Abstract:

Objectives. We investigated naive theories regarding the association among beliefs,emotions and behaviours to test Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy's (REBT)assumption that rational cognitions and adaptive emotions lead to functional behaviourswhereas irrational cognitions and maladaptive emotions trigger dysfunctional reactions.Design. We applied an experimental between-subjects design.Methods. Participants read newspaper articles about the defeat of a boxer. In onecondition, the authentic article informed participants that he committed suicide and inthe other, a fictitious article about the same defeat described the athlete as successfullycontinuing his career. Different question formats were employed to assess participants'assumptions about the stimulus person's defeat-related cognitions and emotions: ratingscales, sentence completion and free responses.Results. Participants assumed significantly more irrational beliefs (e.g. 'I absolutelyhave to win') on the side of the boxer in the suicide scenario than in the non-suicideversion. This finding was obtained by directive and non-directive assessment methods.Additionally, participants expected the suicidal stimulus person to be experiencingmaladaptive emotions (e.g. depression, guilt) whereas a successful resumption of hiscareer lead to expectations of adaptive affects (e.g. sadness, concern). Ratings of thefunctionality revealed that sadness, fear, annoyance and concern were expected to bemore functional than depression, anxiety, rage and guilt.Conclusions. The results show that naive psychological theories about theantecedents of dysfunctional behaviour are in accordance with theoretical assumptionsof REBT: Irrational beliefs are viewed to be connected with maladaptive emotions andto result in dysfunctional behaviour, and adaptive emotions are thought to be of higherfunctional value than their maladaptive counterparts. The use of different questionformats and a between-subject design excluded that results are due to methodologicalartifacts or contrast effects.

Document Type:

DOI: 10.1348/147608307x206736