Values As Leading Principles in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy‪.‬

Abstract In this paper the definition of values as verbally constructed global desired life consequences is examined. It agrees that values, or Leading Principles, are the products of arbitrarily applicable relational responding and holds that what is "global" about them is their ready availability across many circumstances. It holds that the "desired" are not so much desired as approved, and what is approved is not so much the consequences of a pursuit as the pursuit itself of which certain consequences, if they arrive, are simply a part. It suggests seeing psychological flexibility as being valuable only in so far as it is in the service of chosen values.