Association for Behavior Analysis International

This symposium will present topics related to the options we have in facing the intensifying dangers of global warming. Presenters will discuss community interventions as well as the existing research and empirical knowledge that may inform our intervention. Behavioral scientists dedicated to the mission of science for a better world will discuss how we can begin working to preserve the precious resources and planet we inhabit.

The Climate Change Task Force of the Behavioral Science Coalition is conducting a systematic review of experimental research to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and this presentation will outline the results. The scope of the review is partially based on Hawken’s (2017) list of highest impact areas, where electricity, food and refrigeration dominated the top 10. Searches were conducted in two databases to find research targeting communities, households, organizations and policy initiatives, while also mapping sources of funding and research institutions involved in relevant research on climate change. The outcome of this review will be a useful reference for anyone seeking to contribute significant work in reducing our carbon footprints and move towards a sustainable world.

Community interventions have the potential to accelerate the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Much of the research on reducing individual, household, and organizational emissions has focused on only one of these entities. However, a comprehensive multi-sector community effort has the potential to promote synergies that increase impact in each sector. For example, a school-based intervention that is designed to foster parent-child discussion1 of climate change could influence parents to become more favorable to proposed policy changes in their workplace and their community. This presentation will provide a brief overview of the state of empirical knowledge about community interventions to affect GHG emissions. It will also address the methodological issues involved in experimentally evaluating comprehensive community interventions to reduce GHG emissions.

Individual behaviors and organizational practices that slow, prevent or adapt to global warming entail much behavior change from “business as usual”. It is clear that greenhouse gas emissions continue despite efforts under the Paris Accord to reduce them. We have not stopped/reversed warming and time is running out. A challenge to constraining ourselves to address climate change is increasing the current value of those behaviors to individuals, organizations and communities and fostering consideration of their value to future generations. A framework for governing consumption to preserve natural capital for future generations might consider how climate impacts affect communities, how those suffering now respond to climate crises and what agencies determine needed “sticky” interventions that persist over time and attract others to invest in their expansion. Central to preparation of curricula topics for what lies ahead are (1) assessments of communities now suffering, (2) understanding principles governing collective action, (3) interventions and policies that define contingencies and (4) organizational models that promote valuing of natural resources over unchecked consumption.

Mark P. Alavosius, Ph.D. is President of Praxis2LLC, providing behavior science applications to high performance organizations and a graduate faculty in psychology (Behavior Analysis Program) at the University of Nevada, Reno. He was a faculty member in psychology at Western Michigan University and West Virginia University. He earned his BA from Clark University (1976) MS (1985) and Ph.D. (1987) in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He is an associate editor of the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management and on the editorial board of Behavior and Social Issues. He was president of the Nevada Association for Behavior Analysis and program coordinator for the CSE (Community, Social, Ethics) area of ABAI. He helped found BASS (Behavior Analysis for Sustainable Societies – an ABAI special interest group) and served as the first BASS chairperson. He has been a Trustee of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies for many years and chaired their Commission for the Accreditation of behavioral safety programs from 2010-2016. He continues to serve as a CCBS commissioner for accreditation of behavior-based safety applications. His interests include transferring behavior science to advance socially valid outcomes in organizations and developing behavioral systems to improve work performance in the areas of health, safety and the environment. Dr. Alavosius was Principal Investigator of two Small Business Innovations Research Grants from CDC/NIOSH to test behavioral safety technologies for small employers. Since the 1980s, Dr. Alavosius has provided over 230 publications and conference presentations.

While the field of applied behavioral science has provided many solutions for individual-level behavior change, much work is left to be done to ensure that these interventions and strategic approaches reach their potential to improve population-level health impacts. This presentation will focus on the advantages of integrating three seemingly disparate fields—behavioral science, community psychology and public health. By integrating key aspects of these fields of study, we can take advantage of the key strengths of each field and fulfill the promise of applied behavior analysis in creating a context which is more successful than before. Theoretical underpinnings of this approach will be presented, and examples of successful adaptation and intervention will be provided.

