Glossary / Lexicon

Behavioral family therapy refers to an approach to family therapy that views family relations in terms of reinforcement contingencies.

Here, the therapist's role is to generate a Behavioral analysis of family problems and induce family members to reinforce each other so as to increase the frequency of desired behaviors. A more cognitively focused therapist might teach individual family members to self -monitor problematic behaviors and patterns of thinking and challenge their interpretations of family events.