This piece provides a broad historical and conceptual overview of the development of Relational Frame Theory (RFT) from its origins in the mid-1980s through more than three decades of experimental and applied research. The paper argues that the core claim of RFT is deceptively simple: arbitrarily applicable relational responding—human beings learning to relate events symbolically and contextually—is itself an operant behavior shaped through histories of reinforcement. From this perspective, language and cognition are not separate mental processes outside behavior analysis, but complex forms of learned relational behavior. The article traces how early work on stimulus equivalence and derived relational responding evolved into a broader account of human language, meaning, rules, analogy, perspective taking, and symbolic thought. The authors review evidence supporting concepts such as mutual entailment, combinatorial entailment, and transformation of stimulus functions, while emphasizing that relational responding allows humans to respond to events in ways not directly trained by contingencies.
The article also argues that RFT has major implications for the future of behavior analysis because it expands the field’s ability to analyze complex verbal and cognitive phenomena while remaining within an operant framework. The authors contend that traditional behavior analysis has often struggled with “purely functional” operants and has historically relied too heavily on principles derived from nonhuman animal research when addressing sophisticated human behavior. RFT is presented as an attempt to bridge that gap by offering a functional account of symbolic behavior, rule-governed behavior, self-concept, perspective taking, prejudice, psychotherapy processes, and language development. The paper highlights the breadth of the empirical literature supporting RFT across both basic and applied domains—including education, autism intervention, implicit cognition, and clinical psychology—and argues that the research program has demonstrated strong empirical consistency over time. At the same time, the authors acknowledge that RFT has been adopted slowly within mainstream behavior analysis despite its growing influence through areas such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and contextual behavioral science more broadly.
Related Domains: Complex Verbal Behavior, Committed Action
Hayes, S. C., Law, S., Assemi, K., Falletta-Cowden,N., Shamblin, M., Burleigh, K., Olla, R., Forman, M., & Smith, P. (2023). Relacionar-se é um operante: um sobrevôo de 35 anos de pesquisa RFT. In W. F. Perez, R. Kovac, J. H. de Almeida, & J. C. de Rose (Eds.). Introdução à Teoria das Molduras Relacionais (pp. 277-321). Artur Nogueira, SP: Editora Paradigma.
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Hayes, S.C., Law, S., Assemi, K., Falletta-Cowden, N., Shamblin, M., Burleigh, K., Olla, R., Forman, M., & Smith, P. (2021). Relating is an Operant: A Fly Over of 35 Years of RFT Research. Perspectivas Em Análise Do Comportamento, 12(1).