Dr. Vincent Francisco is Kansas Health Foundation Professor of Community Leadership in the KU Department of Applied Behavioral Science, and Director of the Center for Community Health and Development, a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre at the University of Kansas. In his work, he uses behavioral science methods to help understand and improve conditions that affect population health and health equity. He publishes widely in the areas of health promotion, capacity building, and community-based research and intervention. Dr. Francisco is a co-developer of the Community Tool Box, a widely-used Internet-based resource for promoting community health and development.
He brings expertise and experience to implementing community–based research, especially for prevention of HIV and chronic disease. He has years of experience mentoring undergraduate and graduate researchers and practitioners with community-based organizations throughout the United States and abroad. He has experience designing and implementing community-based and participatory HIV and sexual risk reduction interventions since he was a member of the Adolescent Medicine Leadership Group, Chair of the Community Prevention Leadership Group, and a member of the Executive Committee of the NIH Adolescent Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions from 2003 through 2011. He has 11 years of experience in partnering with community-based organizations in North Carolina for applied health promotion research that includes access to care, risk reduction for HIV and sexual risk reduction, as well as capacity building for empowerment of marginalized groups.
In addition, he has considerable experience working in residential and day treatment programs (e.g., Spaulding Youth Center, Rhode Island Hospital), working on primary prevention of youth violence, drug and alcohol use among teens, teen pregnancy prevention, diabetes and cardiovascular disease prevention. He has been a consultant with numerous federal and state agencies on community-based and community-engaged approaches to prevention and treatment of behavioral disorders, and is recognized internationally as a resource among foundations and governmental agencies.

People across the world face growing insecurity. Violent conflict is spreading and intensifying, economic inequality is widening, and the climate is in jeopardy. At the same time, never have the fates of individual, communities and nations been so intertwined. And never have our safety and well-being depended so much on the safety and well-being of others. The prevalent narrative that increased militarization equals security leads to increased violence at state, local and individual levels, spreading fear and insecurity, fomenting future violence. In this talk, Kerri will explore Shared Security, our attempt to reframe security as being inclusive and egalitarian and grounded in the wellbeing of people rather than in the interests of nation states. The presentation will cover strategies where individuals and communities were able to use active nonviolence and peacebuilding strategies to reduce conflict, address community trauma associated with violence and to make positive structural changes that promote peace and justice for all.

Each year, an estimated 4.2 million unaccompanied youth ages 13-25 experience homelessness in the United States. The threats facing young people in housing crisis are many and their potential impacts, harrowing. Youth are at high risk for physical and sexual victimization, mental and physical illness, involvement with the criminal justice system, and face serious threats to their education, their future economic stability, and their lives. This presentation will critically examine the current approach to services for youth in situations of homelessness in the United States. Directly informed by the lived experience of young people, it calls for a shift in our understanding of the nature and scope of the problem and consequently, our practice and policy strategies being implemented to address it.

This presentation provides a review of the application of elementary principles of operant behavior (both contingency-shaped and rule-governed behavior), toward the conceptualization, design, and evaluation of social welfare policy. All social policy is intended to influence human behavior, and it does this most often through the contrived manipulation of contingencies of punishment and, sometimes, reinforcement. Policies that use contingency management are provided to support this thesis, examples illustrating the use of positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, negative punishment, shaping, and extinction. A form of within subject research designs known as time series studies are ideally suited to evaluate the outcomes of social welfare policies. Too often social welfare policies are devised on the basis of common sense, and lack a strong empirical background of successful experimental pilot testing under real life conditions. Thus, it is common for such policies to be ineffective, or to produce short or long term results that are harmful. Behavior analysts can contribute to the improvement of local communities and our larger society by contributing their expertise in altering human behavior via the design of new welfare policies, the modification of existing programs, and the critical analysis of ineffective ones.

Bruce Thyer, Ph.D. is a Distinguished Research Professor with the College of Social Work at Florida State University. A BCBA-D, he is also a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Florida and Georgia. He has devoted much of his career to promoting the adoption of behavior analysis within the field of social work. He has been a reviewer for the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and a former Associate Editor with that journal. He has published widely in the ABA literature and also in the fields of social work, psychology and psychiatry.

This symposium will examine the issue of global poverty and analyze policies aimed to reduce poverty from a behavioral perspective. Presenters will offer a conceptual framework for chronic poverty and considerations in collecting and interpreting data related to public policy issues including child welfare practice. Potential actions and technological advancements will be discussed for providing adequate social services and breaking the cycle of chronic poverty to achieve a better world.

