Integrating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Readings within Coursework: Suggestions for Instructors Teaching Behavior Analysis

Behavior analysis graduate programs must train their students to be culturally responsive so that they are prepared to effectively serve a diverse clientele. One important strategy for helping students gain a culturally responsive repertoire is embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion materials into behavior analysis graduate course sequences. However, little guidance exists for selecting content related to diversity, equity, and inclusion within behavior analysis to include in behavior analytic coursework. This article provides suggested readings for diversity, equity, and inclusion within behavior analysis that can be embedded into typical course structures in behavior analysis graduate programs. Each course requirement in the Association for Behavior Analysis International's Verified Course Sequence is given specific recommendations.

Recommendations Regarding Use of the Term "Ignore" in Applied Behavior Analysis

Ignore is a common term used in behavioral assessment, behavior intervention plans, textbooks, and research articles. In the present article, we recommend against the typical usage of the term in most applications of behavior analysis. First, we briefly outline some history of the use of the term in behavior analysis. Then, we describe six main concerns about ignore and the implications for its continued use. Finally, we address each of these concerns with proposed solutions, such as alternatives to the use of ignore.

Fifteen Years and Counting: The Dissemination Impact of Behavior Analysis in Practice

When Behavior Analysis in Practice (BAP) was founded 15 years ago, questions were raised about whether a practitioner-focused journal was really needed to complement our field's well-established applied research periodicals. Like research journals, BAP publishes primary research reports for which scholarly citations are one measure of impact. Unlike most research journals, it also was intended to achieve dissemination impact, which implies influence on people who may not conduct research or leave behind citations. Using altmetric data as an objective measure of dissemination impact, we present evidence that BAP is becoming a leader in this domain among applied behavior analysis journals, and thus appears to be accomplishing exactly what it was designed to. We recommend explicitly relying on dissemination impact data to help shape the journal's future development.

Teaching a Course on the History of Behavior Analysis

Teaching the history of behavior analysis can be approached in many ways. One is to embed history in courses on the field's discipline and subdisciplines (e.g., its basic and applied sciences and their conceptual foundations) and practice. Another is to teach courses on the histories of the discipline and subdisciplines and practice. Still another is to teach a stand-alone course that includes these approaches and more (e.g., their integration, relations with other sciences, the influence of U.S. history and culture). The purpose of this article is to foster teaching the stand-alone course. It has four sections. The first addresses structural considerations: course titles, catalog descriptions, curricula, certification, and accreditation. The second addresses contextual considerations: purposes of teaching history; distinctions between history and historiography; and starting points in selecting textbooks. The third addresses functional considerations: course content organized by topics and their required and recommended readings. The fourth discusses how the course might be revised by eliminating topics (e.g., the Middle Ages), expanding topics and subtopics (e.g., the behaviorisms, philosophy of science) and adding topics and subtopics (e.g., institutional history; diversity, inclusion, and equity). Given the field's continuing development as a science, system, and practice and the rapid growth in its number and variety of its members, its history is becoming its common core-and a means of teaching it. The course elucidates the field's integrity; incorporates the entirety of its community of students, scientists, scholars, and practitioners; and advance its coherence as a cultural practice.

They have a Voice; are we Listening?

The field of applied behavior analysis (ABA) has produced powerful changes and improvements to the lives of many. However, the field is not immune from criticism. One criticism from those outside the field is that the goal of ABA therapy is to make Autistic people appear "indistinguishable" from their peers. This paper examines "indistinguishability" and its implications by defining "indistinguishable" in behavior analytic terms, exploring how the term was used in two notable studies in the field (Lovaas, 1987, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55[1], 3-9; Rekers & Lovaas, 1974, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 7[2], 173-190), and providing a review of the social validity and ethical implications of having "indistinguishability" as an explicit or implied goal. This is partially accomplished by incorporating concerns from the Autistic self-advocate community. We argue that the Autistic self-advocate community's concerns surrounding "indistinguishability" as a goal have a degree of legitimacy and need to be given due consideration. Suggestions for addressing these concerns in ABA degree programs and research are discussed, emphasizing the importance of considering stakeholder values, taking criticisms seriously, and making changes when necessary.

The weight of harm: A Response to “Editor’s Note: Societal changes and expression of concern about Rekers and Lovaas’ (1974) Behavioral Treatment of Deviant Sex-Role Behaviors in a Male Child”

In 1974, Rekers and Lovaas published an article in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA) wherein the authors coached a 4-year-old child’s parents to ignore and physically abuse him when he engaged in behaviors that were identified by the authors as inappropriate for a child whose sex assigned at birth was male. In October 2020, a Statement of Concern regarding Rekers and Lovaas (1974) was published in JABA (SEAB & LeBlanc, 2020), which described concerns regarding the paper and then provided justification for the journal’s decision to not retract this paper. In this current response, I provide a counterpoint to the Statement of Concern, arguing that (a) the available evidence strongly suggests that the original study was unethical and misaligned with the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), and (b) the evidence presented to support its contemporaneous ethicality is insufficient. I end with an argument that Rekers and Lovaas (1974) should be retracted and discuss the critical role of ethics and social significance for the field of ABA.

"Why don't behavior analysts do something?"1 Behavior analysts' historical, present, and potential future actions on sexual and gender minority issues

For thousands of years, societies actively practiced the oppression, persecution, and dehumanization of sexual and gender minority (SGM) people (e.g., lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals). Rekers and Lovaas' (1974) study is part of that history within behavior analysis. Following requests for retraction, the Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior and LeBlanc (2020) issued a formal Expression of Concern about the work. Continued conversation and debate have followed. First, we contextualize debate around retraction of Rekers and Lovaas and the history of behavior analysts' work on SGM issues. Second, we propose 5 steps that leaders in behavior analysis can take with relative immediacy, and we describe 5 research areas that individual behavior analysts could pursue. We conclude that behavior analysts can contribute much toward the liberation of SGM individuals if we begin to bring our science to bear on pressing, socially significant issues facing SGM communities.

LGBTQ+ conversion therapy and applied behavior analysis: A call to action

The term conversion therapy refers to any practices intended to alter a person's sexual orientation, gender expression, gender identity, or any combination thereof. The present-day scientific consensus is that such practices are not only ineffective, but highly harmful and fundamentally unethical. However, historical connections exist between applied behavior analysis and the design and dissemination of conversion therapy practices. The purpose of this paper is to highlight these connections and to call for further attention and action from contemporary behavior analysts on this matter. Specifically, we call for continued discussion and review of previously published conversion therapy papers according to present-day guidelines for ethical research, position statements from professional organizations, additional ethics guidelines for behavior-analytic practice, and future behavior-analytic research and practice efforts that support LGBTQ+ people.