Newsletter
Volume 29 | 2006 | Number 2
ABA Colombia, 2005-2006: Meeting Settings and Proposals to Relevant Social Issues
By Wilson López López and Maria Constanza Aguilar
ABA Colombia, under the mission to develop behavior analysis and a scientific perspective of psychology, has been developing different activities to promote research, training, intervention, and scientific technology in all fields where behavior is implied; and creating the means and opportunities for general community members to exchange information, knowledge, and experiences.
In 2005, ABA Colombia continued developing the Web site www.abacolombia.org.co, which supports the B.F. Skinner course carried out by Blanca Patricia Ballesteros de Valderrama and Wilson López López at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. ABA Colombia’s Web site has become a successful meeting point with permanent resources for our members. The site has 5,265 registered members and from April 2005 until April 2006 received more than 157,571 visits. During the same time, internal Web sites received more than 600,000 visits.
In addition, ABA Colombia signed an agreement to edit the Childhood, Adolescence and Family Journal (http://www.revistaiaf.abacolombia.org.co) with the Colombian Governmental Agency for Childhood and Family (Colombian Institute of Family Wellbeing). This may be one of our most important academic contributions to the country, because this is a critical and relevant issue. Two first journal numbers will be published in 2006. We are currently seeking international financing to support the project for the long term.
In the journals field, we joined the Spanish Association of Behavioral Psychology in the continued editing of International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology (http://www.aepc.es/ijchp/index.php?coid=English), the top of Spanish psychological journal. During the end of last year, this journal was included in the ISI (Institute for Scientific Information), Social Sciences Citation Index, and Current Contents Social and Behavioral Sciences data bases.
Moreover, in the same year, ABA Colombia became one of the non governmental organizations for cooperative development supported by the City Council of Bogotá, the Colombian capital. This status will provide us active participation in projects and programs to contribute to solving social problems in Colombia. Our goals for this year include completing our work in the City Council project, becoming certified and opening new doors and benefits to our members.
Finally, ABA Colombia continued to provide a training program in response to members' requests. Based on these requests, we organized two workshops related to the following issues: 1) Organizational Psychologist like Compensations Manager, and 2) Labour Legislation, Occupational Health and Organizational Productivity.
In addition, ABA Colombia is sponsor of the following events:
- Latin American Congress of Psychology: May 16- 20, 2006; Veracruz, Mexico; http://www.uv.mx/facpsi/congreso
- Latin American Congress of Health Psychology: October 11-14, 2006; Paraguay; http://www.komportamiento.com/Congresos.htm
- Latin American Congress of Jurical Psychology: November 2006; Bogotá, Colombia; http://sparta.javeriana.edu.co/psicologia/congresos/juridica/
There is an increasing demand in Colombia for services in autism and learning disabilities; however, there are no Colombian institutions to subsidize the treatment of persons with autism without financial resources. Therefore, we appeal to the behavior analysts' community for economic and behavioural support in training and treatment processes related to autism and learning disabilities in Colombia.