Behavior analysts have long recognized the benefits of closely following their data; however, the data we are following may be changing faster than the tools we employ to analyze it. Recently, a variety of parametric and non-parametric statistical techniques have become popular alternatives to our foundational tactics in scientific research--even when the data at hand defies the underlying critical statistical assumptions. This problem even saturates behavior analytic investigations that focus on the evaluation of complex data related to public policy issues in areas such as poverty, geriatrics, and child welfare practice. Indeed, it is not uncommon to find statistical artifacts and anomalies tainting articles within many of our most prestigious journals within the disciplines of social services, criminal justice, and urban development. To further complicate this issue, many of our current technological advances are generating nonlinear, non-independent, and non-normal outcomes. In the face of this research enigma, there exists a much more powerful and precise set of classification and prediction platforms for researchers in the behavioral sciences. Unlike conventional statistical strategies, these systems do not entail critical assumptions pertaining to linearity, homoscedasticity, statistical independence, or normality. In this paper, we explore the many ways in which several artificial intelligence systems and related neural network models are capable of accurately classifying and predicting outcomes employing data that is inconsistent with the assumptions underlying conventional statistics. We argue that these models have potential application to a broad spectrum of behavior analytic goals.

Dr. Jomella Watson-Thompson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Behavioral Science, and the Director of the Center for Service Learning at the University of Kansas. She is also an Associate Director with the Center for Community Health and Development. She attained a Ph.D. in Behavioral Psychology and a Masters of Urban Planning from the University of Kansas. She applies behavioral science methods and interventions to improve how communities address issues related to community health and development. Her research has focused on behavioral-community approaches to neighborhood development, substance abuse prevention, and youth and community violence prevention. Dr. Thompson supports community-engaged scholarship using participatory approaches to address social determinants or factors that may contribute to disparities, particularly for marginalized groups and communities. She has researched the effects of community-based processes and behavioral-community interventions to promote mobilization and change in communities.  Dr. Thompson has co-authored articles on community capacity-building, youth development, and prevention and received numerous federal, state and local funding awards.  She is as an Associate Editor with Behavior and Social Issues.  Dr. Thompson has extensive experience providing training, technical support and evaluation for coalitions and community-based initiatives.

Although the world has made huge efforts to overcome global poverty, 10% of the world's population still lives in extreme poverty without access to the most basic needs such as water, sanitation, health, and education. Some families experience this condition for many years facing a situation that is difficult to emerge from. Previous studies have shown that the constraints of poverty induce a focus on immediate and safe payoffs. This situation becomes a cycle that perpetuates from generation to generation. This presentation will explore ways policy can be designed to incentivize individuals in the lower socioeconomic class to change their decision-making behaviors. Based on a behavioral perspective, we will: 1) present a conceptual framework for chronic poverty, 2) discuss government policies aimed at reducing poverty, and 3) illustrate how intersectoral actions can provide adequate social services to alter the options faced by impoverished families and help address poverty and social exclusion.

Much of the applied behavior analytic literature centers on changing individual behavior in a controlled environment, yet behavior analysis research and practice has critical applications in community and population-level behavior. Its application to the field of public health, for instance, provides scientists with a technology for functional contextual analyses of behaviors related to health conditions such as HIV acquisition and substance use disorder. This talk focuses on how applied behavior analysis can further expand to address critical public health issues within marginalized and underserved communities. Special attention will be given to cultural considerations in developing, implementing, and evaluating behavior-analytic interventions in these populations.

Dr. Kaston D. Anderson-Carpenter is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Michigan State University. He also holds appointments as Core Faculty in the MSU Consortium for Multicultural Psychology Research and Affiliate Faculty in the MSU Institute for Public Policy and Social Research. He earned his Ph.D. in Behavioral Psychology from The University of Kansas and a Master of Public Health degree with honors from The University of Kansas School of Medicine. He also earned a Master of Arts degree in Experimental Psychology and Applied Behavior Analysis from McNeese State University. Additionally, is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst-Doctoral (BCBA-D) and Licensed Behavior Analyst in the state of Michigan.
Dr. Anderson-Carpenter’s research focuses on substance use and determinants of health in underserved and marginalized communities. Since 2010, Dr. Anderson-Carpenter has worked with local community organizations, state coalitions, and policy makers to address socially important issues affecting marginalized and underserved populations. He has worked in many areas, including substance use and HIV/STI prevention, LGBTQ+ health, and Arab American health. Dr. Anderson-Carpenter’s work has been published in a number of journals and is the 2015 recipient of the G. Alan Marlatt Award for distinguished Scientific Early Career Contributions by the Society of Addiction Psychology.

