Cognitive Behavioral Family Therapy - Albert Ellis is the first individual to use an approach that focuses on cognition and its influence on behavior. His ABC model revolves around the idea that stimuli initiate beliefs which in turn involve an emotional response; stated that dysfunction occurred in the presence of illicit irrational beliefs that responded inappropriately. Ellis's approach was primarily for individuals and couples, but some of the core tenets of his theory would carry over into family therapy. BF Skinner is primarily responsible for the development of operant conditioning; a theory that stated that reinforced behavior continues to persist over time while non-reinforced behavior will not persist over time. - John Krumboltz and Gerald Patterson further developed Skinner's approach by emphasizing the role that parents had in the development of appropriate behavior in children. Positive reinforcement became more favored and rewards replaced punishments as a method of reinforcement. Frank Dattilio brought CBT to the forefront of family therapy. His approach emphasizes the influence that personal and family schema has in creating distortions and automatic thoughts, which lead to dysfunctional outcomes. Cognitive behavioral family therapy is based on various empirical concepts. From Ivan Pavlov's concept of classical conditioning to BF Skinner's operant conditioning approach, CBT is based on a wide variety of approaches. The concept that really shaped the trajectory of CBT is the social learning theory developed by Albert Bandura and Richard Walters in 1963. This theory forms one of the key pillars of CBT with its emphasis on the influential role that although... a half of the paper... g the topic of the homework. Some common problems with homework include lack of time and feeling that it is irrelevant or not applicable to the client. I think when using homework there needs to be a balance between what the therapist feels is appropriate and what the client feels is attainable and appropriate. - Secondly, the concept of cognitive restructuring is something that really interests me from a therapeutic point of view. Regardless of the customer, there are undoubtedly fixed behaviors and thoughts that customers exhibit. The reactionary nature of such behaviors and thoughts usually means that they are not always the most functional or appropriate, so this technique can be useful with any form of negative reactionary behavior or thoughts. It really brings the client to have more conscious thinking about their own behaviors and reactions and brings more self-awareness and intuition.