Implicit in the notion of skills training is the concept that a particular skill, or skillful behavior, may be instructed, acquired, and displayed in important situations. This emphasis on the delineation and acquisition of overt, effective (skillful) behaviors, clearly puts psychoeducational skills training within the behavioral model of therapy. This compatibility of behavior therapy and skills training can be easily understood when the theoretical bases of behavior therapy are made explicit. Masters, Burish, Hollon, and Rimm (1987) present the following eight primary postulates, or assumptions, of behavior therapy: 1. As compared to traditional psychotherapy, the focus of behavior therapy is on behavior itself rather than a presumed underlying cause of that behavior.