This symposium will summarize critical conceptual issues in the emerging study of culturo-behavior science. In addressing the most challenging social and cultural issues facing our world today, there is a need to discuss the underlying conceptual foundations. Presenters will provide a better understanding and a behavior-analytic framework for addressing critical conceptual issues in culturo-behavior science.

Classification is at the heart of all science and the power of highly generalized classification systems is evident in physics, chemistry and biology. Classification in the social sciences depends on the specific phenomena being studied. Each discipline has its own classification based on the specific phenomena of interest: Bands and tribes; cities and states; governments and corporations; families, gangs, and schools, and so on. All of these classes are defined in terms of the relations among the behavior of people. This commonality suggests that a unifying system of classification, that could apply to all of those phenomena, might be possible. Perhaps the nascent classifications of culturo-behavior science are a step in that direction.

Sigrid Glenn is Regents Professor Emeritus at the University of North Texas. She was the founding chair of UNT’s Department of Behavior Analysis and the founder and former director of UNT’s Behavior Analysis Online program. Her published research includes work in conceptual, experimental and applied areas; current interests are primarily conceptual and philosophical. Her work is currently focused on culturo-behavioral science, a specialty area in behavior analysis whose origins include her work. Dr. Glenn is past president of ABAI and a founding fellow of the Association. She was the 2015 recipient of the Award for Distinguished Service to Behavior Analysis. Other awards include TxABA Award for Career Contributions to Behavior Analysis in Texas; CalABA’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to Behavior Analysis; the Michael Hemingway Award for Advancement of Behavior Analysis; the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies Ellen P. Reese Award in Recognition for Significant Contributions to Communication of Behavioral Concepts; and--most important to her--the ABAI 2008 Student Committee Award for Outstanding Mentorship of students.

Culturo-behavioral science is a rapidly developing field within behavior analysis. A number of indicators point to this fact. For example, Mattaini (2006) questioned whether or not cultural analysis would ever become a science, focusing particularly on the concept of the metacontingency (Glenn 1988: 1991), which had been proposed as an emergent level of selection. Thirteen years later, ABAI is publishing a book on culturo-behavioral analysis and is hosting a conference dedicated exclusively to culturo-behavioral considerations. While progress has been made, there remains much work to be done. One of Mattaini’s (2006) biggest criticisms of the metacontingency stemmed from the fact that, at that time, almost no research had been done that focused on metacontingencies. Since that time, there has been a significant increase in the amount of published research articles focusing on metacontingencies (see Zilio, 2019), but there is still a question as to the efficacy of the metacontingency, at least as a process of cultural selection (Couto & Sandaker, 2016, Krispin 2016, Zilio, 2019). Additionally, application of these ideas has remained limited, however (see Zilio, 2019) and remains a daunting challenge (see Mattaini, in press). One area that has lagged behind the conceptual development in culture-behavioral analyses is the development of standardized tools for analyzing and understanding the selective dynamics that are at work in a given situation. In an effort to begin to address this short-coming, a new framework and corresponding tool for analyzing interactions between individual contingencies, metacontingencies, and the selection contingencies that stem from the selection of an Aggregate Product by a Selecting Environment/Receiving System. This framework begins to extend the ABC analysis that is commonly used in applied behavior analysis to include aspects of rule-governed behavior (pliance rules versus tracking rules, pliance consequences versus tracking consequences), as well as compare the types of systems-dynamics feedback (positive feedback loops versus negative feedback loops) that stem from metacontingencies that compete for organizational resources. This framework and tool will be illustrated using organizational contingencies typical of a behavioral systems approach, with some attention given to its potential application in wider culturo-behavioral settings.

