UNDERSTANDING RELATIONAL FRAME THEORY: FOUNDATIONS, ADVANCES, AND APPLICATIONS BASED ON A LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

Relational Frame Theory (RFT) is a behavior-analytic and functional-contextual approach to understanding human language and cognition. This study aimed to systematize and analyze the scientific literature on RFT, identifying its main conceptual foundations, empirical developments, and fields of application, as well as convergences and particularities in the literature concerning language, cognition, and relational responding. This bibliographic, descriptive, and exploratory study was structured as a literature review. The documentary corpus comprised 89 records published between 1997 and 2025, organized through a synthesis matrix and examined using narrative and thematic analysis. The findings identified Arbitrarily Applicable Relational Responding (AARR) as a central conceptual process in RFT, associated with mutual entailment, combinatorial entailment, transformation of stimulus functions, and contextual control. Most studies focused on the theoretical foundations, relational responding, and basic processes of RFT (35.96%), followed by deictic relations, perspective-taking, analogy, and sociocognitive processes (20.22%). The review also identified studies addressing development, learning, education, and autism; clinical applications, psychopathology, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and psychological flexibility; social, cultural, and organizational phenomena; as well as emerging applications involving artificial intelligence and computational models. It is concluded that RFT demonstrates continuity in its conceptual foundations while progressively diversifying its fields of research and application. The literature analyzed remains predominantly grounded in behavioral mechanisms underlying language and cognition, while expanding its interface with clinical, developmental, educational, sociocultural, and technological phenomena.