Association for Behavior Analysis International

In this session, we will explore compassion within the framework of Goldiamond's (1974; Layng et al., 2022) constructional approach to behavior change. According to Scallan and Rosales-Ruiz (2023) and Abdel-Jalil, et al. (2023) compassion involves identifying suffering, showing empathy, and taking action to prevent or alleviate suffering. Goldiamond's constructional approach focuses on establishing behavioral repertoires rather than reducing undesired responses. This approach forms the basis for developing compassionate interventions. Practitioners can create compassionate learning environments by understanding the underlying functions of undesired behaviors, offering learners genuine choice, and providing ongoing opportunities for learners to express assent. During this session, we will examine practical examples with animal learners to illustrate how to identify and address superimposed contingencies, incorporate genuine choice effectively, and use devices to indicate assent clearly. Additionally, we will discuss how these strategies are employed to identify, prevent, and alleviate suffering, ultimately leading to compassionate behavior interventions. This session aims to equip practitioners with the tools and knowledge needed to implement compassionate behavior interventions that prioritize animal welfare and well-being. By embracing Goldiamond's constructional approach, we can move toward a more compassionate approach to behavior interventions.

BCBAs Practitioners Animal Trainers Instructors

Behavior-change practitioners are often hired to address a client’s unwanted behaviors. These behaviors can be distressing to caregivers but may also indicate the client’s suffering. In such cases, practitioners have an opportunity to respond with compassion. Practitioners may use various strategies to alleviate suffering, but their choices will affect the client’s experiences during and after services. This presentation will set the foundation for the symposium by introducing the critical features of compassion and examining them through the lens of the constructional and pathological approaches to behavior change (Goldiamond, 1974/2002). Next, we will show how the guiding questions of the constructional approach can support practitioners in delivering services to their learners, whether animal or human. Following the constructional approach enables practitioners to develop personalized programs that (1) align with the learner’s critical reinforcers, (2) find starting points that ensure early success, (3) guide learners through programs that promote confidence, and (4) help them access natural communities of reinforcement to sustain lasting change. While the constructional approach alleviates suffering, it also goes beyond compassion by fostering conditions that allow the learner to thrive.

Traditionally, practitioners have viewed coercion through the lens of aversive control. However, positive reinforcement can also be coercive when the animal has only one way to access desired outcomes. It is especially coercive when those outcomes are highly valued and withheld to potentiate their value. For a choice to be considered genuine, there must be a set of alternative contingencies that provide access to critical consequences (Abdel-Jalil, et al., 2023; Goldiamond, 1976; Linnehan, et. al., 2023). Animals must have more than the opportunity to walk away (and get nothing) from a training session (Heidenreich & Layng, 2024). They must also be able to access the same reinforcing outcomes when engaging in other behaviors. Genuine choice provides information about contingencies impacting behavior and an opportunity to mitigate undesired emotional behavior such as distress, anxiety, and frustration. This has been defined as a critical feature of compassion (Scallan & Rosales-Ruiz, 2023). This presentation will provide many examples of how to shape and maintain desired goal behaviors while reinforcing other behaviors, resulting in the same desired outcomes. This is also accomplished without limiting access to reinforcers. Practitioners can provide genuine choice and compassionate interventions by learning to incorporate increased degrees of freedom.

Practitioners often rely upon shaping alternative, desired behaviors in traditional approaches to addressing undesired animal behavior. This is frequently observed in interventions utilizing differential reinforcement procedures. This strategy can overlook the critical task of identifying the function of the disturbing behavior and the reinforcing consequences that maintain it. Essentially, practitioners often superimpose a new behavior, hoping it will overshadow the undesired behavior while failing to address the underlying maintaining consequences. This presentation will illuminate the concept of superimposition and its fallout when applying behavior interventions. Superimposition can result in undesired emotional behavior and the associated emotions, often labeled as fear, aggression, conflict, or anxiety. Practical examples will be provided that illustrate superimposition, followed by strategies to address undesired behaviors' underlying functions. This presentation will also compare systematic desensitization and negative reinforcement procedures to address fear responses. This knowledge is pivotal for practitioners seeking more effective, compassionate, and lasting solutions to behavior interventions emphasizing learner well-being.

Training for husbandry procedures is a fundamental responsibility for caretakers of animals in managed care. Husbandry behaviors are often defined as facilitating animals' day-to-day and medical care. This may include foundation behaviors such as targeting and stationing and more complex behaviors such as injection training. As practitioners move towards more compassionate care for learners, they strive to offer them genuine choice over when, how, and what they are being trained to do and by whom, and they seek to do so with the learner's genuine assent (Linnehan et al., 2023). This presentation documents an ongoing journey to give learners more control via genuine choice and assent in their husbandry training. It will highlight beneficial general practices and suggest ways to increase degrees of freedom in applied settings. It will also showcase some inexpensive and relatively easy-to-build tools to facilitate ongoing communication for canine and caprine learners during husbandry procedures, which might be easily adapted to other species with similar morphology