Jonathan Krispin is Associate Professor of Management at the Langdale College of Business at Valdosta State University;  he returned to academics in January 2013, after a 17-year career in the private sector. His research interests are primarily in the areas of organizational culture, business process improvement, organizational change, and leadership development. Since returning to academics, Jonathan has focused his writing and research efforts on joining concepts from behavior analysis with concepts from systems analysis, particularly from theory related to self-organizing systems. This has led to several publications in Behavior and Social Issues and Perspectives on Behavior Science. He has presented at numerous conferences including the numerous ABAI Annual Conventions, the ABAI International Conferences in Paris and Stockholm, and as an invited speaker at the 12th Annual European Conference on Behavior-Based Safety and Performance Management hosted by AARBA (the Italian Chapter of ABAI) in Como, Italy in 2018. He has also been a guest lecturer at Oslo Metropolitan University in 2018 and 2019.

This presentation will provide an overview of the elaborated account of metacontingency with the primary focus on ways this perspective offers points of entry to alter contextual factors influencing cultural practices. The concepts of metacontingency and macro contingency are emphasized as foundational concepts in the behavior scientific analysis of the interaction between organizational practices producing products and behaviors of their consumers. Moreover, the role of cultural milieu as a mediating factor in this interaction will be highlighted. The discussion of cultural phenomena also acknowledges the behaviors of verbally sophisticated consumers interacting with the many aggregate products of cultural entities as well as the verbal contexts within which members of organized groups operate. The presentation will also highlight the recent experimental and conceptual analyses associated with the role of context in the selection of cooperation and resilience.

Dr. Ramona A. Houmanfar is Professor of Psychology and the Director of the Behavior Analysis Program at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). She currently serves as the trustee of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies, Chair of the Organizational Behavior Management Section of Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies, and editorial board members of the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, and Behavior & Social Issues. Dr. Houmanfar recently completed her seven-year term as the editor of Journal of Organizational Behavior Management. She has served as the former senior co-chair of the Association for Behavior Analysis International, Director of the Organizational Behavior Management Network and President of the Nevada Association for Behavior Analysis. Dr. Houmanfar has published over seventy peer reviewed articles and chapters, delivered more than 100 presentations at regional, national, and international conferences in the areas of behavioral systems analysis, cultural behavior analysis, leadership in organizations, rule governance, communication networks, instructional design, and bilingual repertoire analysis and learning. Her expertise in behavioral systems analysis and cultural behavior analysis have also guided her research associated with implicit bias, cooperation, situational awareness, decision making, and value based governance. Dr. Houmanfar has published three co-edited books titled “Organizational Change” (Context Press), "Understanding Complexity in Organizations", and “Leadership & Cultural Change (Taylor & Francis Group).

The set of conditional relationships (contingencies and metacontingencies) that regulate behavioral interactions in a society characterizes its culture. These conditional relationships may encompass society as a whole or parts of society, with evolving complexity. The increasing complexity of sets of conditional relationships can be mapped by identifying and describing changes in the external environment of a specific cultural system that affects demands upon it, population size, function specialization of its members, hierarchical layers, conflicts between contingencies that affect different individuals and groups, and disparity of consequences for the individual and for the group. Following the increasing specialization of individual behavioral repertoire, specialized societal behavioral interactions can emerge. One such are control agencies, which regulate sets of conditional relationships and are specialized by type of interaction or various other performance criteria. Although experimental studies of large-scale changes in cultural practices are all but impossible, natural experiments and quasi-experimentation available methods to observe the effects of independent variables as theoretically predicted. The present paper analyzes a few cases of large-scale changes in cultural practices at a societal level, mainly involving public policies, in an attempt to identify behavioral and cultural processes that occurred and associating these with elements of cultural complexity which they affected or that were manipulated.  

Several behavioral programs are advancing the culture of behavioral science. These presenters will offer recent research across universities in the U.S. and Brazil relevant to large scale behavior change and social activism. Topics discussed will focus on how culturo-behavior scientist can use research to inform and impact public policy.

Universities should highlight the consequences of antagonistic approaches to societal challenges. These are often paralleled into ideological frontiers. Even though there are need for highly specialized competencies to solve some of the wicked problems society encounter, the ability to exploit and explore complementary solutions increases as complexity grows. On all levels, from agent interaction to policy makers, the multidisciplinary behavioral insight offers tools that more effectively and more efficiently meet intended goals and address the real needs of citizens and end-users. Government interventions are often based on deductive approach, assuming human behavior to be profoundly rational and implementing reforms at full scale. By using the growing body of behavioral insights, one might debias this process by moving away from sometimes unrealistic assumptions of rationality to discover the actual behavior of individuals through problem identification, behavior analysis, experimentation and trialing that tests multiple policy responses at a smaller scale to determine the best course of action in a cost-effective manner. This will enable our students to not only addressing societal challenges, but also ability to contributing to the solutions.

