Newsletter
Volume 30 | 2007 | Number 2
Announcing the Formation of the Special Interest Group ‘Dissemination of Behavior Analysis’!
By Josh Pritchard
Hello! I’m Josh Pritchard, and I want to introduce you to the love of my life – behavior analysis!
Each day, I wake up in the morning, roll out of bed and into the bathroom to brush my teeth and floss. After flossing, I place a data point on my Year at a Glance graph. Because of this intervention, I went from occasionally flossing my teeth (every 1-2 weeks) to every single day for 8 weeks! I admit, since the 8 weeks straight, I broke my streak, and am starting again. But what intervention is perfect?
After this, I check the discussion board of the online BACB course-sequence that I’m co-instructing, anxious to see what new and exciting questions the students have. My heartbeat quickens if I see a “new” indicator next to a thread, as it often indicates a chance to answer a question—and potentially learn something new! Interacting with people that are equally excited about behavior analysis really gets my engines revving!
All throughout the day, I’m constantly thinking of behavior analysis, how it could be used to help society, how it may help me with my own individual problems, and of course when on the job, how it is being applied to help my clients.
I know – I’m a geek. Most of my friends are wary of catching me in a “Super-Behavioral” mood because all that leaves my lips has to do with behavior, behaviorism, or some closely-related tangent of this subject. I can’t help it, from the moment I set my eyes upon the seven dimensions of applied behavior analysis – I was had.
This is awesome for me– but I realized (quite suddenly) at the Atlanta 2006 conference that we are doing a TERRIBLE job of telling everyone else about behavior analysis. I mean, my friends are pretty familiar with it now – in fact, some replace “familiar with” to “sick of” when describing my (obsession) discussion of behavior analysis; but as a whole, we have simply under (or not at all) marketed the science to the world, thus robbing it of the recognition it deserves.
In Atlanta, at ABA 2006, I spoke with Hank Schlinger (his presentation: Behavior Analysis: All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go inspired me to action) about how I can get involved. I left Atlanta determined to make a difference. I searched the internet looking for ways to do this, and then my job began to push back into the top slot of my life. Unfortunately, none but a cursory amount of action occurred. However, I did continue to think about how to better get the “good word” out.
This year at ABA, there weren’t as many presentations that popped out to me regarding how/why we should get behavior analysis out there and publicize. I may have just missed them, but it left me worried that the momentum was already receding. This thought seemed to be the catalyst to the creation of this SIG.
What is the goal of this group? It's simple - disseminate accurate information about behavior analysis to the public at large. The complexities begin when we ask how?! That is the exact reason participation by you in this SIG will be of utmost importance. I have come up with a lot of ideas that I think will work, but sometimes when I mention them to others, I don’t get the feeling they agree. Imagine, however, when we have a large body of the brightest people bouncing ideas back and forth with their energy and actions devoted to getting the message of the potential of behavior analysis out! I’m getting goose-bumps just thinking about it!
I envision part of the actions may be in combating misrepresentations similar to what BALANCE did a few years ago. Imagine if each time ABA was errantly represented in a newspaper, we had someone willing to drop a line to the editor and provide an editorial piece regarding the accuracy of info in the column. I’d love to have a group of expert volunteers willing to be contacted with articles and if time permits – draft a short response, or provide guidance for others to respond to the newspaper. This will get our science mentioned throughout the papers, and will also shed positive light on the field! For example, if a newspaper mentioned behavior analysis and perhaps off-handedly discussed the robotic results, or stifling of creativity in learners, we could have a group of people who have done research on “creativity” and could either draft something or point us to appropriate literature to cite.
I hope that you love behavior analysis. I hope this article inspires you to get involved with the newly forming Special Interest Group dedicated to sharing our love with those that have no idea of the potential benefit our science can provide. I hope that you stop reading, and mosey over to http://www.aboutbehavior.com and sign up as a supporter and to our list-serv.
This is a call to action – will YOU answer?