Contextual behavioral science

Global Mental Health (GMH) initiatives aim to address inequities in mental health care across the world. Particular emphasis is placed on building mental health service capacity in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) where over 80% of the global population lives. Consistent with this approach, concerted efforts are being made to globally disseminate psychological interventions. These initiatives must negotiate tensions that exist between making interventions sufficiently scalable, whilst retaining aspects of the psychotherapy process that maximize both the acceptability and efficacy of psychological interventions. This paper reflects on the important contribution that Contextual Behavioral Science (CBS) can make to GMH. CBS draws on behavioral and environmental principles that translate into various therapeutic applications [including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP)] and social change initiatives (such as the PROSOCIAL approach). Consideration will be given to the cross-cultural utility and validity of CBS approaches, and the way in which these can help ensure that GMH initiatives extend beyond narrow efforts to address symptoms of mental disorders to include a focus on enhancing wellbeing. It is proposed that knowledge from ACT and FAP can help build sophistication in efforts to develop and deliver ‘therapist-free’ psychological interventions that will need to retain sensitivity to clients’ emotional expressions. In addition, the PROSOCIAL approach provides opportunities for groups of people to cooperate effectively to achieve shared aspirations and build ‘communities of support’ that can serve to optimize peoples’ mental health and wellbeing.

The present article describes the nature, scope, and purpose of Contextual Behavioral Science (CBS). Emerging from behavioral psychology but expanding from those roots, CBS is based on contextual assumptions regarding the centrality of situated action, the nature of epistemology versus ontology, and a pragmatic truth criterion linked to the specific goal of predicting-and-influencing psychological events with precision, scope, and depth. These assumptions and goals explain the characteristic features of CBS including its environmentalism, focus on theory and principles, and its reticulated or networked program of theory development, research and practice. Domains of development include increased linkage to multi-dimensional and multi-level evolution science; development of principles that describe the interaction of behavior and symbolic events with genetic, epigenetic, and cultural dimensions; expansion of theoretical and model development to a broader range of areas of human complexity; advances in measurement theory and practice; the development of techniques and components linked to contextual processes and principles; broad testing of these methods; additional research on mediation and moderation; more concern for effectiveness and training; and enhancement of a diverse development community.

This paper aims to propose and discuss a set of criteria for conceptual research in clinical behavior analysis. The existing lack of consensus on such criteria hinders advances in conceptual research that is needed for the advancement of clinical treatments. The research criteria proposed here are mindful of and try to manage, some of the practical problems
inherent in this type of research (e.g., dealing with psychotherapy goals and the potential disadvantages of using middle-level terms). Specifically, the paper: (1) offers a definition of conceptual research that is consistent with relevant theory and philosophy; and (2) explores five criteria currently used in clinical behavior analysis regarding conceptual developments.
These criteria include coherence with basic research; coherence with applied research; coherence with philosophy and the theory of clinical behavior analysis; conceptual precision; and the potential to provide the practitioner with the means to develop and use technology. These five criteria are discussed and offered as a potentially useful basis for conceptual developments in clinical behavior analysis.