Behavior analysis is well known in Brazil as one of the main approaches to experimental psychology, and a clinical practice to intervene with neurotypical or delayed developmental audiences. Less known in the country is how behavior analysis may approach social issues and systemic interventions. Although this has been an area of intense growth in Brazil in the last two decades, most of the students in psychology don't know that behavior analysis deals with such topics. This presentation discusses some of the contingencies and metacontingencies that selected approaching social issues in Brazil, especially how Psychology Faculties and students over the years in general (Behavior Analysis in it) have been part of social movements and directly related to social sciences since the 1970s. The presentation finish with some of the strategies used to propagate this area among students in Brazil.

As a recently formalized specialization, Culturo-Behavior Science (CBS) explores how to take behavior science to scale; how to better understand the influences of social, institutional, and cultural variables on cooperative and competitive behavior; and how behavior science can contribute to solving some of the world’s most pressing problems. However, determining where to start and what strategies to use to develop expertise in an emerging specialization may prove challenging. Opportunities to be mentored, join labs, take formal courses, and conduct research in CBS are not yet widely available. Nonetheless, the Department of Behavior Analysis at the University of North Texas has been instrumental in providing such opportunities for students, faculty, and scholars (i.e., the Behavior and Culture Lab coordinated by Glenn from 2006-2012). Recently, we have rekindled such efforts with the creation of the Cultural Design and Systems Lab (Cihon, Becker, & Ortu 2018 to present) and the provision of graduate-level coursework in CBS. The goal of this presentation is to describe our recent efforts to provide opportunities for students, faculty, and scholars to pursue their interests in CBS and to make tangible suggestions for students, faculty, and scholars interested in getting started in CBS.

Dr. Traci Cihon received her master’s degree from the University of Nevada-Reno and her PhD from The Ohio State University. Currently, she is an Associate Professor in the Department of Behavior Analysis at The University of North Texas where she teaches graduate level courses in ethics and behavioral systems analysis and the undergraduate Organizational Behavior Management courses. Dr. Cihon has developed behavioral interventions for individuals with and without disabilities in home and school settings both domestically and internationally. Her scholarship focuses cultural and-behavioral systems science, verbal behavior, international and interdisciplinary work, and behavioral education. At UNT, Dr. Cihon co-leads the Cultural Design & Systems Lab, conducting research that contributes to our understanding of how cultural phenomena develop from a systems and selectionist perspective. In addition, she serves on editorial boards for several peer-reviewed journals including The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, Behavior and Social Issues, Perspectives on Behavior Science, and the American Annals of the Deaf. Her most recent projects include co-editing a special section of Perspectives on Behavior Science focused on cultural and behavioral systems science and co-editing Behavior Science Perspectives on Culture and Community, part of a new ABAI book series - both with Dr. Mark Mattaini, and serving as the editor for a special section in Behavior and Social Issues on papers developed from the 5th Think Tank on Cultural Analysis.

For many social activists and applied researchers, once a technology that can solve a social problem is found, basic science loses its importance. For them, dealing with “big issues” is more important than investing in abstract understanding or predicting natural phenomena. In fact, ideas such as social justice, human rights, and environmental changes require urgent solutions. For this reason, knowledge directly related to behavior changes on a large scale is usually viewed as more important for social change than the ones made by basic science. The first is assumed to deal with “real-world problems” while the second is viewed as something abstract and distant from social demands in a world that claims for social change. However, the knowledge that comes from basic science is probably the most fundamental source of power in modern societies and more than an initial step to technology and innovation. Technology and innovation is only one aspect of scientific development. This presentation stands that basic science in culturo-behavior science is also a “real-world problem” in the sense that it explores fundamental questions of human existence, constantly reviews our comprehensions on our basic phenomena, provides a deep understanding of why certain practices works or not and connects us with other sciences. This is what makes scientific literacy a key component for social activism: we cannot only be efficient to promote behavior and social change in large scale, we must also inform people about what behavior means, what is cultural practices, so people can independently make better decisions in their daily lives. I will try to highlight the need for a mutual relationship among basic science, applied science, programs for behavior change in large scale, and scientific literation as a mission for culture-behavior science.

