Newsletter
Volume 30 | 2007 | Number 2
Investing in a Stable Future for Behavior Analysis
By Dr. Thomas S. Critchfield, SABA President
Thomas S. Critchfield
My 27 years in behavior analysis have taught me three things of which I am certain. First, there is a remarkable wealth of human capital in our field. Many well-trained professionals not only do wonderful work each day but also extend themselves to pass their wisdom along to newcomers in the field. Second, for these individuals to have a positive impact, they need the support of institutions that value their expertise. To advance the field, people need jobs and other resources that allow them to use and pass on their skills. Even B. F. Skinner depended on such things as high profile academic positions, federal research funding, and supportive publishing houses to make his seminal contributions.
The third insight is the depressing one: Systems that support behavior analytic work tend to be transitory. For example, academic programs that hire and train behavior analysts come and go. Many readers will remember the prominent program ("Fort Skinner in the Desert") that once existed at Arizona State University. Those who don't should consider that, in recent years, important doctoral programs at both University of Kansas and Western Michigan University have faced threats of closure. Although the outcomes were good in these two cases (the programs are thriving) the critical point is that, given the vagaries of university systems, threats to our training programs can arise at any time.
Human services agencies are similarly fragile. Readers of my generation, for instance, remember an outfit called New Medico which, over a period of a few years, aggressively hired many prominent applied behavior analysts, then softened in its commitment to a behavior analytic approach, then dropped out of sight altogether.
Indeed, just about any resource on which behavior analysts depend -- government research funding, state-regulated third-party pay for therapeutic services, and so forth -- is imbedded in dynamic contingencies that are sure to change over time. The one certainty, it would seem, is that nothing is certain where the long-term nurturance of behavior analysis is concerned.
SABA's Role
A happy exception to this rule is the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis, a nonprofit foundation that was established to promote progress in our field. SABA supports many initiatives (see http://www.abainternational.org/saba/) but its most salient mission is to create programs that will keep giving to the field for the foreseeable future. In particular, SABA builds and manages endowments that address specific needs in the field. Two current endowments support the Experimental Fellowship and the Sidney and Janet Bijou Fellowship, which annually fund the research of promising graduate students. A third supports an annual International Development Grant to help behavior analysts develop professional infrastructure in places where the field is still gaining a toe-hold. The most recent recipients of these fellowships are:
- Experimental Fellowship: Yukiko Washio, University of Reno, Nevada.
- Bijou Fellowship: Sarah Bloom, University of Florida, and Melanie Bachmeyer, University of Iowa.
- International Development Grant: Javier Virues-Ortega, Instito de Salud Carlos III and Universidad de Granada.
In the present context, these awards are good news -- they can continue indefinitely -- because each is sustained by the interest on wisely-invested seed funds that have been provided by many generous donors from the field of behavior analysis. The bad news, of course, is that although funds are easy to disburse, they are hard to accumulate. The three existing SABA endowments took years to build and currently address the field's many needs in only a very small way. But they are evidence that, when behavior analysts take the long view, it is possible to create support systems that are relatively impervious to the dynamic contingencies that otherwise pervade our professional lives.
SABA Giving in Context
SABA's financial advisors tell us that at least $100,000 of capital is needed to support a modest annual award (larger endowments, of course, yield more annual income). A rare few of us have the means to single-handedly establish an endowment. This can be accomplished my making direct donations (tax-deductible!), or, as several people have done recently, by making SABA a beneficiary of a will.
Those of us with modest means can make a difference as well. Two of the three existing SABA endowments were cobbled together mainly through small gifts. Thus, through regular small donations, even a single individual can have a substantial impact over time. I offer the following as a concrete example.
In close to two decades as a faculty member, I have spent in the neighborhood of about $20,000 of my own money buying laboratory equipment and paying subjects. I shudder to think how much more I have paid to attend conferences that were not subsidized by employer. Although this "investment" has yielded rewards, both tangible (e.g., publications, learning experiences for students) and intangible (I've been able to engage my curiosity about behavior), it is reasonable to ask what long-term benefits to my field I have created. A cynic might point out that equipment becomes obsolete and is discarded; that most publications are forgotten (if they are ever read!); and that many students do not pursue long-term interests in the field....
During the same interval, had I and four others invested $20,000 (about $1,000 per year) with SABA, there would now exist a fourth SABA endowment capable of reaping benefits for behavior analysis in perpetuity. I'm not suggesting, of course, that anyone give up all of the short-term pleasures that come from spending money on one's behavior analytic "hobby." A fourth endowment could have been created just as easily had I and 19 others each provided only $5,000 (that's $250 per year, or less than I spend collectively on things that create no lasting impact: books I don't get around to reading, an extra drink or two at convention dinners, a slightly nicer hotel room than I really need, and so forth).
