Ethics in Applied Behavior Analysis Topic #6 ED 553: Assessing Effective Treatments for Children with Autism

What Formal Training Should Behavior Analysts Have?  Accredited to provide training in behavior analysis at doctorate or master’s level –Master’s in behavior analysis courses must provide instruction in behavior analyst approaches to research and/or in conceptual issues program must include a thesis, review paper or general examination based on behavior-analytic approaches –Doctorate in behavior analysis course of study must provide instruction in behavior analytic approaches to research and/or in conceptual issues Include advanced curriculum topics in a specialized area of nonhuman and or human basic research literature, research methods, and one or more applied areas Dissertation in required in which questions and methods are based on a behavior-analytic approaches to issues

What Formal Training Should Behavior Analysts Have?  The more severe a behavior problem, the more extensive the training should be –only doctorate level behavior analysts should treat severe behavior problems  Behavior analysts should attend professional conferences & workshops in behavior analysis to stay current in the field

What Experience Should Behavior Analysts Have?  Accredited programs don’t yet guarantee that individuals have the necessary training to teach individuals with developmental disabilities  Supervised experience in teaching individuals with autism for at least 1-2 years (BACB requires 9-18 months)  It is recommended that supervision be provided by a doctoral level behavior analyst

What Professional Organizations should Behavior Analysts Belong To?  Association for Behavior Analysis –  NJ Association for Behavior Analysis –  COSAC –

What Knowledge Should a Behavior Analyst Have? 1. Ethical Considerations15 2. Definition and Characteristics and 3. Principles, Processes and Concepts Behavioral Assessment and 8. Selecting Intervention Outcomes & Strategies Experimental Evaluation of Interventions20 6. Measurement of Behavior and 7. Displaying and Interpreting Behavioral Data Behavior Change Procedures and 10. Systems Support Discretionary - may be used within any one or more of the 10 content areas above OR for any applications of behavior analysis *

Summary of Components of the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB)  Education –5-6 courses in BA  Experience –9-18 months  National Board Written Exam  Discipline  Continuing Education –36 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) in 3 years –1 CEU = 50 minutes of instruction of symposia –1 grad course = 15 hours of continuing education  Code of Ethics

BACB Guidelines for Responsible Conduct for Behavior Analysts 1. Responsible Conduct of a Behavior Analyst 2. The Behavior Analyst’s Responsibility to Clients 3. The Behavior Analyst’s Pre-Intervention Behavior 4. The Behavior Analyst and the Individual Behavior Change Program 5. The Behavior Analysts as Teacher and/or Supervisor

BACB Guidelines for Responsible Conduct for Behavior Analysts 6. The Behavior Analyst and the Workplace 7. The Behavior Analysts an research Behavior Analysts design and Conduct 8. The Behavior Analyst’s Ethical Responsibility to the Field of Behavior Analysis 9. The Behavior Analyst’s Ethical Responsibility to Colleagues 10. The Behavior Analysts Ethical Responsibility to Society

Concerns about ABA  Behavior Modification  Behavioral Techniques  Applied Behavior Analysis

Applied Behavior Analysis  Learning principles must be applied to change socially important behavior.  Must investigate observable and quantifiable behavior that is objectively defined  clear evidence of a functional relationship between the behavior to be changed and the experimenters’ intervention must exist.

Misunderstandings  Behavioral approaches are too much work and provide too little reinforcement  Behaviorism contradicts the popular developmental view of education and psychology  Behavior analysis is a threat to the prevailing power structures in education and psychology  Positive reinforcement is a practice that often lacks social acceptability and undermines intrinsic reinforcement  Behavior analysis fails to glorify human beings as do other psychologies and philosophies

Ethical Procedures  Community standards  Laws  Prevailing philosophies  Individual freedom  Responsibility of the clients through informed consent  Clients’ attitudes and feelings  Social validity (consumer satisfaction) –Questionnaires, interviews, surveys

Ethical Procedures  Goals, procedures & outcomes must be acceptable to the consumers of education – students, parents and the community

Ethical Procedures  We propose that individuals who are recipients or potential recipients of treatment designed to change their behavior have the right to 1. A therapeutic environment 2. Services whose overriding goal is personal welfare 3.Treatment by a competent behavior analyst 4.Programs that teach functional skills 5.Behavioral assessment and ongoing evaluation 6.The most effective treatment procedures available Executive Council for the Association for Behavior Analysis

Therapeutic Environment  Safe, humane, responsive to individual needs, enjoyable (choice), and least restrictive  Minimally dignified treatment requires sanitation, cleanliness, comfort, and attempts at respectful communication and consent and age-appropriateness

Services Whose Overriding Goal is Personal Welfare  Appropriate goal setting  Students and parents must voluntarily agree to the goals and be informed of them –Informed consent –based on full understanding of the planned program –includes possible risks –Voluntary consent –may be obtained only if neither threats nor rewards are used to acquire such consent

Treatment by a Competent Behavior Analyst  “A teacher buys a bag of candy & proceeds to hand out “reinforcement” indiscriminately” – –this is potentially harmful!  Principles are easy to understand – implementation, however, is not so simple  Must have academic & ongoing hands-on training, supervision & evaluation  Nationally Board Certified Behavior Analyst –National certification issued by the Behavior Analysis Certification Board

Programs that Teach Functional Skills  Relative to the individuals needs of a particular student  Each individual is capable of full participation in community life and has a right to such participation  Consider the environment in which a particular individual will live when making decisions about what functional skills to teach  Behaviors that lead to improved learning or social interaction should be taught to all students.

Behavioral Assessment & Ongoing Evaluation  Goals & Obj must be based on careful observation of what the student does under a variety of conditions  Ongoing evaluation is necessary to ensure skill acquisition

The Most Effective Treatment Procedures Available  Proven effectiveness in science means that a particular technique will also change similar behavior in similar students –E.g., chemotherapy & radiation or Ginger  Review literature in professional, peer-reviewed journals –JABA  Still need parental consent and follow school guidelines (human rights review board) for decreasing behavior procedures such as time out

Accountability  to the profession, community, administrators, parents, students & yourself  Publication of goals, procedures, and results so that they may be evaluated by parents, teachers, and administrators –Goals are stated behaviorally –Procedures described clearly –Results are in terms of direct, functional relationships between interventions and resultant behavior change