2. Definition of Ethics
• Behaviors, practices, and decisions that
address three fundamental questions:
• What is the right thing to do?
• What is worth doing?
• What does it mean to be a good behavior
analyst?
• End goal: Further the welfare of the client.
3. What is the right thing to do?
• Our personal history influences our decision
making
– Personal experiences
– Cultural or religious upbringing
– Professional training and experiences
– To ensure that personal experiences and
cultural/religious beliefs don’t take over:
• Consult supervisors or colleagues, review the research
literature, consult case studies to determine past courses
of successful action, or excuse yourself from the case
4. What is worth doing?
• Questions of social validity ask:
– Are the goals acceptable for the planned behavior
change intervention?
– Are the procedures acceptable and aligned with
best treatment practices?
– Do the results show meaningful, significant, and
sustainable change?
5. What is worth doing?
• What is the Cost/Benefit Ratio:
– Does the potential benefit to the individual justify
the short- and long-term cost for providing the
service?
• Decisions should be made by committee
• Person with the highest stake in the outcome should
be given greatest consideration
6. What is worth doing?
• Existing Exigencies
– Behaviors that are more serious warrant
intervention consideration before behaviors that
are less problematic
– Must still consider long-term ramifications for
treatments that result in quick change
7. The good behavior analyst…
• Adheres to professional codes of conduct,
keeps the client’s welfare in mind at all
times, and follows the Golden Rule
• Most importantly an ethical BA is self-
regulating
– Calibrates decisions over time to meet changing
cultural values and contingencies
8. Professional Standards
• Written guidelines or rules of practice that provide
direction for the practices associated with an
organization
• See…
– APA: Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of
Conduct
– ABA: The Right to Effective Behavioral Treatment and The
Right to Effective Education
– BACB: Guidelines for Responsible Conduct for Behavior
Analysts and The BCBA and BCABA Behavior Analyst Task
List
9. Ensuring Professional Competence
• Academic training that includes:
– Formal coursework
– Supervised practica
– Mentored professional experience
• Accreditation and Certification
– Behavior Analyst Certification Board
• Keep practice within your areas of professional
training, experience, and competence
10. Maintaining and Expanding Professional
Competence
•Attending training events offering continuing
education credits (CEUs)
•Attending and presenting at conferences
•Self-study: routinely reading research and
other behavioral publications in your field
•Participating in oversight and peer review
opportunities
11. Making and Substantiating Professional Claims
• Avoid making unsubstantiated claims (e.g., “I
am certain I can help your son”)
– Stay familiar with professional literature on
treatment effectiveness for target behaviors,
client populations, and behavioral functions
• Only present yourself with valid credentials
(never claim to have certifications, licenses
that you don’t have)
12. Informed Consent
• The potential recipient of services or a
participant in a research study gives his or her
explicit permission before any assessment or
treatment is provided
• Permission must follow full disclosure and
information has been provided to the
individual
13. Three Tests for Informed Consent
• Person must demonstrate the capacity to
decide
• Person’s decision must be voluntary
• Person must have adequate knowledge of all
salient aspects of treatment
14. Capacity to Decide
• The person must have:
– Adequate mental process or faculty by which he/she
acquires knowledge
– Ability to select and express his or her choices
– Ability to engage in a rational process of decision
making
• These are often difficult questions to answer
and vary depending on the individual and/or the
proposed procedure
15. Surrogate/Guardian Consent
• When a person is deemed incapacitated, consent
may be obtained through a surrogate or guardian
• Surrogate: a legal process by which another
individual is authorized to make decisions for a
person deemed incompetent based on the
knowledge of what the incapacitated person
would have wanted
– Family members or close friends often serve as
surrogates
• Guardian: legal custodian of the individual
16. Voluntary Decision
• Voluntary consent is given in the absence of
coercion, duress, or any undue influence
– No bargaining to obtain consent
• Consent can be withdrawn at any time
17. Knowledge of Treatment
• Treatment must be presented in clear, non-
technical language that includes:
– All important aspects of the planned treatment
– All potential risks and benefits of the planned
procedure
– All potential alternative treatments
– The right to refuse continued treatment at any
time
18. Treatment Without Consent
• Consent may be granted in the case of a life-
threatening emergency
• Consent may be granted when there is an
imminent risk of serious harm
• In school settings, treatment cannot be provided
without consent. In situations when parents
simply refuse, school systems often have
progressive recourse through legal system
19. Confidentiality
• Information regarding an individual receiving
services may not be discussed with or made
available to third parties (unless explicit
permission has been given)
• Limits
– Suspected abuse
– Possibility of imminent, severe harm to
individual or other person
20. Protecting Dignity, Health, and Safety
• Do I honor the person’s choices?
