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Behavioral Experiments

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Therapy tool

ABC Model

ABC is an acronym for Antecedents, Behavior, Consequences. It is used as a tool for the assessment and formulation of problem behaviors and is useful ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/abc-model/

Worksheet

Attention Training Experiment (Featured Image)

Attention Training Experiment

Self-focused attention can make people less likely to see their social performance in a positive light, and contributes to the maintenance of social a ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/attention-training-experiment/

Exercise

Attention Training Practice Record (Featured Image)

Attention Training Practice Record

When people struggle to control the focus of their attention, they find it much harder to interrupt cycles of worry, rumination, and other forms of se ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/attention-training-practice-record/

Exercise

Behavioral Experiment

Behavioral experiments are planned experiential activities to test the validity of a belief. They are one of the most powerful techniques available to ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/behavioral-experiment/

Worksheet

Behavioral Experiment (Portrait Format)

Behavioral experiments allow individuals to test the validity of their beliefs and assumptions. They are a core experiential technique for therapeutic ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/behavioral-experiment-portrait-format/

Worksheet

Belief Driven Formulation

Cognitive behavioral theory proposes that our thoughts, feelings, and behavior in the here-and-now are influenced by our schemas / core beliefs / assu ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/belief-driven-formulation/

Worksheet

Belief-O-Meter (CYP)

The Belief-O-Meter is an engaging way of helping children and adolescents to relate to their thoughts differently. It is a form of cognitive restructu ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/belief-o-meter-cyp/

Worksheet

CBT Appraisal Model

The CBT Appraisal Model worksheet is a transdiagnostic formulation tool. The centrality of appraisals underpins all of the disorder-specific cognitive ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/cbt-appraisal-model/

Worksheet

Maximizing The Effectiveness Of Exposure Therapy

Despite its position as the leading treatment technique for anxiety disorders, not all clients respond to exposure therapy and some individuals relaps ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/maximizing-the-effectiveness-of-exposure-therapy/

Information Handout

Positive Belief Record

Some cognitive change can happen quickly – for example challenging negative automatic thoughts. Other cognitive structures such as schemas are m ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/positive-belief-record/

Worksheet

Safety Behaviors

Safety behaviors are actions carried out with the intention of preventing a feared catastrophe. In the short-term they often give a sense of relief, b ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/safety-behaviors/

Information Handout

Safety Behaviors Example

Safety behaviors are actions carried out with the intention of preventing a feared catastrophe. In the short-term they often give a sense of relief, b ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/safety-behaviors-example/

Information Handout

Schema Bias

Core beliefs (schemas) are self-sustaining. They act to ‘attract’ confirmatory evidence and ‘repel’ or ‘distort’ d ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/schema-bias/

Information Handout

Schema Formulation

Beck’s cognitive model proposes that cognition and perception in the here-and-now is influenced by our ‘schemas’ which shape our per ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/schema-formulation/

Worksheet

Schema Metaphors

Core beliefs (schemas) are self-sustaining. They act to ‘attract’ confirmatory evidence and ‘repel’ or ‘distort’ d ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/schema-metaphors/

Information Handout

Theory A / Theory B CBT Worksheet

Theory A / Theory B

Human beings actively try to understand their world and what happens to them. However, these understanding can be inaccurate or unhelpful. Worse, unhe ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/theorya-theoryb/

Worksheet

Theory A / Theory B (Edition 1)

“The most effective way of changing a misinterpretation … is to help the person come up with an alternative, less threatening interpretation o ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/theorya-theoryb-edition-1/

Worksheet

Therapy Blueprint (Universal)

A therapy blueprint is CBT tool which summarizes the work a therapist and patient have completed together. It represents the past (the problems, what ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/therapy-blueprint-universal/

Worksheet

Uncertainty beliefs experiment record

Uncertainty Beliefs – Experiment Record

Situations which are uncertain, novel, or ambiguous trigger a state of uncertainty. Evidence indicates that individuals who are dispositionally high i ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/uncertainty-beliefs-experiment-record/

Worksheet

Information Handouts

  • Unhelpful thoughts: challenging them, and testing them out | CEDAR download archived copy
  • Pooh’s behavioural experiment: practising assertive defense of the self | Christine Padesky | 2012 download archived copy

Video

  • Establishing a behavioral experiment with a therapist (part 1) | James Bennett-Levy youtube
  • Establishing a behavioral experiment with a therapist (part 2) | James Bennett-Levy youtube
  • Establishing a behavioral experiment with a therapist (part 3) | James Bennett-Levy youtube
  • Establishing a behavioral experiment with a therapist (part 4) | James Bennett-Levy youtube
  • Establishing a behavioral experiment with a therapist (part 5) | James Bennett-Levy youtube
  • CBTp behavioral experiment youtube
  • Developing a behavioral experiment | CCI youtube
  • CBTp in-session behavioral experiment | Psychosis Research Unit youtube
  • CBT for social anxiety: hypothesis A vs. B behavioral experiment youtube

Recommended Reading

  • Bennett-Levy, J. E., Butler, G. E., Fennell, M. E., Hackman, A. E., Mueller, M. E., & Westbrook, D. E. (2004). Oxford guide to behavioural experiments in cognitive therapy. Oxford University Press.
  • Bennett-Levy, J., Westbrook, D., Fennell, M., Cooper, M., Rouf, K., & Hackmann, A. (2004). Behavioural experiments: Historical and conceptual underpinnings. Oxford guide to behavioural experiments in cognitive therapy, 1-20. download archived copy
  • Bennett-Levy, J. (2003). Mechanisms of change in cognitive therapy: The case of automatic thought records and behavioural experiments. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 31(3), 261-277. download archived copy
  • Harvey, A. G., & Eidelman, P. (2011). Intervention to reduce unhelpful beliefs about sleep. In Behavioral treatments for sleep disorders (pp. 79-89). Academic Press. download archived copy
  • McMillan, D., & Lee, R. (2010). A systematic review of behavioral experiments vs. exposure alone in the treatment of anxiety disorders: A case of exposure while wearing the emperor’s new clothes?. Clinical psychology review, 30(5), 467-478 download  archived copy
  • Murray, H., & El-Leithy, S. (2021). Behavioural Experiments in Cognitive Therapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Why, When, and How?. Verhaltenstherapie, 31(1), 50-60. download archived copy
  • Palmier‐Claus, J., Wright, K., Mansell, W., Bowe, S., Lobban, F., Tyler, E., … & Jones, S. (2020). A guide to behavioural experiments in bipolar disorder. Clinical psychology & psychotherapy, 27(2), 159-167. download archived copy
  • Rouf, K., Fennell, M., Westbrook, D., Cooper, M., & Bennett-Levy, J. (2004). Devising effective behavioural experiments. Oxford guide to behavioural experiments in cognitive therapy, 21-58. download archived copy
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