Concern for others has been part of ABA since its inception. It is captured through the construct of social validity embedded within the applied and effective dimensions of ABA (Baer et al., 1968; Wolf, 1978). Our field has been designed to address problems of social significance and to produce change that is socially significant. This historical focus on concern for others is perhaps why there might be some resistance to the recent call for compassionate care in ABA, as some behavior analysts view it as already a core value within our practice. After all, compassionate care centers on showing concern for others and acting to alleviate their suffering (Taylor et al., 2019). In this paper, we argue that despite the historical call for social validity, the practice of our science has not always made the subjective experience and the cultural perception of our procedures a central focus in the assessment and treatment of problem behavior. There seems to be continued reliance on procedures that (a) elicit negative emotional responding, (b) produce bursts of dangerous behavior, (c) are highly intrusive, (d) lack methods to obtain and allow for the withdrawal of assent, and (e) are not guided by client preference. We discuss the meaning of compassion in the assessment and treatment of problem behavior and provide recommendations for how to move toward greater compassion in our procedures, their implementation, and our organizational cultures.
