Behavioral Activation Treatment for Depression: Returning to Contextual Roots

In 1990, Jacobson and colleagues at the University of Washington began a dismantling study where they tested competing hypotheses about the basis for the effects of cognitive therapy ( Jacobson et al., 1996). In particular, they isolated the behavioral activation (BA) component of cognitive therapy (CT) to determine whether simply activating depressed people, and thereby helping them make contact with potentially reinforcing experiences, could account for the benefits of CT. The initial findings were consistent with the activation hypothesis, and long-