• Behaviors, Practices, and Decisions that address three fundamental questions that guide how  you conduct yourself to help others improve their physical, social, psychological, familial, or personal condition. 

3 Fundamental Questions of Ethical Practice

1. What is the right thing to do?
2. What is worth doing?
3. What does it mean to be a good behavior analyst?

3 Fundamental Questions of Ethical Practice

1. What is the right thing to do?
2. What is worth doing?
3. What does it mean to be a good behavior analyst?

1. What is The Right Thing To Do?

• Considerations related to Cultural Practices. What may be acceptable in one culture is not in another.
• Differences across time. What may be acceptable 20 years ago is not today.

3 Fundamental Questions of Ethical Practice

1. What is the right thing to do?
   
   • Things To Guide The Decision Making Process

1. Professional Training and Experience:
   • Training should influence methods used
   • Decision to use Method A or Method B should be based on clinical training, not personal history.
   • Training as a behavior analyst should always override personal history.
2. Personal History: Individual culture, religious or social background
   • Should not influence clinical decisions
   • Recognize that personal history may lead to inappropriate solutions (e.g., someone raised believing "spare the rod, spoil the child" may be too harsh with children.
   • If personal history is impacting decision making→ get help from supervisors, colleagues, and research.
3. The Context of Practice: Where you practice and nature of the job.
   • Determines what is Legal vs. Illegal, and Ethical vs. Unethical

3 Fundamental Questions of Ethical Practice

1. What is the right thing to do?
2. What is worth doing?
3. What does it mean to be a good behavior analyst?

2. What is Worth Doing? 

• Addresses the goals and objectives or practice and forces B.A.s to ask ...:
  • What are we trying to accomplish
  • How are we trying to accomplish it
  • Is the objective socially valid
  • What is the Risk:Benefit ratio

3 Fundamental Questions of Ethical Practice

1. What is the right thing to do?
2. What is worth doing?
3. What does it mean to be a good behavior analyst?

• Social Validity:
  • When results show meaningful, significant, and sustainable change
  • When goals, procedures, and results of an intervention are socially acceptable to client, B.A. and society
  • Not every skill has social validity

1. Social Comparison: Comparison of the client exposed to intervention with an equivalent or 'typically developing' group.
   • Limitation: Normative data may not be relevant for client's functioning.
2. Subjective Evaluation of Experts: Evaluation of client's performance by experts who are very familiar with the client.
   • Limitation: May not tell us about success of intervention.

3 Fundamental Questions of Ethical Practice

1. What is the right thing to do?
2. What is worth doing?
3. What does it mean to be a good behavior analyst?

3. What Does it Mean to Be a Good Behavior Analyst?

• Following professional codes of conduct.
• Keeping client's welfare in ideas.

• A good practitioner is self-regulating
  • Seeks ways to calibrate decisions over time to ensure that values, contingencies, and rights and responsibilities are integrated and an informed combination of these is considered. 

1. Meaningful Change: 
   • To produce MEANINGFUL behavior CHANGE of social significance to the client/.
   • Increases the likelihood of appropriate services being rendered to individuals.
2. Harm: 
   • To reduce / eliminate HARM.
3. Standards:
   • To conform to the ethical STANDARDS of learned societies and professional organizations.

5 Documents Describe Standards of

Professional Conduct and Ethical Practice for ABA

1. Task List
2. Code
3. Education
4. Psychologists
5. Behavioral Treatment

5 Documents Describe Standards of 

Professional Conduct and Ethical Practice for ABA

1. Task List
2. Code
3. Education
4. Psychologists
5. Behavioral Treatment

1. Task List: 

• Describes knowledge, skills, and attributes expected of a behaviorist
• Numerous tasks across 3 main sections

5 Documents Describe Standards of 

Professional Conduct and Ethical Practice for ABA

1. Task List
2. Code
3. Education
4. Psychologists
5. Behavioral Treatment

2. Professional and Ethical Compliance CODE for Behavior Analysts:

• 10 Sections: These are relevant to professional and ethical behavior of B.A.s

5 Documents Describe Standards of 

Professional Conduct and Ethical Practice for ABA

1. Task List
2. Code
3. Education
4. Psychologists
5. Behavioral Treatment

3. The Right to Effective Education: (Barrett et al. 1991) Page 305 in PTB ABA Exam Manual

• Association for Behavior Analysis ABA requires that assessment and educational interventions:
  • Are based on research demonstrating effectiveness
  • Address functional relations between behavior and environment
  • Are monitored and evaluated on a systematic and ongoing basis
  • Only be considered when they are likely to be effective, based on evidence and assessment results.

