RELATIONAL FRAME-THEORY AND THE EXPERIMENTAL-ANALYSIS OF HUMAN-SEXUALITY

Behavior analysts have not been particularly active in the experimenta l analysis of human sexual behavior. This may be because the complexit y of human sexuality suggests that it defies a molecular empirical ana lysis. Recent developments in the experimental analysis of complex beh avior and language, however, have opened the way for a modern behavior -analytic research program into human sexual conduct. The present arti cle outlines the most important of these recent developments and illus trates how, at the Cork laboratory, advances in the study of arbitrari ly applicable relational responding have been harnessed to form the ba sis of a modern behavior-analytic treatment of human sexuality.