Association for Behavior Analysis International

The Association for Behavior Analysis International® (ABAI) is a nonprofit membership organization with the mission to contribute to the well-being of society by developing, enhancing, and supporting the growth and vitality of the science of behavior analysis through research, education, and practice.

Experiential Learning (Practicum/Internship)

Experiential learning could focus on any of a myriad of topics, depending on the individual program and transdisciplinary opportunities; for instance: public policy advocacy, violence, climate change, science policy, governance, business management, public health or criminal justice.

 

The basis of the experiential learning requirements includes 10 hours a week, 150 hours a semester, for a total of two semesters (300 hours). The experiential learning requirement can be met through the student’s professional employment if an appropriate level of supervision or oversight is provided by program faculty and the experiential learning is a requirement for obtaining the degree – that is, if the experiential learning occurs before the degree is awarded. Regardless of the location or nature of the experience, it is incumbent on the program to show how it meets the hourly requirements.

 

Course objectives:

  • Saying Doing: The Detection of Micro-Cultural Discrepancies of Saying and Doing. Upon completion, the student should be trained with a focus on observing the coherence between saying and doing as an expression of the coherence between strategy and culture.
  • Subcultures: Subcultures and Sub-Optimalization. Upon completion, the student should be able to reveal cultural sub-optimalizations and subcultures.
  • Systems Architecture and Engineering: Cultural Architecture and Systems Engineering. Upon completion, the student should be able to model alternative ways to disseminate information and reinforce cultural practices by tracing the information and influence flow and identifying network structures.

 

Policy and Cultural Dissemination: Cross Sector and Multidisciplinary Approaches to Complex Societal Challenges. Upon completion, the student should be able to use the growing body of behavioral insights and 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.

 

Items

Competencies

Core/Foundational Readings

Suggested Readings

  • The detection of micro-cultural discrepancies of saying and doing.
  • Identify behavioral patterns that are relative consistent over time, even though the members of the unit may be exchanged by new ones.
  • Identify formal and informal intentions, goals, strategies and other description of the organization/cultural unit.
  • Observe functional relations of behavior in context. Identifying IBCs in possible conflict with expressed goals.
  • Identify policy documents, and the contingencies under which they are formulated. (policy, politics, ideology, status, managerial preferences)
  • Observe and identify if behavioral patterns are flexible and thus match the complexity of the environment
  • Apply techniques of systematic observation of behavior in different contexts.

Backeman, R., & Gottman, J. M. (1997). Observing interaction: An introduction to sequential analysis. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Biglan, A. (2015). The Nurture Effect. How the science of human behavior can improve our lives & our world. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.

Dinsmoor, J. A. (1983). Observing and conditioned reinforcement. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 6, 693-728.

Glenn, S. S., Malott, M. E., Andery, M. A. P. A., Benvenuti, M., Houmanfar, R. A., Sandaker, E., Todorov, J. C., Tourinho, E. Z., Vasconcelos, L. A. (2016). Toward consistent terminology in a behaviorist approach to cultural analysis. Behavior and Social Issues, 25, 11-27.

Holland, J. G. ((1957). Technique for behavioral analysis of human observing. Science, 125, 348-350.

Malott, M. E. (2003). Paradox of organizational change. Engineering Organizations with Behavioral Systems Analysis. Reno, NV: Context Press.

Malott, M. E., & Glenn, S. S. (2006). Targets of intervention in cultural and behavioral change. Behavior and Social Issues, 15, 31-56.

Martin, P., & Bateson, P.(1993). Measuring behavior. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Sharpe, T., & Koperwas, J. (2003). Behavior and Sequential Analyses. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Skinner, B. F. (1957). Upon further reflection. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

 
  • Subcultures and sub-optimalization.
  • Identify the flow of tangible resources, social reinforcement and technology supporting the processes leading to aggregate product(s).
  • Identify informal power structures (unions, informal hubs in the network).
  • Identify possible conflict of interests, and how they may relate to the dynamics of the system. Negotiate solutions by showing consequences for the common; natural or manmade.

