Reconstructing RFT through the Lens of the Interbehavioral Field: What is a Relational Frame Anyway?

The recent resurgence of Kantorian interbehavioral psychology in the context of relational frame theory (RFT) has prompted a reevaluation of RFT’s core concepts through an interbehavioral lens. Although RFT acknowledges its Kantorian roots, recent works have called for a more serious consideration of interbehaviorism in the context of developing the theory towards a more complete analysis of the complexity of human language and cognition. In particular, the current article aims to explore the alignment between the RFT concept of the relational frame and the interbehavioral interpretation of psychological happenings. To this end, the relational frame is dissected to clarify (mentalistic) misconceptions of RFT, and is then compared with interbehavioral constructs such as stimulus and response functions, substitute stimulation, and interbehavioral history. The integration of these perspectives suggests that RFT may benefit from a field-based approach to experimental and applied research. We argue that by applying the interbehavioral concept of stimulus substitution for stimuli that differ arbitrarily in multiple ways (i.e., multiple stimulus relations), the door may be opened for the entire RFT research program to yield (at least potentially) to interbehavioral field-based analyses.