Countercontrol in behavior analysis

Variables involved in the acquisition and maintenance of racial aggression and its victims' reactions

This study aimed to investigate how behavior analysis can contribute to the understanding of some variables and processes involved in the acquisition and maintenance of racial aggressors' behaviors, as well as the victims' reactions. We describe how the concepts of rule-governed behavior and motivating operations may be involved in institutional racism: Individuals belonging to ethnic groups who hold the social administration in a context may keep important reinforcers available for their own group, while other racial groups may have their access to those reinforcers hindered. For these privileges to be perpetuated, the ruling group can arrange contingencies that reinforce the behavior of following certain rules that contribute to the maintenance of relevant reinforcers for the ruling group and exclusion of Black individuals and other people of color. For those underrepresented groups, motivating operations can be manipulated and reinforcers can be provided only when their responses are deemed appropriate by the dominant group. Individual learning through discriminative training, equivalence class formation, transfer of functions, stimulus generalization, and function altering were also discussed. Patterns such as aggression, escape, and avoidance, were identified in the actions of racial aggressors. Finally, the victim's reactions were also identified as escape, avoidance, or aggression of racial aggressors, but also as effects of processes such as learned helplessness, extinction after elimination of benefits, countercontrol, and respondent conditioning. Despite the lack of research in the field, behavior analysis has the power to elucidate some variables related to this theme, aiding, thus, evidence-based intervention proposals.

Social Justice is the Spirit and Aim of an Applied Science of Human Behavior: Moving from Colonial to Participatory Research Practices

It is time for a paradigm shift in the science of applied behavior analysis. Our current approach to applied research perpetuates power imbalances. We posit that the purpose of applied behavior analysis is to enable and expand human rights and to eliminate the legacies of colonial, oppressive social structures. We report the findings from our examination of the content of our flagship applied research journal. We reviewed 50 years of applied experiments from the standpoint of respect, beneficence, justice, and the participation of individuals and communities. Although there is some promise and movement toward inclusion, our findings indicate that we have not prioritized full participation across all segments of society, especially persons and communities that are marginalized. Social justice rests on the belief that human life is to be universally cherished and valued. In this article, we suggest that policies, strategies, and research practices within our field be interwoven with a commitment to social justice, including racial justice, for all. We offer recommendations to neutralize and diffuse power imbalances and to work toward a shift from colonial to participatory practices in the methods and aims of our applied science.

Revisiting the social validity of services rendered through a university-based practicum addressing challenging behavior

This paper represents the third in a three-part series intended to challenge the social validity of the services provided by a university-based practicum for addressing the challenging behavior of individuals with disabilities. In this paper, we surveyed referring stakeholders (e.g., parents, teachers) of past service recipients to explore the acceptability of the service model's goals, methods, and outcomes. We probed for tensions resultant from the model's threefold mission (service, training, and research) and explored how conflicts between these goals affected the quality of our services. Generally, results were favorable and appeared to support continued model implementation, but not without qualification. Emergent themes, areas for improvement, and future directions for intervention research are all discussed.

Countercontrol: A Relational Frame Theory (RFT) Account and Revival of a 70-Year-Old Skinnerian Term

Countercontrol is a Skinnerian operant concept that posits that an individual's attempts to exert control over another person's behavior may evoke a countercontrolling response from the person being controlled that functions to avoid or escape the potentially aversive conditions generated by the controller. Despite Skinner's historical concerns regarding the detrimental effects of countercontrol in terms of hindering optimal societal growth and cultural evolution, the concept has not been widely applied within behavior analysis. Drawing from recent developments in rule-governed behavior and relational frame theory, this article seeks to explicate countercontrol from a contemporary behavior analytic perspective and presents several modern-day societal applications. In particular, a relational frame theory account of rule-governed behavior is used as a framework to elucidate the behavioral processes by which rule-following occurs (or fails to occur) in the context of countercontrol. Implications of a renewed focus on countercontrol for understanding pressing societal issues are also discussed.

Research Ethics for Behavior Analysts in Practice

Behavior analysts in practice have an advantage over many others in the helping professions-they have at their disposal a robust science of behavior change informed primarily by single-case experimental research designs. This is advantageous because the research literature is focused on individual behavior change and has direct relevance to behavior analysts who need to change the behavior of individuals in need. Also, the same experimental designs used to advance the basic and applied sciences can be used to evaluate and refine specific procedures as they are put into practice. Thus, behavior-analytic research and practice are often intertwined. However, when behavior analysts in practice conduct research and use their own clients as participants, several important ethical issues need to be considered. Research with human participants is subject to careful ethical oversight, but the ethical guidelines that have been developed are usually described in terms of research conducted by nonpractitioners working in universities or institutions. This article focuses on several areas of special concern when conducting research in practice settings, including dual relationships and conflicts of interest, obtaining informed consent, and using ethical review panels.

