The Role of Shaping the Client's Interpretations in Functional Analytic Psychotherapy.
Reinforce client explanations the same way you reinforce any other behavior—shape them toward accurate, useful rules.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Sacco et al. (2012) looked at how therapists can shape the way clients talk about their own behavior.
They used Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) ideas. They said client interpretations, called CRB3, are rules that can be taught and reinforced.
The paper is theoretical. It gives no new data, but it maps out how to reinforce clearer, more accurate client statements during session.
What they found
The main point: treat every client comment about "why I acted that way" as a target you can shape.
When the client says something close to the real contingency, the therapist should label it and praise it. Over time, the client learns to state better rules.
How this fits with other research
WFradet et al. (2025) tested this idea with computers. Their adaptive shaping algorithm raises or drops task difficulty based on success, just like Roberto urges therapists to raise or drop interpretation accuracy based on client responses. The lab study extends the 2012 therapy idea into a data-driven procedure.
Cole (1994) asked analysts to watch their own words long before Roberto asked clients to watch theirs. Both papers push for precise verbal behavior; Roberto turns the lens toward the client’s speech.
Wilson et al. (2024) surveyed parents who want "warmer," more relational talk in ABA. Shaping CRB3 gives you a concrete way to add that human, meaning-focused language without leaving science behind.
Why it matters
You already reinforce correct responses from clients. Now, also reinforce correct explanations. When a child says, "I yelled because the work got too hard," mark that insight: "Yes, difficulty triggered yelling. Nice noticing." Reinforce closer and closer approximations to the true contingency. Over weeks, clients will hand you better rules themselves, which speeds up generalization and buys parent buy-in.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Clinical behavior analysis often targets the shaping of clients' functional interpretations of/or rules about his own behavior. These are referred to as clinically relevant behavior 3 (CRB3) in functional analytic psychotherapy (FAP). We suggest that CRB3s should be seen as contingency-specifying stimuli (CSS), due to the their ability to change the function of stimuli-including descriptions of variables involved in the client's behavioral problems as well as descriptions of variables associated with improvement or therapeutic change. This paper discusses the role of rule-governed behavior in FAP and the processes of shaping client interpretations of his or her behavior, and proposes that this may be an overlooked and important mechanism of change in FAP. To shape CRB3 in FAP, the therapist describes CSSs related to the therapy relationship that are consistent with the client's social environment, and reinforces improvements of the client's following his or her own newly shaped CSS descriptions during the session.
The Analysis of verbal behavior, 2012 · doi:10.1007/BF03393117