5 Documents Describe Standards of 

Professional Conduct and Ethical Practice for ABA

1. Task List
2. Code
3. Education
4. Psychologists
5. Behavioral Treatment

4. Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct: 

• 5 General Ethical Principles:
  1. Beneficence (Doing good) & Non-maleficence (Do no harm)
  2. Fidelity & Responsibility
  3. Integrity
  4. Justice
  5. Respect for Peoples Rights and Dignity

5 Documents Describe Standards of 

Professional Conduct and Ethical Practice for ABA

1. Task List
2. Code
3. Education
4. Psychologists
5. Behavioral Treatment

5. The Right to Effective Behavioral Treatment:

• Entails the rights of people receiving ABA services and how we can make sure clients are served appropriately.

• 6 Basic Client Rights:
  1. Therapeutic environment
  2. Most effective interventions available
  3. Treatment by competent behaviorist
  4. Ongoing evaluation and assessment
  5. Teach functional skills
  6. Goal is personal welfare

Surrogate vs. Guardian Consent:

What's the Difference

• Surrogate:
  
  • Court appointed person through LEGAL process
  • Usually a family member or close friend of the client
  • Will usually talk to the client about wants / needs, manage affairs and personal appointments

• Guardian:
  • Court appointed person through LEGAL process
  • Usually NOT a family member or close friend of the client → objective NEUTRAL person
  • Usually assigned when there are problems (e.g., refusing medical treatment) 
  • Makes informed decision not based on personal interest
  • Helps protect client from being forced into unnecessary medical treatment or personal expectations from family members

WYATT V. STICKNEY

(1972)

• Protects client's rights to food, privacy and basic activities, these basic rights DO NOT NEED TO BE EARNED.

• Ruling in Alabama that led to 2 provisions:
  1. The institution in question is required to significantly improve the standards of care
  2. A national standard for minimally adequate care for patients in mental institutions

HANCOCK V. AVERY

(1969)

• Protects a client by LIMITING the DURATION of and PLACING CONDITIONS on the use of a TIME-OUT procedure. 

• A ruling in Tennessee:
  • Jail inmate sued over cruel and unusual punishment; specifically, overly long periods of time in solitary confinement.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

(IDEA)

• Gives children with disabilities a right to:
  • Free and appropriate education
  • Individualized education
  • Parents have rights (i.e., equal say in IEP, request due process if agreement not reached)

• Law ensuring services to children with disabilities throughout the nation. 
• Governs how states and public agencies  provide early intervention, special education.
• Infants and toddlers (and their families)  receive  early intervention under IDEA Part C
• Children and youth (3-21y.o.) receive special education and related services under IDEA Part B

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

HIPAA

• HIPAA is a FEDERAL LAW that restricts an entity's ability to disclose and/or protect health information.
• HIPAA Law requires tat al employees receive training in HIPAA policies and specific protocols, which may affect the work BAs do. 
  • This applied to anyone who looks at, uses, or shares Personal Health Information (PHI).

• Law that protects a person's PERSONAL HEALTH INFORMATION including medical records by 
  • Providing both electronic and physical security for a person's records
  • requiring a minimum necessary amount of use and disclosure
  • specifying a patient's rights to approve the access and use of his/her medical information

Favell and McGimsey

(1993)

• Acceptable characteristics of treatment environments: 
  • Engaging and humane environment
  • Functional skills: Observed evidence of training and progress
  • Behavior problems eliminated: Individualized definitions, not arbitrary labels and programs
  • Least restrictive
  • Stable: consistent and predictable; schedules, staff etc.
  • Safe: Adequate supervision, peer review, programs based on function
  • Client chooses environment; client choices are offered.