Improving Juvenile Justice Settings by Decreasing Coercion: One Lab's Perspectives from Behind the Fence

In this article, we outline an emerging role for applied behavior analysis in juvenile justice by summarizing recent publications from our lab and discussing our procedures through the lens of coercion proposed by Goltz (2020). In particular, we focus on individual and group interventions that target a range of behaviors emitted by adolescents in a residential treatment facility. In general, individual interventions involve teaching adolescents to (1) respond appropriately to staff, (2) tolerate nonpreferred environmental conditions, and (3) control problematic sexual arousal. Likewise, group interventions involve low-effort manipulations that decrease disruptive behavior and increase appropriate behavior in settings with numerous adolescents. Thereafter, we describe behavioral interventions for staff working in juvenile justice. These staff-focused interventions aim to increase staff-initiated, positive interactions with students in order to change subsequent student behavior. In addition, we review our recent endeavors to assess and conceptualize other service providers' behavioral products (i.e., prescription practices) in a juvenile facility. Lastly, we discuss future directions of behavior-analytic intervention with juvenile-justice involved adolescents.

Punishment and its putative fallout: A reappraisal

In his book Coercion and Its Fallout Murray Sidman argued against the use of punishment based on concerns about its shortcomings and side effects. Among his concerns were the temporary nature of response suppression produced by punishment, the dangers of conditioned punishment, increases in escape and avoidance responses, punishment-induced aggression, and the development of countercontrol. This paper revisits Sidman's arguments about these putative shortcomings and side effects by examining the available data. Although Sidman's concerns are reasonable and should be considered when using any form of behavioral control, there appears to be a lack of strong empirical support for the notion that these potential problems with punishment are necessarily ubiquitous, long-lasting, or specific to punishment. We describe the need for additional research on punishment in general, and especially on its putative shortcomings and side effects. We also suggest the need for more effective formal theories of punishment that provide a principled account of how, why, and when lasting effects of punishment and its potential side effects might be expected to occur or not. In addition to being necessary for a complete account of behavior, such data and theories might contribute to improved interventions for problems of human concern.

Noncompete Clauses in Applied Behavior Analysis: A Prevalence and Practice Impact Survey

The field of applied behavior analysis (ABA) has grown substantially in the past decade. Behavior analysts seeking out new employment may have to weigh benefits such as pay, health care, and conditions of employment during negotiations. One condition of employment used in employment contracts is noncompete clauses (NCCs). NCCs are agreements between employers and employees that restrict the employee's ability to work in a specific field after employment ends. Although they can provide businesses with security, NCCs have the potential to impact how, when, and whom practitioners can serve after employment ends. Although NCCs and their effects have been studied in other fields, to our knowledge no analysis has occurred in the field of ABA. We surveyed 610 practicing behavior analysts to determine the prevalence of NCCs in the field of ABA and how respondents viewed the impact of NCCs on the field; one third (33.1%) of respondents indicated that their contract contained an NCC, and opinions on their potential impact were largely unfavorable. Results are discussed with regard to how NCCs can impact the growth of ABA, possible behavioral functions, possible alternatives to their use, and directions for future research.

On Power and Freedom: Extending the Definition of Coercion

Defining coercion has been a topic of interest to behavior analysts from time to time. Given the more and more subtle influence strategies that technology has enabled, it is time to revisit these definitions. This article examines the definitions of power, freedom, and coercion in behavior analysis, comparing them to philosophical views of power, freedom, and coercion. Two extensions to the definition of coercion are suggested. First, definitions could include as coercive the removal of resources needed to generate the responses required to obtain reinforcement, or in some cases, the neglect to provide these resources. Second, choice architecture systems that are not transparent to the individuals being influenced and for which their consent has not been provided could be considered to be coercive. Implications of these extensions are discussed, including the need to examine behavior management methods for interactions considered to be coercive under the new definitions.

Behavioral Skills Training to Increase Appropriate Reactions of Adolescent Males in Residential Treatment

Adolescents in secured residential facilities may engage in excess behavior immediately following verbal directives or corrective statements from staff. Excess behavior may include verbal aggression, indices of disrespect (e.g., eye rolling, grunting, and obscene gestures), or even physical aggression. These excess behaviors may evoke further directives or corrective statements from staff that, in turn, escalate the adolescent’s excess behavior and can produce undesirable effects for both the adolescent (e.g., loss of privileges) and staff members (e.g., increased burn out). Teaching detained adolescents to respond appropriately to staff directives and corrective statements may produce large collateral changes in the way staff interact with adolescents in detention facilities. These changes could be conceptualized as a behavioral cusp. We used behavioral skills training to teach 11 adolescent males to respond appropriately to staff directives. All 11 students showed low percentages of trials with appropriate reactions in baseline and high percentages of trials with appropriate reactions during treatment and generalization sessions. Further, two students showed maintenance of the skill 1 month and 5 months following treatment.

Best Practices in Utilizing the Changing Criterion Design

The changing criterion design (CCD) has been a recognized format of single-case research for four decades. Published examples of the CCD have been limited and the structure of the design used in the literature has varied to a degree that might engender confusion. This review examines the structure of CCD studies published to date to identify prior implementation practices and identify best practices for future use.