Alavosius, M., Newsome, D., Houmanfar, R., & Biglan, A. (2016). A functional contextualist analysis of the behavior and organizational practices relevant to climate change. In R. D. Zettle, S. C, Hayes, D. Barnes-Holems, & A. Biglan (Eds.), the Wiley handbook of contextual behavioral science (pp.530). Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons.

Glenn, S. S., Malott, M. E., Andery, M. A. P. A., Benvenuti, M., Houmanfar, R. A., Sandaker, E., Todorov, J. C., Tourinho, E. Z., Vasconcelos, L. A. (2016). Toward consistent terminology in a behaviorist approach to cultural analysis. Behavior and Social Issues, 25, 11-27.

Carvalho, L. C., Couto, K. C., Gois, N. S., Sandaker, I., & Todorov, J. C. (2016). Evaluating effects of cultural consequences on the variability of interlocking behavioral contingencies and their aggregate products. European Journal of Behavior Analysis, 17, 1-15.

Tagliabue, M., & Sandaker, I. (2019). Societal well-being: Embedding nudges in sustainable cultural practices. Behavior and Social Issues.

Vasconcelos, L. A. (2013). Exploring macrocontingencies and metacontingencies: Experimental and non experimental contributions. Suma Psicologica, 20, 31-43.

 
  • Cultural architecture and systems engineering.
  • Identify area of innovation.
  • Search for best practices.
  • Conduct a review of best practices and make a contingency analysis of the best practices.

Brayko, C. A., Houmanfar, R. A., Ghezzi, E. L. (2016). Organized cooperation: A behavioral perspective on volunteerism. Behavior and Social Issues, 25, 77-98.

Glenn, S. S. , & Malott, E. (2004). Complexity and selection: Implications for organizational change. Behavior and Social Issues, 13, 89-106.

Hayes, S. C., & Toarmino, D. (1995). If behavior principles are generally applicable, why is it necessary to understand cultural diversity? The Behavior Therapist, 18, 21-23.

Houmanfar, R. A., Alavosius, M. P., Morford, Z. H., Herbst, S. A., & Reimer, D. (2015). Functions of organizational leaders in cultural change: Financial and social well-being. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 35, 4-27.

E.M. Rogers (1995): Diffusion of Innovations.

Centola, D. (2015). The social origins of networks and diffusion. American Journal of Sociology, 120(5), 1295-1338.

John Sterman (2000). Business Dynamics: systems thinking and modeling for a complex world.

  • Cross sector and multidisciplinary approaches to complex societal challenges.
  • Being explicit on the borders between legal, political and behavioral regulations.
  • Being able to present documentation for evidence.
  • Having active dialogue with actual citizens and stakeholders.
  • Reporting failed projects as well as successful projects.
  • Identifying and defining the problem. Determining the policy level of the project.
  • Decomposing the policy problem into behavioral insights.
  • Strategies for behavioral change. Running small scale experiments and testing. Embedding behavior in cultural practices.
  • Identify how resources match the outcome of investment e.g. how "one-click solutions" might outcompete huge investments.
  • Test out a modified version of the best practice in small scale.

Glenn, S. S., & Malott, E. (2004). Complexity and selection: Implications for organizational change. Behavior and Social Issues, 13, 89-106.

Hayes, S. C., Barnes-Holmes, D., & Roche, B. (2001). Relational Frame Theory. A Post-Skinnerian account of human language and cognition. New York: Academic/Plenum Publishers.

Harari, Y. N. (2018). 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. New York: Spiegel & Grau.

Malott, M. E., & Glenn, S. S. (Submitted 2019). Integrating institutional and culture-behavioral analysis in the management of common pool resources: Application to an inland lake in Michigan. Behavior and Social Issues.

Mullainathan, S., & Shafir, E. (2013). Scarcity. New York: Times Books.

Ostrom, E. (1990). Governing the commons: The evolution of institutions for collective action. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Skinner, B. F. (1957). Verbal Behavior. Cambridge, MA: Prentice-Hall.

Thaler, R. H., & Sunstein, C. R. (2008). Nudge. Improving decisions, about health, wealth, and Happiness. New York: Penguin Books.

Wilson, D. S. and Hayes, S. (2018). Evolution and contextual behavioral science.

Peter Turchin (2016). Ultra society, how 10.000 years of war made humans the greatest cooperators on earth.

 

 

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