To many scientists, the policy making process in Washington, DC is a black box. In this session, attendees will have the opportunity to learn about the federal decision-making process, beyond the “Schoolhouse Rock” version, from a long-time science advocate. Budget and policy decisions affect funding for science and in the past, behavioral sciences have been negatively impacted by a lack of understanding of and appreciation for the field. The Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences represents ABAI in Washington, DC. This session is an opportunity to learn more about the work of FABBS and strategies for communicating with decision makers. Scientists interested in connecting their research to policy decisions and legislation should not miss this session.

Juliane Baron is the Executive Director of the Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences. In this role she supports the FABBS mission to promote human potential and well-being. FABBS furthers this goal by advancing the sciences of mind, brain, and behavior; promoting scientific research and training in these fields; educating the public about the contributions of research to the health and well-being of individuals and society; fostering communication among scientists; and recognizing scientists who have made significant contributions to building knowledge.
Previously Baron served as the Director of Government Relations at the American Educational Research Association. She leads AERA’s education and advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill and with federal agencies, and plays a strategic role with committees and coalitions that deal with research funding, research policy, and education. From 2006 to 2014, Baron served as deputy director of government and public affairs for the Population Association of America and the Association of Population Centers. Prior to that, she was deputy director of the Social Policy Action Network from 2001 to 2004 and director of the Population Resource Center from 2005 to 2007. For three years, Baron worked as a legislative staffer in the Texas House of Representatives, followed by a two-year stint as associate research scientist and project manager of Welfare, Children, & Families: A Three City Study, a multi-investigator study housed at Johns Hopkins University. Baron received her BA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and her MPA from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas.

In the spring of 2018, America watched in horror as nearly 3,000 children were separated from their parents on the southern border. Civil society groups have righteously and steadfastly responded to these harmful policies. What is often lost in the national conversation today is a deeper recognition that what has transpired at the border is just the tip of a very large iceberg. There are nearly 6 million American children in the country living with an undocumented parent. These families could be separated by deportation at any time. In 2019, UnidosUS published a report entitled, “Beyond the Border: Family Separation in the Trump Era.” It considers the consequences of a continued immigration policy status quo on these American children by looking at the intersection of immigration policy and health, education, and economic outcomes. The UnidosUS team has delved deeper into these issues including by examining the impact of the current immigration environment on K-12 student. We have also elevated these intersection in the press, including, in the context of a proposed housing policy change, in a New York Times Op-Ed by UnidosUS President and CEO, Janet Murguia. In short, UnidosUS believes that state-funded cruelty against immigrant communities imposes perhaps some of the steepest harms on American children, and that the nation is at a critical moment for action.

Carlos Guevara is the Associate Director for the UnidosUS Immigration Policy Project. Carlos leads UnidosUS’s immigration policy work, which focuses on advancing effective and humane federal immigration policies that promote and uphold family unity, protect workers’ rights, build on immigrant integration efforts, and improve the current immigration system. Headquartered in Washington, DC, UnidosUS is the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States. Through its network of nearly 300 affiliated community-based organizations, UnidosUS reaches millions of Hispanics each year in 41 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia.

Prior to joining UnidosUS, Carlos was a Counselor in the Office of the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from 2014-2017. There, he worked on immigration policy issues under the Obama Administration. Before that, he served as a Staff Attorney at the Diocese of Grand Rapids, MI then Catholic Charities of Baltimore where he provided a wide range of Immigration Legal Services to low income immigrants.

Mr. Guevara earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, and his bachelor’s degree from University of Virginia. He is a licensed attorney in Maryland. Carlos was born in Hermosillo, Mexico and grew up in San Antonio, Texas.

In response to Guevara’s examination of current immigration policies and their repercussions, the panelists will present behavior analytic interpretations of this issue and offer strategies for behavior scientists to engage in activism and human rights advocacy efforts. Beginning with a better understanding of the history of behaviorism in supporting humane immigration policies, the panelists will offer a call to action for culturo-behavior scientists to extend this analysis in light of existing conditions. Ongoing research designed to change verbal behavior and promote social activism using stimulus control procedures and shaping will be discussed as well as the critical role of graduate students and future behavior analysts in addressing global humanitarian crises.

