Behavioural Experiment Planner
A planning and recording sheet for behavioural experiments: state the prediction, design a test, identify safety behaviours to drop, run it, and record what was actually learned.
About this resource
Behavioural experiments are planned activities carried out to test the validity of a belief. They are among the most powerful change methods in CBT because they generate experiential evidence rather than verbal argument. A client who believes 'if I speak up in a meeting I will go blank and everyone will notice' can debate the thought for weeks; speaking up once and observing what happens often does more than all the debate combined.
This planner follows the standard structure: the belief and its strength, the specific prediction that would show it to be true or false, the experiment designed to test it, the safety behaviours that must be dropped for the test to be fair, the outcome, and what the outcome means for the original belief. The safety behaviour step is essential. Experiments run with safety behaviours intact tend to confirm 'I only got through it because I...' rather than disconfirming the feared outcome.
It is suited to anxiety problems broadly and to social anxiety in particular, where safety behaviours are numerous and often subtle: rehearsing sentences, avoiding eye contact, holding a drink, speaking quickly. The planner works equally well for testing depressive predictions ('I will not enjoy it') and for the wider inhibitory learning agenda of maximising expectancy violation.
The professional version includes guidance on designing experiments that are neither too easy nor too hard, on preparing the client for the possibility that the prediction comes true, and on the debrief questions that turn an outcome into new learning.
How to use it
- Identify a belief that is specific, testable and currently maintained by avoidance or safety behaviours. Rate belief strength before planning.
- Turn the belief into a concrete prediction with an observable outcome: what exactly would happen, and how would the client know?
- Design the experiment collaboratively. Make it specific enough to run this week and challenging enough that the outcome is genuinely uncertain.
- List every safety behaviour the client would normally use in that situation and agree which will be dropped. Discuss how the client will cope if the prediction comes true.
- Debrief in the next session using the final section. Focus on what was learned about the belief, not only on whether the experiment went well.
- Plan the next experiment as a step up from this one. Learning consolidates through repetition across varied contexts.
References
- Bennett-Levy, J., Butler, G., Fennell, M., Hackmann, A., Mueller, M., & Westbrook, D. (Eds.). (2004). Oxford Guide to Behavioural Experiments in Cognitive Therapy. Oxford University Press.
- Salkovskis, P. M. (1991). The importance of behaviour in the maintenance of anxiety and panic: A cognitive account. Behavioural Psychotherapy, 19(1), 6-19.
- Craske, M. G., Treanor, M., Conway, C. C., Zbozinek, T., & Vervliet, B. (2014). Maximizing exposure therapy: An inhibitory learning approach. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 58, 10-23.
