Experiential avoidance: A conceptual review

Abstract

This work reviews the application of the concept of experiential avoidance in a sam­ple of 19 articles published between 2008 and 2012. The sample was analyzed in terms of: (a) the definition of experiential avoidance presented in each paper and (b) similarities and dis­similarities from the first formulation of this concept, presented by Hayes et al. (1996). It was possible to verify how a dispositional/topographic definition of this transdiagnostic category resulted in significant losses in the accuracy of concept use throughout the studies. Finally, to overcome the identified inaccuracies, it was suggested that experiential avoidance could be functionally defined as patterns of escape responses, avoidance or suppression with the fol­lowing functional characteristics: (a) evoked or elicited by private aversive events (thoughts, feelings, sensations) or public (correlates); (b) maintained by immediate negative reinforcers (private or public); (c) in the long term, produce the narrowing of behavioral repertoire and consequent restriction of access to other primary, conditioned or verbally established reinforc­ers (values).