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Behavioral Experiments

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Assertive Responses

Being able to communicate assertively is an essential skill for developing and maintaining healthy relationships and positive self-esteem. Individuals ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/assertive-responses

Exercises

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

Exercises

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

Exercises

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

Worksheets

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

Worksheets

Checking Certainty And Doubt

Psychologists have discovered interesting relationships between Checking, Certainty, And Doubt. This information handout contains an exercise helpful ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/checking-certainty-and-doubt

Information handouts

Managing Social Anxiety: Therapist Guide

Managing Social Anxiety – A Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Approach comes in two volumes. This page is for the Therapist Guide. Click on the following ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/managing-social-anxiety-therapist-guide

Treatments That Work®

Managing Social Anxiety: Workbook

Managing Social Anxiety – A Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Approach comes in two volumes. This page is for the Workbook. Click on the following link t ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/managing-social-anxiety-workbook

Treatments That Work®

Mastery Of Your Anxiety And Panic: Therapist Guide

Mastery Of Your Anxiety And Panic comes in two volumes. This page is for the Therapist Guide. Click on the following link to access the accompanying C ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/mastery-of-your-anxiety-and-panic-therapist-guide

Treatments That Work®

Mastery Of Your Anxiety And Panic: Workbook

Mastery Of Your Anxiety And Panic comes in two volumes. This page is for the Workbook. Click on the following link to access the accompanying Therapis ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/mastery-of-your-anxiety-and-panic-workbook

Treatments That Work®

Modifying Rules And Assumptions

Assumptions are often considered dysfunctional if they are inflexible, rigid, or lead to counterproductive behaviors. Modifying Rules And Assumptions ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/modifying-rules-and-assumptions

Worksheets

Overcoming Eating Disorders: Therapist Guide

Overcoming Eating Disorders comes in two volumes. This page is for the Therapist Guide. Click on the following link to access the Client Workbook.&nbs ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/overcoming-eating-disorders-therapist-guide

Treatments That Work®

Overcoming Your Eating Disorder: Workbook

Overcoming Eating Disorders comes in two volumes. This page is for the Client Workbook. Click on the following link to access the accompanying Therapi ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/overcoming-your-eating-disorder-workbook

Treatments That Work®

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 handouts

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 handouts

Self Practice Record Form

Out-of-session work (collaboratively generated and negotiated) is an essential component of effective CBT. This Self Practice Record Form helps client ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/self-practice-record-form

Worksheets

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

Worksheets

Understanding Fears And Phobias

Our ‘Understanding…’ series is a collection of psychoeducation guides for common mental health conditions. Friendly and explanatory, they are co ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/understanding-fears-and-phobias

Guides

What Are Safety Behaviors?

Safety-seeking behaviors (‘safety behaviors’) are actions that people take in response to a real – or perceived – threat. When a threat is rea ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/what-are-safety-behaviors

Information handouts

Worry Postponement

Worry postponement ("worry time") is often prescribed as an exploratory or standalone intervention relatively early in the treatment of GAD, but  ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/worry-postponement

Exercises

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 Psychotherapy31(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 review30(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?. Verhaltenstherapie31(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 & psychotherapy27(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