Dr. Steven C. Hayes is an Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno and President of the Institute for Better Health, a 45-year old charitable organization dedicated to better mental and behavioral health.
His work has been focused on developing a new behavioral science approach called Contextual Behavioral Science. He originated its underlying philosophical of science (Functional Contextualism), its basic science of human higher cognition (Relational Frame Theory or "RFT"), its application to individual psychological change (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy or Training, "ACT" in either case), and co-developed its application to the development of more cooperative groups (Prosocial). He has helped develop a model of human suffering and human prosperity (the Psychological Flexibility Model), a new method of analyzing processes of change (idionomic analysis), a new vision of what evidence-based intervention should be (Process-Based Therapy), and he has extended multidimensional and multilevel evolutionary thinking to human problems of all kinds.
