A BEHAVIOR-ANALYTIC ACCOUNT OF DEPRESSION AND A CASE-REPORT USING ACCEPTANCE-BASED PROCEDURES

Although roughly 6% of the general population is affected by depressio n at some time during their lifetime, the disorder has been relatively neglected by behavior analysts. The preponderance of research on the etiology and treatment of depression has been conducted by cognitive b ehavior theorists and biological psychiatrists and psychopharmacologis ts interested in the biological substrates of depression. These approa ches have certainly been useful, but their reliance on cognitive and b iological processes and their lack of attention to environment-behavio r relations render them unsatisfactory from a behavior-analytic perspe ctive. The purpose of this paper is to provide a behavior-analytic acc ount of depression and to derive from this account several possible tr eatment interventions. In addition, case material is presented to illu strate an acceptance-based approach with a depressed client.