Blogging for behavior modification without coercion or commandment of anyone, especially people with disabilities
Hello, everybody,
This web log is about ethical uses of "behavior modification," also known as Applied Behavior Analysis or ABA. Readers ask, "Whose behavior are we changing here?" I suggest we start with ourselves, that we focus on people who have the power to heal the world, the "normal" adults, and that we do it with their consent, with positive reinforcement of desirable behavior, and with nothing more harsh than a mild punishment of anyone.
If we can determine how ethically the ABA professionals have treated the children and disabled adults whose behaviors they commonly study, then we will be in a better position to promote their findings to the general public, either by calling on them to improve or by reporting that their work does contain a commendable system of ethics. The goal of this blog is to help expand and clarify the teachings of B.F. Skinner and his colleagues with a deliberate concentration on ethics and to assist in the dissemination of constructive uses of behavior modification, which has the potential to solve the problem of human aggression.
On the right you can watch a few videos on the conditioning of behavior. Then scroll down and click the arrows and links from the archives on the right to see different items appear in the blog posts below on the left.
Over 70% of the respondents of an informal survey on this blog said they believed ABA is ethical to a degree, but it has room for improvement.
E-mail me at rewardandconsent@yahoo.com to trade links. The more links to your site, the higher its search-engine rank. I welcome your comments.
Since friends are so inspiring and we need to make friends from all over the world, here's the song about standing by our friends, first in Farsi and English, with exiled Iranian singer, Andy Madadian, and Jon Bon Jovi.
A June 2009 Reuters news article said, "The track's co-producer, Don Was, says the video is meant to send 'a musical message of worldwide solidarity' to the Iranian people in the aftermath of the country's recent disputed election.
"Was tells Billboard.com that the session, which took place...in Los Angeles, was spurred by a conversation he had with Madadian about 'whether there was something we could do just to send out a little message of solidarity, remembering the '60s, believing music can change things.'"
I like them clapping hands together.
The Ben E. King version follows. It has clips from the "Stand by Me" film. He wrote it in 1961. According to a Wikipedia article, "In 1999, BMI named it as the fourth most-performed song of the 20th century, with about 7 million performances."
I wish peace and good will to all visitors to the blog over the holidays and in the New Year.
Reward and Consent™ is not responsible or liable for links from the site, but email me, please, with feedback on the links. For example, this blog uses keywords "Operant Conditioning" in the YouTube search field. YouTube selects the videos presented under the given search terms and the results can change from time to time. Please email me if any of the videos are not educational and germane to the subject and I will reevaluate the search.
I am an advocate for people with disabilities certified to teach special education with a Master of Arts in Teaching. I am not a Licensed Psychologist or a Board Certified Behavior Analyst.
A bit of history: Who publishes JEAB and JABA?, Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, Retrieved April 20, 2007 from the SEAB Web site: http://seab.envmed.rochester.edu/society
Ayllon, T. & Azrin, N.H. (1968). Reinforcer sampling: A technique for increasing the behavior of mental patients. [Electronic version]. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1, 13-20. Retrieved July 12, 2007 from U.S. National Institutes of Health PubMed Central database Web site: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1310971&blobtype=pdf
Baer, D. M. (1960). Escape and avoidance response of pre-school children to two schedules of reinforcement withdrawal. [Electronic version]. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 3, 155-159. Retrieved April 19, 2007 from U.S. National Institutes of Health PubMed Central database Web site: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1403960&blobtype=pdf
Baer, D. M., Wolf, M. M., & Risley, T. R. (1968). Some current dimensions of applied behavior analysis [Electronic version]. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1, 91-97. Retrieved April 19, 2007 from U.S. National Institutes of Health PubMed Central database Web site: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1310980&blobtype=pdf
