Newsletter
Volume 29 | 2006 | Number 3
Trends in Social Issues
By Dr. Mark Mattaini
Essentially all of the major social issues with which humans are currently grappling—global warming and environmental degradation, individual and collective violence, the full range of human rights abuses, even poverty—are the direct results of human behavior and cultural practices. The daily news can be so aversive that many simply avoid it; seemingly endless regional conflicts, school shootings and failing schools, child predators in positions of leadership and trust, and lack of governmental and corporate integrity are difficult to continue to attend to as they seem to be more and more embedded into societies. But a concern for such issues, and the hope that they could be addressed, brought many behavior analysts into the field. Applied behavior analysis originated with a concern for "issues of social importance." Skinner wrote and thought for at least the last five decades of his life about "acting to save the world," and why we were not doing so when the basic knowledge required was available, or could be elaborated given what was known, and many found that work inspiring.
And yet, not only are few behavior analysts working primarily in these areas, but of those who are, many have largely left the behavior analytic community, usually for prevention science and community psychology. If behavior analysis has something unique and powerful to contribute to addressing or resolving major human problems, as many of us continue to believe, why do those with such interests so often experience themselves as marginalized from the discipline? Many no longer attend the ABA conventions, finding little there to interest or challenge them, and publish primarily outside of the behavior analytic literature. It has been particularly difficult to "hold" people of color, women, and LGBTQ individuals with social concerns, who often report that they find other professional and scientific communities more committed to their interests, and more willing to listen to their concerns.
Despite recent advances discussed later, the overall proportion of behavior analytic science dedicated to social issues remains almost vanishingly small. Few financial resources have emerged to advance this work; behavior analytic scholars working in the area often do not identify themselves primarily as behavior analysts; and students with strong interests in major social problems commonly move on to better-funded work in behavior analysis (like autism), to other disciplines where a critical mass of well-funded and active researchers is easier to find, or in some cases to activist communities.
There are other challenges as well. Centrally, active intervention in most areas of social concern requires work at the cultural level. It is unlikely that effective strategies for addressing major social issues can be developed without a well-developed cultural analytic science. If behavior analysis is marginalized in academia, as many have bemoaned for some time, cultural analysis has until very recently been largely unknown. Single-system research does not meet most definitions of evidence-based or empirically supported interventions; this is particularly true at the cultural level, where it is, nonetheless, crucial. Conceptual analyses and interpretive work, although valued in behavior analysis and clearly important in cultural analysis, are much less honored outside the discipline.
In addition, of course, most social issues are very difficult to engage in natural contexts (into which we are seldom invited), and are almost impossible to bring into the laboratory except in the case of certain analogue studies. Nearly everyone in modern society manifests their own explicit or implicit theories of human behavior and collective action; most of those are not consistent with behavior science, making marketing much more challenging. And it is profoundly hard to have a meaningful impact on many social issues, given the limited resources available (and often even when there are considerable resources present).
But there are also some hopeful trends. There has been something of a resurgence of interest in social issues in the behavior analytic community in the past five years, much of it international in scope. There are a number of behavior analysts working in several important areas, including violence prevention and the environment, and much of this work is translational in nature—grounded in well-researched basic behavior science (for example, the matching law, or behavioral momentum). Developing a community of scholar/activists appears more possible now than at any other time in the past two decades. One of the major reasons behind this is the international interest in the analysis of cultural practices, an emerging and challenging subdiscipline with the potential to increase work in complex areas.
Much of this work is being published in the journal Behavior and Social Issues (BSI), published by Behaviorists for Social Responsibility. Now with on-line open access available worldwide, BSI is accessed on the Web thousands of times each month (www.behaviorandsocialissues.org). Recent issues of the journal have addressed domestic violence, terrorism, the environmental impact of consumer behavior, substance use, rehabilitation of prisoners, the science of nonviolence, human rights, child labor, racial discrimination, gambling, and HIV/AIDS, to name only a few. In addition, the journal has recently published two issues focused primarily on advancing the basic science of cultural analysis, as well as a number of important methodological advances for applied work.
But there is much more to be done; unrelenting suffering is all around, and human rights violations are ubiquitous. In a world characterized by ever-expanding globalization, the lives of the privileged are increasingly and intimately connected with those whose lives are limited by our own excesses. So, where to start? I have elsewhere suggested five strategic priorities for behavior scientists interested in acting in solidarity with those most at risk (Mattaini, 2006). The heart of these priorities is that every behavior analyst can contribute in some way to human rights and social justice, whether it be through pursuing courageous scholarship in these areas at least part of the time; advocating that scientific organizations consider their ethical responsibilities in these areas; contributing professional expertise to local, national, or international service efforts; assisting students in finding ways to pursue their serious concerns; or any of numerous other possible options. While the rate of behavior analytic behavior in these areas currently appears to be accelerating, it remains very modest. Seeing the potential for our science to address major social issues in meaningful ways, our personal and collective responsibilities seem clear.
References
Mattaini, M. A. (2006). Editorial: Human rights, pragmatic solidarity, and behavior science. Behavior and Social Issues, 15, 1-4.