ABSTRACT
This chapter will review the different theories and research studies on learning, from which the techniques known collectively as cognitive-behavioural therapy are derived. Such an account is necessary for two reasons. First, so that the person applying the approach will understand the reasons for what he or she is doing, rather than just dipping into a bag of therapeutic tricks and hoping to come up with the right one. Second, so that a proper assessment of the client’s problems can be made. In this field, there are no general purpose procedures, and decisions about which approaches to use are based upon certain wellestablished findings as to how behaviour (including problematic behaviour) and its cognitive and affective accompaniments or even causes, come to have their influence in the first place.
