ABSTRACT
Cognitive-behavioral couple therapy (CBCT) has grown rapidly to become one of the evidence-based treatments for couples’ general relationship distress as well as for the treatment of forms of individual psychopathology in the couple context. This chapter describes the development of CBCT and the aspects of the model that have established it as among the most widely used couple therapy approaches among practicing clinicians. The behavioral core of CBCT initially was formulated by theorists and therapists who applied social exchange and social learning principles to understand relationship problems and to design interventions for distressed couples. Practitioners of behavioral marital therapy paid close attention to the process of couple interactions and developed systematic assessment procedures for identifying patterns that contributed to or detracted from partners’ satisfaction. In addition to drawing on cognitive therapy concepts and methods, CBCT theorists and practitioners applied findings from basic research on social cognition, regarding individuals’ information processing that can bias appraisals of another person.
