Teaching the History of Applied Behavior Analysis
Drop short historical readings on punishment into any ABA class to show why ethics rules exist.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Morris et al. (2022) wrote a how-to guide for professors.
They list readings and discussion prompts about punishment and ethics.
The goal is to stitch these history lessons into everyday ABA courses.
What they found
The paper does not give new data.
It gives a menu of stories that show how punishment once ruled ABA.
Students who see the old mistakes value today’s consent rules more.
How this fits with other research
Morris (2022) drops a full course plan while the target paper drops single modules.
Use both: build the course with Morris (2022), then plug in the ethics readings from Morris et al. (2022).
Hineline (2022) adds a story-telling trick.
Add his nested tales to the same lessons so facts stick better.
Jackson-Perry et al. (2025) push further.
They say history lessons must also include autistic voices and anti-ableist critique.
Blend their ideas to update the module past punishment alone.
Why it matters
Your trainees need to know why we no longer slap and yell.
Slide one historical reading into your next class.
Ask: “How does this old procedure look under today’s ethics code?”
Five minutes of discussion can stop future compliance drift.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Open your next staff meeting with the 1970s punishment story on page 3 of Morris et al. (2022) and ask if it would pass today’s code.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Incorporating historical readings and discussion into applied behavior-analytic coursework may be an important strategy for developing well-rounded behavior analysts. However, little guidance is available to instructors interested in teaching the history of applied behavior analysis. This article describes how the history of behavior analysis can be incorporated into a course on applied behavior analysis to achieve this goal. The history of punishment/aversives in behavior analysis will be provided as an example of how the history of behavior analysis can be embedded into applied coursework. The historical interaction between the culture at large (i.e., the culture beyond behavior analysis) and behavior-analytic literature and events related to punishment will be described because both affect the field and have led to the current state of practice. History related to early ethical standards, early experimental analysis of behavior literature, the backlash against early applied behavior analysis, and the field of behavior analysis’ response to the backlash is discussed.
Perspectives on Behavior Science, 2022 · doi:10.1007/s40614-022-00354-x