Hayes, 1984

Submitted by admin on December 14, 2007 - 6:23pm
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APA Citation: 

Hayes, S. C. (1984). Making sense of spirituality. Behaviorism, 12, 99-110.

Type of Publication: 
ACT: Conceptual
RFT: Conceptual
Abstract: 

In ordinary language a clear distinction is made between the world of matter and that of spirit. While dualism is typically thought to be incompatible with behaviorism, a behavioral analysis of self-awareness suggests that there are good reasons for dualistic talk. Reputed qualities of both the spiritual aspect of humans and of a metaphysical God seem to flow naturally from the analysis. The use of the spiritual facet of self in therapy is briefly discussed.

Comments: 
The first ACT article. The references in this article mentions ACT data presentations from 1982 (amazingly, the specific mention is of a piece that came out 17 years later in The Psychological Record, 1999, 49, 33-47). The analysis in this article on spirituality anticipates RFT, deictic frames, perspective taking, self-as-context, acceptance, defusion, and many other issues now of known importance. If you want to draw a line in the dirt and say "ACT / RFT started here" this article is the starting point.
Key Words: 
ACT, RFT

Comments

Making Sense of Spirituality

Submitted by slawley1 on November 15, 2011 - 3:49pm.

This is a great article. I've read it at least a couple of times in order to get the right perspective. I may agree that "if want to draw a line in the dirt" this may be the first article regarding RFT. I would say that if that is true, it is interesting that there (at least to my knowledge) is so little attention paid to furthering the behavioral analysis of spirituality within contextual psychology.

I would direct a couple of questions to Steven.

First, who is "Miller" and what did she write in 1984? She is cited in the first paragraph of the article though not referenced in the Reference Section. Second, on page 103, you add parenthetically that "This same basic issue has been widely discussed in the philosophy of science literature where philosophers have pointed out that the assumptions of a theory cannot themselves be explained by the theory." I can think of some citations that might fit this sentence, though I would like to know what particular discussion or philosophers you were referring to here. Depending upon who you cite here, it could make a slight difference to the point you're making.

Thanks!