Mindfulness on käsite ja ilmiö, jonka etymologinen ja sosiokulttuurinen tausta on useimmille melko tuntematon. Kulttuurintutkijan katseen omaavana, hyväksymis-ja omistautumisterapian näkökulmaa soveltavana käyttäytymisterapeuttina pidän tärkeänä käsitteen laajempaa kontekstuaalista ymmärrystä ja erityisesti sen riisumista tarpeettomasta mystiikasta. Mindfulness-ilmiön hahmottamisen ytimessä on kysymys siitä, miten aasialaisesta uskonnollis-filosofisesta traditiosta peräisin oleva esitieteellinen käsite ymmärretään ja millaisen ymmärryksen pohjalta sitä sovelletaan läntisissä, sekulaarin maailmankuvan pohjalta toimivissa konteksteissa. Tässä artikkelissa sijoitan nykyaikaisen mindfulness-ilmiön osaksi buddhalaisuuden modernisaation prosessia. Moderni buddhalaisuus on hybridi, jota luonnehtii traditionaalisen buddhalaisuuden maallistuminen, rationalisoituminen, romantisoituminen ja psykologisoituminen. Buddhalaisuuden mieltäminen psykologiana ja terapiana on keskeinen modernisoituneen buddhalaisuuden piirre. Buddhalaisuuden sekularisoitumisen, psykologisoitumisen ja " terapoitumisen " myötä mindfulness-käsitteen tulkinnalliset kysymykset ovat saaneet keskeisen roolin erityisesti kliinisen psykologian sovellusten muotoilussa. Mindfulnessin sekularisoitumisen seurauksena on syntynyt myös vastakkainasettelua traditionaalisen buddhalaisuuden ja alkuperäisestä kontekstistaan irrotetun sekulaarin mindfulnessin (psykoterapiat ja " McMindfulness " eli kaupallistunut mindfulness) välillä. Avaan artikkelissa psykoterapioissa (MBSR ja HOT) esiintyviä käsitteellistyksiä mindfulnessista sekä niiden kytköksiä traditionaaliseen buddhalaisuuteen. Tuon esiin myös traditionaalisen buddhalaisuuden, uskonnontutkimuksen (Robert Sharf, John Dunne) ja kontemplatiivisen neurotieteen (Evan Thompson) näkökulmia sekulaarin ja traditionaalisen mindfulnessin väliseen vastakkainasetteluun. Sekulaaria mindfulnessia ja erityisesti McMindfulnessia kohtaan esitetyn kritiikin ytimessä (Ronald Purser) on kuuluisaksi tullut mindfulnessin operationaalinen määritelmä. Kriittisen näkemyksen mukaan puhtaan tarkkaavaisuuden (bare attention) retoriikkaan kytkeytyvä näkemys mindfulnessista psykologisena, mitattavissa olevana piirteenä tai tilana riisuu mindfulnessista sen traditionaaliseen buddhalaiseen kontekstiin sisältyvän eettisen ytimen.

Avainkäsitteet: buddhalainen mindfulness, sekulaari mindfulness, McMindfulness, etiikka, kolmannen aallon käyttäytymisterapiat

Psychology has benefited from an enormous wealth of knowledge about processes of cognition in relation to how the brain organizes information. Within the categorization literature, this behavior is often explained through theories of memory construction called exemplar theory and prototype theory which are typically based on similarity or rule functions as explanations of how categories emerge. Although these theories work well at modeling highly controlled stimuli in laboratory settings, they often perform less well outside of these settings, such as explaining the emergence of background knowledge processes. In order to explain background knowledge, we present a non-similaritybased post-Skinnerian theory of human language called Relational Frame Theory (RFT) which is rooted in a philosophical world view called functional contextualism (FC). This theory offers a very different interpretation of how categories emerge through the functions of behavior and through contextual cues, which may be of some benefit to existing categorization theories. Specifically, RFT may be able to offer a novel explanation of how background knowledge arises, and we provide some mathematical considerations in order to identify a formal model. Finally, we discuss much of this work within the broader context of general semantic knowledge and artificial intelligence research.

Buddhist teachings maintain that much suffering is unnecessary, and suggest practices for reducing it. There is now substantial support for the value of some of these practices, yet many people are often unaware of them or dismiss them off had as "religion" or superstition. This chapter will describe some potential barriers to accepting Buddhist practices and suggest ways that the barriers can be overcome.

Functional analytic psychotherapy (FAP) is defined as behavior-analytically conceptualized talk therapy. In contrast to the technique-oriented educational format of cognitive behavior therapy and the use of structural mediational models, FAP depends on the functional analysis of the moment-to-moment stream of interactions between client and therapist. This distinctive feature makes FAP particularly sensitive to the challenges posed by cultural differences between client and therapist. Core elements of FAP philosophy are invoked to argue that this vulnerability paradoxically implies an increased ability to capture and use relevant issues in the therapy process with culturally different clients. This argument focuses FAP's preference for concrete behavior over theoretical modeling, its emphasis on functional principles rather than topographically defined techniques, and its inclusion of the therapist's behavior in the assessment of clients' clinically relevant behavior. Suggestions are given concerning how academic and practical training and personal experience may be used to foster sound multicultural practice.