Baer, D. M., Wolf, M. M., & Risley, T.R. (1987). Some still-current dimensions of applied behavior analysis [Electronic version]. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 20, 313-327. Retrieved April 19, 2007 from U.S. National Institutes of Health PubMed Central database Web site: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1286071&blobtype=pdf
Cantor, J. (2007, March 5). New ethics book (Vasquez & Pope, 2007) [Msg. 22449]. Message posted to http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/NewPsychList
Common law. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 8, 2007 from HighBeam Encyclopedia Web site: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1B1-361245.html
Critchfield, T.S. (2002). Evaluating the function of applied behavior analysis: A bibliometric analysis [Electronic version]. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 35, 423-426. Retrieved January 14, 2007 from U.S. National Institutes of Health PubMed Central database Web site: http://seab.envmed.rochester.edu/jaba/articles/2002/jaba-35-04-0423.pdf
Dawson, M. (2004). The misbehaviour of behaviourists: Ethical challenges to the autism-ABA industry. Retrieved March 6, 2007 from her No Autistics Allowed Web site: http://www.sentex.net/~nexus23/naa_aba.html
Murphy, J. (2006). School of shock: Inside a school where mentally disturbed students are jolted into good behavior. [Electronic version]. The Village Voice, October 3, 2006. Retrieved July 25, 2008 from the Village Voice Web site: http://villagevoice.com/2006-10-03/news/school-of-shock
Risley, T. R. (1968). The effects and side effects of punishing the autistic behaviors of a deviant child [Electronic version]. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1, 21-34. Retrieved April 19, 2007 from U.S. National Institutes of Health PubMed Central database Web site: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1310972&blobtype=pdf
Schwartz, I. S., & Baer, D. M. (1991). Social validity assessments: Is current practice state of the art [Electronic version]? Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 24, 189-204. Retrieved April 19, 2007 from U.S. National Institutes of Health PubMed Central database Web site: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1279564&blobtype=pdf
Seligman, M.E, & Maier, S.F. (1967). Failure to escape traumatic shock. [Electonic Abstract]. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74, 1-9. Retrieved July 25, 2008 from American Psychological Association PsycNET database Web site: http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord&uid=1967-08624-001
Skinner, B. F. (1938). The behavior of organisms: An experimental analysis (1991 ed.). Cambridge, MA: B.F. Skinner Foundation.
Skinner, B. F. (1948). Walden two (2005 ed.). Indianapolis: Hackett.
Skinner, B. F. (1953). Science and human behavior (1965 ed.). New York: Free Press.
Skinner, B. F. (1957). Verbal behavior (1992 ed.). Cambridge, MA: B.F. Skinner Foundation.
Skinner, B. F. (1959). Cumulative record (1999 definitive ed.). Cambridge, MA: B.F. Skinner Foundation.
Skinner, B. F. (1968). The technology of teaching (2003 ed.). Cambridge, MA: B.F. Skinner Foundation.
Skinner, B. F. (1971). Beyond freedom and dignity. New York: Knopf.
Skinner, B. F. (1974). About behaviorism (1976 ed.). New York: Vintage.
Skinner, B. F. (1979). The shaping of a behaviorist: Part two of an autobiography. New York: Knopf.
Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989). Retrieved April 20, 2007 from the FindLaw Web site:http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=CASE&court=US&vol=491&page=397
Thoms, D.R., Becker, W. C., & Armstrong, M. (1968). Production and elimination of disruptive classroom behavior by systematically varying teacher's behavior. [Electronic version]. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1, 35-45. Retrieved January 14, 2008 from U.S. National Institutes of Health PubMed Central database Web site: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1310973&blobtype=pdf
Vasquez, M. J. & Pope, K. S. (2007). Ethics in psychotherapy and counseling: A practical guide (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass.
Walmsley, R. (1-28-2007). World prison population list: (7th ed). London,. Retrieved February 6, 2007, from King's College London International Centre for Prison Studies Web site: http://www.prisonstudies.org
Wolf, M. M. (1968) Social validity: The case for subjective measurement or how applied behavior analysis is finding its heart [Electronic version]. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 11, 203-214. Retrieved April 19, 2007 from U.S. National Institutes of Health PubMed Central database Web site: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1311293&blobtype=pdf
Wolf, M. M. (Ed.). (1968) [Electronic Version]. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1. Retrieved April 19, 2007 from U.S. National Institutes of Health PubMed Central database Web site: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1310969&blobtype=pdf
