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Show us a behaviour without a cognition and we'll show you a rock rolling down a hill

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2009

Timothy A. Carey  and
Warren Mansell
Timothy A. Carey*
Affiliation:
Centre for Applied Psychology, University of Canberra, ACT, Australia
Warren Mansell
Affiliation:
School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
*
*Author for correspondence: A/Professor T. A. Carey, Centre for Applied Psychology, University of Canberra, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia. (Tim.Carey@canberra.edu.au)
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Abstract

Dismantling studies are used in psychotherapy in order to understand the important components of treatment. Typically, this has occurred so that people could understand the unique contributions provided by cognitive versus behavioural techniques. Recently, mindfulness-based approaches have apparently added a third dimension to the dismantling enterprise. Dismantling is seen as an important way of understanding the change process in psychotherapy and, therefore, clarifying how we might most effectively promote change. The way in which an entity is dismantled, however, exposes assumptions about the nature of the entity and its organization. In this paper we argue that dismantling studies in psychotherapy have perhaps generated more confusion than consensus and have provided little practical benefit for clinicians. We suggest that the phenomenon of control might provide a unifying perspective from which to approach the integration of behavioural, cognitive, and mindfulness approaches. In one sense all these seemingly different approaches are doing the same thing and it is this ‘thing’ we highlight in this paper.

Keywords

Cognitioncognitive behaviour therapycontrolmindfulness
Type
Review
Information
the Cognitive Behaviour Therapist , Volume 2 , Issue 3 , September 2009 , pp. 123 - 133
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2009

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References

Recommended follow-up reading

Hofmann, SG (2008). Cognitive processes during fear acquisition and extinction in animals and humans: implications for exposure therapy of anxiety disorders. Clinical Psychology Review 28, 199–210.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hofmann, SG, Asmundson, GJG (2007). Acceptance and mindfulness-based therapy: new wave or old hat? Clinical Psychology Review 28, 1–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mansell, W, Carey, TA(2009). A century of psychology and psychotherapy is an understanding of ‘control’ the missing link between theory, research and practice? Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, and Practice 82, 337–353.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

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