Working with the Educational Underachiever: A Social and Emotional Developmental Approach, Michael E. Bernard. Section III. Applications: Chapter 12. Working with the Parents and Teachers of Exceptional Children, John McInerney and Bridget McInerney. Chapter 13. Rational Emotive Behavior Group Therapy with Children and Adolescents, MarkTerjesen and Maria A. Esposito. Chapter 14. Applications of REBT in Schools: Prevention, Promotion, Intervention, Ann Vernon and Michael Bernard.

Rational-emotive therapy in the 1990s and beyond: Current status, recent revisions, and research questions

Abstract Rational-emotive therapy (RET) is an evolving theory of psychopathology and form of psychotherapy. In three main areas — theory of psychopathology, assessment, and practice of therapy — we present initial RET assumptions, a statement regarding current scientific status, recent developments and revisions, and recommendations for future research priorities.

Private thought in rational emotive psychotherapy

This paper, which is theoretical in orientation, advances the argument that the characteristics of a clients thought are overlooked in rational emotive psychotherapy and that new avenues of professional practice and research may evolve from a detailed examination of the nature of thought. Psychodynamic, psycholinguistic, and cognitive-behavioral conceptions of factors that interfere with a clients ability to report his/her private thoughts are discussed. A model of thought is proposed that postulates levels of thought that vary in client awareness and that can be represented on a continuum from covert verbalization to abbreviated, elliptical private thought. Implications of this model for professional practice are discussed in the form of two therapeutic techniques that are directed to ward the assessment of private thought. It is argued that rational emotive assessment techniques may be too directive to ensure sufficient levels of self-discovery. It is further argued that to facilitate the maintenance and generalization of client change, therapeutic instructions should be expressed in a form that is compatible with and can be incorporated within the clients idiosyncratic intrapersonal communication system and cognitive structure.

The effects of rational-emotive therapy and self-instructional training on chronic hair pulling

A 17-year-old girls extremely high frequency of hair pulling was treated by rational-emotive therapy (RET) followed by self-instructional training (SIT). A cognitive-behavioral model was employed to identify maladaptive thought patterns that were hypothesized to be occasioning high levels of anxiety that in turn was hypothesized to be maintaining hair pulling behavior. The use of an interaction-type design indicated that whereas RET leads to a modest decrease in hair pulling, the subsequent introduction of SIT in addition to RET leads to a rapid elimination of all hair pulling. Follow-ups at 5 and 21 weeks after the program terminated indicated no subsequent reoccurrence of hair pulling.

Behavioral treatment of excessive coffee and tea drinking: A case study and partial replication

The present case study serves as a partial replication of the only study in the literature that has employed behavioral techniques in the treatment of caffeinism ( Foxx & Rubinoff, 1979 ). The novelty of the present study is that different investigators, in a different country (Australia), independently designed a study that incorporated virtually all important aspects of the Foxx and Rubinoff study. The objective of the present study was to reduce excessive coffee and tea drinking in a 40 year-old female subject through the use of a behavioral program that included self-monitoring, response cost, and social praise procedures. In addition, the methodological and clinical utility of the changing-criterion design was examined. Coffee and tea drinking was reduced from an average daily intake of 11 cups during baseline to less than six cups at the end of treatment. The treatment effect continued during a 105 day follow-up period with the subject averaging between three and four cups per day.

A Rational-Emotive Mental Training Program for Professional Athletes

There are several important factors that determine the extent to which a professional or an amateur elite athlete achieves sporting excellence. Most important among these are physical skills (coordination, agility, speed), the degree of physical fitness (strength, endurance), and technical skills related to the sport in which the athlete participates (kicking, catching, foul-shooting). In team sports, an athlete’s performance also depends largely on team cooperation skills (blocking, being given the ball when a good opportunity arises, unselfish play). One factor that is now becoming increasingly recognized as critical to individual and team performance is the athlete’s mental approach (attitudes, skills). Coaches and athletes alike in all sports are learning that talented athletes and winning teams who finish first have a mental approach that is different from athletes who never quite make it, teams that finish second.

REBT Assessment and Treatment with Children

Psychology has gone cognitive, and cognitive-behavior therapy has become the Zeitgeist in psychotherapy. Since the early 1980s, the cognitive orientation so popular with adults has filtered down to interventions with children (see Kendall, 2000). Today, many practitioners working with children use not only behavioral or family-systems conceptualizations to plan treatment but incorporate cognitive change as well. Cognitions have become viewed by many as the mediational variables by which these external factors (family systems and behavioral contingencies) have their effect. One can change children’s behavior by restructuring systems or by rearranging contingencies or, more directly and, perhaps more efficiently, by attempting to change the child’s cognitions directly. As with adults, rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT) hypothesizes that children’s disturbed emotions are largely generated by their beliefs (Ellis, 1994). Irrational beliefs and distortions of reality are likely to create anger, anxiety, and depression in children just as they do with adults. In fact, because children are children—immature, less sophisticated, and less educated—one might expect them to make more cognitive errors than adults and to become upset more easily. There has been considerable research on the role of cognitions and irrational beliefs in particular in contributing to emotions not only in adults but in children (e.g., Bernard and Cronan, 1999). Over the past 30 years, a variety of REBT-oriented publications have enabled cognitive behavior therapists and other child-oriented practitioners (school counselors, school psychologists, social workers) to integrate childfriendly REBT methods in their work with children. Chief amongst these publications has been Bill Knaus’ (1974) book Rational Emotive Education: A Manual for Elementary School Teachers who for the first time, “translated” rational and irrational beliefs and disputing techniques into language and practices that could be understand and utilized by children as young as six. Child practitioners who discovered this resource found that their young

Sex-role identity and mental ability

Abstract The central concern of this study was to explore the relationship between sex-role identity (measured by a bi-dimensional scale of masculinity and femininity) and field independence and scholastic intelligence. One hundred and forty Australian males and 181 females in grades 11 and 12 completed the Witkin Group Embedded Figures Test, the Otis Higher Test C of intelligence and a shortened version of the Bem Sex Role Identity Questionnaire. The correlation between performance on the Witkins and Otis was 0.53. Males performed significantly better on the Witkin and Otis than females. Males with lower masculinity scores scored better on the Otis than those with higher scores on masculinity. Females with low femininity scores performed higher on the Witkin and Otis than females with high femininity scores. When subjects were allocated by sex into one of four sex-role identity groups (high masculine-high feminine, high masculine-low feminine, low masculine-high feminine, low masculine–low feminine) significant differences in intelligence (Otis) among sex-role groups were found for females. The most significant difference in intelligence was obtained between the high masculine–low feminine and low masculine-high feminine groups of females. Results are discussed in terms of previous findings.

Albert Ellis: Unsung hero of positive psychology

The contributions of Albert Ellis to the understanding of human happiness including his suggestions for living a happier life have not been represented in the field of positive psychology. This article presents Ellis’ theoretical constructs associated with his conception of happiness (dual nature of human psyche, self-actualization, purpose and goals of life and short- and long-term happiness). Eleven of Ellis’ rational principles of living (e.g. self-interest, self-direction, self-acceptance, commitment to absorbing activities, hedonism) are presented. When consistently applied in practice, they may help people to experience frequent positive affect, less frequent and intense negative emotions and high life satisfaction. It will show how Ellis’ ABC-DE scientific method can be used with individuals to lessen unhappiness. Suggestions are provided for research into associations between rationality and happiness as well as the impact of different rationality-based interventions on happiness.