– Do I help the client make choices in his or her day
to day life?
• Do I provide adequate space for privacy?
• Do I look beyond the person’s disability and
treat the person with respect?
21. Advocating for the Client
• Is the problem amendable to behavior
treatment?
– Ensure the problem is not one with a medical cause
– Ensure the problem is with the client and not with
someone else and that there is, indeed, a problem
– Ensure that other interventions have been attempted
and that the problem can’t be solved simply or
informally or by another discipline.
22. Advocating for the Client
• Is the proposed intervention likely to be
successful?
– Client, caregivers, and those surrounding the client
are willing and able to participate
– Research literature support for treatment
– Public support for treatment
– Behavior analyst has the appropriate experience and
training to implement the intervention
– Environmental contingencies can be controlled
23. Embracing the Scientific Method
• “In science keeping an open mind is a virtue,
but not so open that your brains fall out”
(James Oberg)
• When selecting interventions, behavior
analysts should rely on
– Peer-reviewed scientific reports published in
reputable, well-established outlets
– Direct and frequent measurements of behavior
24. Conflict of Interest
• Occurs when a principle party, alone or in
connection with family, friends or associates, has
a vested interest in the outcome of the
interaction.
• Direct and frequent observation puts behavior
analysts in close contact with the client and
family members in natural settings
• Must be cautious not to cross any personal or
professional boundaries
Editor's Notes
This chapter is the basis for much of the ethics portion of the BCBA exam. Please read the chapter carefully and fill in your guided notes during this presentation. The guided notes are really for those of you that may not have the book because it is optional, but filling them in will help you on your final exam. Most of the questions from your final exam will cover the information presented here.
Human beings begin to form a sense of ethical behavior early on in their lives based on their personal history. Personal experiences: such as making decisions in similar situations Cultural or religious background: example, belief in “spare the rod, spoil the child” or “he’ll grow out of it” philosophy. There are some cultures and religions that believe disability is a sign of God’s wrath or the individuals past sins Professional training and experiences: can be biased toward the methods supervisors used or the theories supported by instructors and professors
Social validity – Acceptable goals – teaching a child or adult to read is acceptable, but teaching an individual with Alzheimer’s to recall state capitals is not an acceptable goal Acceptable procedures – is the procedure going to take up a large amount of time and energy yet make only a small difference in the individual’s life? Will the intervention make a meaningful difference in that individuals life? Is it meaningful to teach a 10 year old to tie his shoes if he still isn’t toilet trained?
Cost/Benefit ratio – is the benefit to the individual great enough to justify emotional, financial, time, and energy costs? Multiple opinions and viewpoints should be obtained in order to get the widest range of options possible
More serious behaviors such as inappropriate touch warrant intervention consideration before less problematic behaviors such as hand-flapping. Bryce – Addressed aggression and inappropriate touch first, but Mom wanted me to focus on self-stim behaviors such as hand-flapping and vocalizations. We have to be careful that serious behaviors such as self-injury, feeding disorders, or physical aggression don’t cause us to adopt “situational ethics” Opportunities for adoption of “situational ethics” occur when we choose interventions that provide fast, short-term relief of a problem, without considering long-term effects. A good example of this would be knowing that a physically aggressive child hits, kicks, and pinches peers to escape tasks, but putting him in time out for this behavior in order to temporarily stop it. Short-term considerations like this could lead to further shaping physical aggression and causes it to increase over the long-term.
Self-regulation means constant integration of values, contingencies, rights and responsibilities into the decision making process.
The BACB certifies individual practitioners
Know this slide!!! This will be on the final exam.
Capacity can be questioned only if the person has “impaired or limited ability to reason, remember, make choices, see the consequences of actions, and plan for the future. Know this slide!!! This will be on the final exam.
The greater degree of guardianship, the less legal control a person has over his or her own life. Guardianship can be limited in any way that the courts sees fit.
Limits to confidentiality: suspected abuse (child or elder abuse) or imminent risk of severe harm
Medical cause – migraines in individual’s without the ability to communicate that they are in pain Problems with others – trouble in a particular teacher’s class, but nowhere else Is there really a problem? A 3 year old that refuses to eat everything on her plate at dinner Is there a simple solution? Locking doors to prevent a child from leaving the house Does the individual have a speech language disorder that might be better addressed by an SLP
Example: A behavior analyst should not treat the child of their best friend This slide will be on the final exam!!