Or to make my point blatantly explicit, a new SABA endowment could be built if only 50 people -- 1% of ABA membership -- each provided just $20 per year over a 20-year period. I am guessing that most behavior analysts, even impoverished students, would not miss $20 (as other charitable organizations like to point out, that's only 5 cents a day!). I am sure, however, that every behavior analyst would applaud the existence of a fund that facilitates good behavior-analytic work and does so regardless of how the winds are blowing in universities, in the National Institutes of Health, or in the state politics that regulate third-party pay-for-services arrangements.
A "Tragedy of the Commons"
One of my major career regrets is that I have missed two decades worth of opportunities to think about the future of my field. There are now over 5,000 ABA members, and collectively we have the capacity to build a stable future for behavior analysis. To do this, we must not only good work every day, but also occasionally step out of the stream of everyday contingencies and build mechanisms, like the SABA endowments, that can sustain the test of time. The preceding examples suggest that, if each of us did a small part, much could be accomplished.
The flaw in this reasoning will be apparent to anyone who recalls an introductory psychology course: SABA giving benefits the group (our field as a whole), while spending on personal needs and wants benefits each of us individually. Lots of research shows that individual choices are biased toward the latter (this is the well-known "tragedy of the commons"). Additional evidence indicates that we are built to prefer immediate reinforcers over delayed ones (temporal discounting), and the benefits to the field of SABA endowments accrue only over time.
Fortunately, research also shows a way out. One way to promote choice-making in support of delayed and collective benefits is to act when immediate individual benefits are not imminent. In other words, the time to ponder SABA giving is not when the server at the convention hotel bar is waving a $10 beer in front of you. If you are reading this essay, then this must be a fairly quiet moment, because nobody defers critical commitments to read The ABA Newsletter. You're probably not at a hotel bar or in the process of purchasing equipment for your lab. That makes this a perfect time to figure out how you can support a stable future for behavior analysis, in whatever way your means will allow.
For information on SABA programs and funds, and on how you can make your donations count for the long run, go to: http://www.abainternational.org/saba/ donations.asp
2007 SABA Awardees
Distinguished Service to Behavior Analysis:
Dr. Teodoro Ayllon
International Dissemination of Behavior Analysis:
Dr. Eitan Eldar
Public Service in Behavior Analysis:
Dr. Henry Pennypacker
Impact of Science on Application:
Dr. Steven Hayes
Enduring Programmatic Contributions to Behavior Analysis:
The May Institute
Award for Contributions to Behavior Analysis: 4 Prof. Gerald Mertens
Past SABA Awardees
Distinguished Service to Behavior Analysis: Dr. James Dinsmoor, posthumously, (2006), Dr. Jon Bailey (2005), Dr. Beth Sulzer-Azaroff (2004), Dr. Victor Laties (2003), Dr. Jack Michael (2002), Dr. Murray Sidman (2001), Dr. Sidney Bijou (2000), Dr. Ogden Lindsley (1999), Dr. Montrose Wolf (1998), and Dr. Donald Baer (1997). Winners under the ABA Award Committee: Dr. Joseph Brady (1996), Dr. Victor Laties, and Dr. Philip Hineline (1994).
International Dissemination of Behavior Analysis: Dr. Joseph Morrow (2006), Dr. R. Douglas Greer (2005), Dr. Michael Davison (2004), Dr. Maria Malott (2003), Dr. Paolo Moderato (2002), Dr. Carolina Bori (2001), Dr. Liliana Mayo (2000), Comunidad los Horcones (1999), Dr. Emilio Ribes-Inesta (1998), and Dr. Masayo Sato (1997). Winner under the ABA Award Committee: Dr. Murray Sidman (1996).
Public Service in Behavior Analysis: Dr. Robert Horner (2006), Dr. Robert Mager (2005), Mr. Michael Hemingway (2004), Dr. Douglas Carnine (2003), Dr. Richard Malott (2002), Dr. Kent Johnson (2001), Dr. Charles Schuster (2000), Dr. Gerald Shook (1999), and Dr. Aubrey Daniels (1997). Previous winners under the ABA Award Committee: Dr. Brian Iwata (1996), Dr. Gina Green (1995), and Dr. John Jacobson (1994).
Impact of Science of Application: Dr. Nathan Azrin (2006), Dr. Howard Rachlin (2005), and Dr. Tony Nevin (2004).
Enduring Programmatic Contributions to Behavior Analysis: Behavior Analysis and Therapy Program of Southern Illinois University (2006), The New England Center for Children (2005), West Virginia University (2004), Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (2003), University of Florida (2002), Eunice Kennedy Shriver’s Behavior Technology Group (2001), University of Kansas (2000), Princeton Child Development Institute (1999), and the Department of Psychology at Western Michigan University (1998).
Effective Presentation of Behavior Analysis in the Mass Media: Dr. James M. Kauffman (2006), Dr. Ivar Lovaas (2004), Dr. Richard Foxx (2003), John Palfreman (2002), Dr. Roger McIntire (2001), Dr. James Partington (2000), Dr. Scott Geller (1998), and Karen Pryor (1997). Winners when the Association for Behavior Analysis InternationalAwards Committee offered the awards were: Catherine Maurice (1996), Dr. Gary Wilkes (1995), and Dr. Paul Chance (1994).