This webinar helps participants distinguish between behaviors that are maintained by aversive factors and those maintained by appetitive factors. Behaviors maintained by aversive factors are often automatic and provide short-term relief or escape. An example is a person who excuses her partner’s criticisms because he is impaired by substance use and habitually over-functions in parenting their children. In contrast, a behavior maintained by appetitive factors might be that of a parent who sees a child attempt a difficult activity and struggle, and then feels overwhelming pride and admiration for their effort. Subtle differences may have a powerful impact on well-being and vitality. There are no hard and fast “rules” about behavior in FACT (e.g., “good feelings”, “bad thoughts”). Instead, FACT methods focus on the unique individual and how their behaviors “deliver” – do they align with their values (appetitive) or give the wolf at the door a small bone (aversive)? The presenter will describe strategies for increasing the frequency and value of a person’s appetitive behaviors day to day (e.g., detecting, savoring, experimenting, discovering, and monitoring). A great deal of human suffering may be alleviated when a person shifts the balance in daily life from routines controlled by a predominance of aversive circumstances to activities that offer joy, discovery, learning, and mastery.

Objectives

After the webinar, participants will be able to:

1. Describe how rules can help humans and hurt humans.
2. Describe a brief scale for assessing flourishing.
3. List one or more probes to use to understand the function of a behavior.
4. Describe the concept of chains of behavior.
5. Provide examples of appetitive behaviors and aversive behaviors.
6. Describe strategies for helping a person shift from a preponderance of aversive behaviors in daily life to more powerful appetitive behaviors.
7. List 3 ways to train behaviors that promote a higher rate of positive emotional experience.
8. Describe the relationship between psychological flexibility and appetitive/aversive behavioral patterns.