Dermot Barnes-Holmes

Dermot Barnes-Holmes (born 1963) is a Professor of psychology at the School of Psychology, Ulster University and was Foundation Professor at the Department of Psychology at National University of Ireland, Maynooth. He is known for an analysis of human language and cognition through the development of Relational Frame Theory with Steven C. Hayes, and its application in various psychological settings. He was the world's most prolific author in the experimental analysis of human behaviour between the years 1980 and 1999. He was awarded the Don Hake Basic/Applied Research Award at the 2012 American Psychological Association Conference in Orlando, Florida. He is a past president and fellow of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science, is a recipient of the Quad-L Lecture Award from the University of New Mexico and most recently became an Odysseus laureate of the Flemish Science Foundation and a fellow of the Association for Behavior Analysis International. In 2015 he accepted a life-time senior professorship at Ghent University in Belgium. He originally conceptualized and programmed the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP).

IRAP The Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) is an implicit measure similar to the Implicit Association Test (IAT), with the key difference being that it measures specific relations between stimuli rather than general associations. It has its theoretical basis in Relational Frame Theory.

Publications (selection) Hayes, S. C., Barnes-Holmes, D., & Roche, B. (Eds.). (2001). Relational Frame Theory: A Post-Skinnerian account of human language and cognition. New York: Plenum Press. Hayes, S. C., Bond, F. W., Barnes-Holmes, D., Austin, J. (Eds.) (2006). Acceptance and mindfulness at work: Applying acceptance and commitment therapy and relational frame theory to organisational behaviour management. New York: Haworth Press.

Blackledge, J. T. & Barnes-Holmes, D. (2009). Core processes in acceptance and commitment therapy. In J. T. Blackledge, J. Ciarrochi, & F. P. Deane (Eds.), Acceptance and commitment therapy: Contemporary theory, research and practice (pp. 41–58). Bowen Hills, QLD, Australia: Australian Academic Press.