Inside Behavior Analysis
Volume 1 | 2009 | Number 2 | On-line ISSN: 2151-4704
Edward G. "Ted" Carr: A Life of Quality
By Glen Dunlap
Since the untimely and tragic death of Ted Carr, on June 20th of 2009, there has been an outpouring of eulogies, tributes, memorial statements, and expressions of admiration and gratitude. These are the times when we wish that Ted was still here with us so that he could fully appreciate the enormous esteem he earned in his productive and generous life. His contributions to behavior analysis, positive behavior support, and the well being of people affected by autism and other disabilities will not be forgotten.
Ted and his wife, Dr. Ilene Wasserman, were killed in a car accident not far from their house on Long Island when an intoxicated driver veered across lanes directly into their car. This incident took Ted from the peak of his career, the embrace of his family (including his son, Aaron), and his colleagues at SUNY-Stony Brook and across the country. Ted's passing leaves an emptiness, but it offers an opportunity to reflect on what Ted’s colleague and former student Mark Durand refers to as a "life worth living."
Ted contributed as much or more than any other scholar to a behavioral conceptualization and a behavioral technology of problem behavior. In 1977, Ted published a paper in Psychological Bulletin that outlined a functional nosology of self-injury. Ted’s categorization, in effect, foreshadowed, defined, and impelled a conceptual paradigm shift in our approach to problem behavior. Rather than simply viewing problem behaviors as excesses to be reduced (largely through contingency management), behavior analysts began the quest for technologies to understand the motivations of problem behavior (functional analysis and functional assessment) and to design interventions that were based on that understanding (assessment and function-based treatments). Essentially all behavioral research and treatment over the past three decades has followed this theoretical model.
Among the interventions that emerged in the paradigmatic transformation was functional communication training (FCT) (Carr & Durand, 1985; Carr et al., 1994), which came to be perhaps the most influential and most frequently-replicated of the function-based treatment strategies. FCT was special in that it depended on the behavioral notion of functional equivalence (Carr, 1988) and, through carefully programmed instruction, produced improvements in adaptive responding (communication) while incidentally and indirectly reducing problem behavior. Ted’s research on FCT, as well as his many subsequent innovations, was characterized by three attributes: (1) conceptual elegance, clarity, and sophistication; (2) methodological rigor; and (3) outcomes that represented a meaningful change in the quality of life of his research participants.
In the most recent years of Ted’s career, his commitment to rigorous science was increasingly matched by a commitment to improvements in the quality of life experienced by children and adults with disabilities and their families. In his work as a behavior analyst, an autism advocate, and a leader in positive behavior support, Ted energetically sought to elevate the field’s understanding and respect for people with developmental and behavioral difficulties, and to devise comprehensive supports that would enhance their lifestyle productivity and satisfaction (Carr, 2007; Dunlap, Carr, Horner, Zarcone, & Schwartz, 2008).
Ted Carr was a superb researcher, a stellar contributor to the science of behavior, an activist, an engaging and entertaining presenter, a husband and father, and an unparalleled colleague and friend. We miss him and remember him with deep appreciation.
Photo of Edward G. Carr appears courtesy of the Autism Society of America.
References
Carr, E. G. (1977). The motivation of self-injurious behavior: A review of some hypotheses. Psychological Bulletin, 84, 800-816.
Carr, E. G. (1988). Functional equivalence as a mechanism of response generalization. In R. H. Horner, G. Dunlap, & R. L. Koegel (Eds.), Generalization and maintenance: Lifestyle changes in applied settings (pp. 194-219). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.
Carr, E. G. (2007). The expanding vision of positive behavior support: Research perspectives on happiness, helpfulness, hopefulness. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 9, 3-14.
Carr, E. G., & Durand, V. M. (1985). Reducing behavior problems through functional communication training. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 18, 111-126.
Carr, E. G., Levin, L., McConnachie, G., Carlson, J. I., Kemp, D. C., & Smith, C. E. (1994). Communication-based intervention for problem behavior. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.
Dunlap, G., Carr, E.G., Horner, R.H., Zarcone, J., & Schwartz, I. (2008). Positive behavior support and applied behavior analysis: A familial alliance. Behavior Modification, 32, 682-698.