Countercontrol: A Relational Frame Theory (RFT) Account and Revival of a 70-Year-Old Skinnerian Term

Abstract

Countercontrol is a Skinnerian operant concept that posits that an individual’s attempts to exert control over another person’s behavior may evoke a countercontrolling response from the person being controlled that functions to avoid or escape the potentially aversive conditions generated by the controller. Despite Skinner’s historical concerns regarding the detrimental effects of countercontrol in terms of hindering optimal societal growth and cultural evolution, the concept has not been widely applied within behavior analysis. Drawing from recent developments in rule-governed behavior and relational frame theory, this article seeks to explicate countercontrol from a contemporary behavior analytic perspective and presents several modern-day societal applications. In particular, a relational frame theory account of rule-governed behavior is used as a framework to elucidate the behavioral processes by which rule-following occurs (or fails to occur) in the context of countercontrol. Implications of a renewed focus on countercontrol for understanding pressing societal issues are also discussed.

Correspondence between resident‐ and staff‐report on the QABF: Do justice‐involved youth agree with residential staff?

“…It is possible that the specificity of the QABF questions do not reliably capture temporally distant establishing operations (e.g., sleep deprivation), which can exacerbate responding (e.g., escape behaviors; O’ Reilly, 1995). Third, given that the QABF was originally designed for individuals with autism and intellectual disabilities, future researchers should look to develop a questionnaire that evaluates similar reinforcer relations with the addition of countercontrol, which has been define as actions with aversive stimuli directed toward a controlling agent (Carey & Bourbon, 2005; Delprato, 2002; Spencer et al., 2022). Although residents and staff could not directly indicate countercontrol on the QABF, negative reinforcement was the highest ranked potential function for residents and staff A and the second highest ranked for staff B.…”