Global injustices and dangers experienced by vulnerable populations are becoming more and more apparent. Many of these occur in borderlands and involve complex responses to people of different national, racial and ethnic identities. The purpose of this presentation is to share the process and preliminary outcomes of an education project aimed to increase compassionate responses to suffering in vulnerable populations in borderlands. “Nur-e-Esperanza” is a collective learning project grounded in the philosophies of behaviorism, womanism, and the people’s science movement. Our approach involves inductive and participatory practices to increase the expansiveness and depth of social discourse within local communities. Specifically, we are developing and evaluating component training modules for: 1) Noticing and relating to the feelings of others, especially those that are very different than ourselves; 2) Noticing and evaluating the social justice relationships between ourselves, communities and institutions; 3) Noticing dimensions of social privilege, coercion and attraction; 4) Engaging in skilled dialogs between people of diverse lived experiences; and, 5) Engaging in the translation of values into strategic actions and reflections. Our topics center on race, gender, religion and nationality. Our dependent variables are changes in verbal behavior, feelings, and reported activism. The instructional design involves stimulus control procedures (systematic introduction and discrimination of increasingly complex classes of social justice/injustice examples) and collective shaping of noticing and engaging. The project is discussed in relation to the ways that understanding and changing individual behavior may support actions and policies that protect and enhance human life and reduce suffering.

Shahla Ala’i received her B.S. from Southern Illinois University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Kansas. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Behavior Analysis at the University of North Texas (UNT) and the director of the North Texas Autism Project (NTAP). NTAP is a service, training and research program working in cooperation with several global partners, with applied anthropologists, and with Easter Seals North Texas. Shahla is also a member of a social justice collective at UNT. This is an interdisciplinary effort designed to create a space for applied research and activism in social justice and includes faculty and students from Woman’s and Gender Studies, Applied Anthropology and Behavior Analysis. Shahla teaches classes on ethics, autism intervention, parent training, applied research methods, and behavior change techniques. Shahla served on the governing board of the Behavior Analysis Certification Board (BACB) and as a subject matter expert on supervision and on ethics. Shahla currently serves on the ABAI Practice Board and the APBA Diversity Ad Hoc Task Force. She has published and presented research on ethics in early intervention, play and social skills, family harmony, change agent training, and evidence-based practice. Her research is applied and grounded in a commitment to love and science. She has trained hundreds of master’s level behavior analysts who have gone on to serve families and communities with honor. Shahla has over four decades of experience working with families, particularly those from non-dominant cultural backgrounds. She travels and presents her work nationally and internationally to both professional and lay audiences. She was awarded an Onassis Foundation Fellowship for her work with families, was the recipient of UNT’s prestigious student selected “Fessor Graham" teaching award, and received the Texas Association for Behavior Analysis Career Contributions Award in 2019.

The principles of behavior analysis hold great promise for addressing many of the major challenges faced in society. Yet the applications of behavior analysis remain limited in scope and breadth. This session will focus on the large-scale application of applied behavior analysis in educational settings. Emphasis will be given to identifying the core features of effective educational environments, and the process for implementing those features with high fidelity, sustainability, and at scales of social significance. Experience over the past two decades with implementation of positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) in over 27,000 schools will be described.

Societies have always depended on education: it is through education—formal or not—that many operant repertoires and many culturo-behavioral practices are developed. In modern, complex societies higher education is crucial because of the techno-scientific basis and infrastructure upon which our societies are built. Institutions responsible for higher education are necessary because they are responsible for the replication of such knowledge. It is through higher education that socially relevant operant repertoires—replicated over millions of people—are developed. But the role of higher education is not the mere reproduction of knowledge or of patterns of behavior and culturo-behavioral practices. As institutions, colleges and universities are nowadays important sources of wealth, contributing directly for economic growth of local, regional and even national communities. Most crucially, as institutions, universities and colleges also contribute to the building of patterns of ethical and socially responsible behaviors: from within universities stem many new cultural practices that lead to social development and to the solving of cultural problems. Universities (as the institutions responsible for higher education) are linked with the decrease of violence, of social inequality, and of poverty, and with the increase of social awareness, democratic societies, and responsible public policies. Finally, universities—even when they are small and have only direct local influence—have a tendency to become part of a much larger system that is mostly concerned with shaping up positive behavior and social justice.