Unit 9 Replies for Program Design and Evalution

I’m trying to study for my Psychology course and I need some help to understand this question.

Peer Responses:

Review two of your classmates’ posts to assess the following:

• Critique your peer’s discussion of ethical concerns in organizations. Include any additional considerations that he/she may have missed.
• Add to each classmate’s discussion on the importance of ethics by including your thoughts on the role of ethics in organizations.

Peer 1:

• In your own words, what are ethics?

Ethics to me is a system on moral standards or guidelines, it allows us to have a safe practice guidelines and limitation that professionals should adhere to. For a behavioral analysis they need to follow a set of ethical standards while working with clients, and other employees.

• What are specific ethical concerns that apply to behavior analysis in organizations?

BACB Ethical Compliance Code 1.05b points out the importance language used when speaking with clients (Behavior Analyst Certification Board Inc., 2014) This is one of my favorites. When you go into a doctor’s office, they use terms that I can never understand. So, as BA’s you need to use language that is easily understood by others. Getting on the same level as the clients and using words that they are able to understand. Another way you can use this if you have a client who doesn’t speak the language you speak you can get a translator that will allow the open of communication to be there.

• Select one of the interventions or research designs you discussed during the term. Identify one of the specific codes from the BACB compliance code and describe how it applies to the intervention.

Something that I have talked about is sitting down with employees and have meetings monthly. Making sure we are talking about what has happen over the month, and what we need from the employees and what they would need from us.

• Discuss the importance of ethics in creating and analyzing effective behavior analytic programs.

Having a Code of Ethics helps BACB adhere to the standard that has been set. Behavior modifiers themselves were no more than average people who took a behavior management seminar for a day and received a certificate saying they now know how to modify behavior, which in today’s world seems highly ludicrous! (Bailey & Burch, 2016) Most of the ethical codes seem to be common sense, but sometimes people do not have common sense. Making sure people are informed in what the company expects from the code.

References:

Bailey, J., Burch, M., (2016) Ethics for Behavior Analysts, 3rd Edition. New York, NY. Routledge,

Peer 2:

Hello,

Ethics are a system of moral standards set by a given social construct that determine how we govern our relationships with those around us, whether it be personal or professional. It lays the foundation of how we ought to conduct our lives, providing that there is consequences for whether or not ethics are followed. Several organizations have their own code of ethics, so in the social construct of that company, they have their own standard of practice that other companies may not embrace. So it’s interesting, because what is ethical to some may not be ethical to others.

Specific ethical concerns that apply to behavior analysis in organizations would be hiring a behavior analyst who is attempting to provide services outside the scope of their expertise; an example would be hiring a behavior analyst to help develop a behavior intervention plan to increase employee performance and job-related effort, but the behavior analyst specializes in dealing with children with autism, this would be outside the scope of her expertise. Another ethical concern in regards to behavior analysis in organizations is employers who hire a behavior analyst to “secretly” change behavior without the employees knowing.

One research design I’ve discussed during this term is the ABA design, which is also known as the reversal design, and what this design means is that baseline data is collected (A), then treatment or intervention data is collected (B), then treatment is terminated and baseline data is collected once more (A). The purpose of this type of design is to determine if there is a relationship between the target behavior and the intervention, to be able to empirically claim that this intervention is indeed effective. BACB compliance code 3.0 talks about assessing behavior (Bailey & Burch, 2016), and this covers important ethical guidelines such as outlining the importance of conducting a behavior analytic assessment, the importance of making a medical consultation if the target behavior is suspected to be influenced by other biological variables (Bailey & Burch, 2016), seeking consent prior to conducting an assessment, as well as the duty to explain the results to the client (Bailey & Burch, 2016). It is also important to note that throughout this process, it is necessary to explain everything in a non-scientific way to ensure the client and their families understand completely the entire process from start to finish.

Having a Code of Ethics helps behavior analysts adhere to a certain standard of practice when creating and analyzing effective behavior analytic programs. Before there was any such guidelines laid out, “behavior modifiers” were providing behavior modification services that were bordering on abuse, more so than actual treatments (Bailey & Burch, 2016). Behavior modifiers themselves were no more than average people who took a behavior management seminar for a day and received a certificate saying they now know how to modify behavior, which in today’s world seems highly ludicrous! (Bailey & Burch, 2016) Seeing how far we’ve come, it’s easy to understand which such a code must exist. Much of ethics seems like common knowledge, but as I expressed at the beginning, ethics are determined by a given social construct to outline how we ought to govern our actions. This applies to behavior analysts in that it is their duty to uphold integrity, equality, justice and truth for all of their clients and parties involved.

-Esther

References:

Bailey, J., Burch, M., (2016) Ethics for Behavior Analysts, 3rd Edition. New York, NY. Routledge,