A Proposal for Training ABA Practitioners in Ethical Deliberation

The practice of applied behavior analysis (ABA) can involve situations which cause moral tension for the practitioner. As professionals in the health and human service sectors, ABA practitioners (such as behavior analysts) must develop sophisticated repertoires to successfully connect complex concepts such as ethics with contextual and circumstantial phenomena in their daily practice. In this chapter, we discuss the process of ethical deliberation and some of the key principles that come into play and argue for the importance of developing skills in reflective practice. Ultimately, we propose using Rhodes and Alfandre’s eight-step process, in the context of the Behavioral Skills Training model, and informed by the principles of reflective practice, to encourage a structured approach to training ABA practitioners in ethical deliberation. A composite case study is used to illustrate a common situation that may create moral tension for the ABA practitioner and to model the application of a decision protocol to a specific case. Although the case study is specific to ABA practice with autistic children and youth, this approach can be used in any clinical context where professional behavior analysts collaborate to provide services to others.