| Playing
Nicely with Others |
Most applied behavior analysts frequently interact with individuals whose training is in other helping professions, as well as with individuals who do not have such training. It has often been observed, to put it delicately, that behavior analysts may not always be as effective in those interactions as they might wish. Perhaps the most comprehensive discussion of this challenge was by Richard Foxx (1996) in his presidential address to the Association for Behavior Analysis titled, “Translating the covenant: The behavior analyst as ambassador and translator.” In addition to examining the reasons behavior analysts sometimes have problems communicating with others who do not share their history, Foxx offered a detailed list of recommendations for translating, promoting, and disseminating behavior analysis. Perhaps the behavior analyst should offer the list in a handy pocket card format. The
general rule, which stems from a behavior analytic conception
of verbal behavior, is that the responsibility for effective
communication lies with the speaker. It is the speaker who
must take the repertoire and history of the listener into
account in order to be effective as a speaker. This means
that in any conversation with someone who does not |
share
our rather peculiar academic history we
must speak with great care in order to achieve
any desired outcome. At the least, one outcome that is usually
valuable is that our conversational partner be more rather than
less inclined to agree with us and look forward to further discussion.
A corollary observation is that although training in behavior analysis provides practitioners with a comprehensive and internally consistent conceptual framework and a behavior change technology based on basic and applied scientific literatures, it certainly falls short of providing a professional repertoire that is superior to all others in addressing all issues that might be encountered in daily work environments. In other words, we can all learn quite a lot from others, and it is an effective speaker who leaves listeners with this impression. As we share our BACB credential, we unavoidably share each other’s reputation. That reputation includes not just our ability to solve problems with behavior but our collective “personality” as behavior analysts. The inherent challenges we face in communicating with others who lack our specialized repertoire suggest that we should put as much effort into selling ourselves and our positions as we do into changing a consumer’s behavior. |
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