The Divergent Paths of Behavior Analysis and Psychology: Vive la Différence!
ABA’s choice to leave APA and build its own house still shapes every credential you hold today.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Mazefsky (2015) wrote a short reflective essay. The piece looks back at a key fork in the road. Instead of staying inside the American Psychological Association, behavior analysts built their own homes.
The author cheers that choice. New credentials, new journals, and new boards let the field grow on its own terms.
What they found
The essay finds the split was smart. Independence created space for BACB certificates, ABAI chapters, and our own code of ethics.
The author says the move kept our science pure and our practice clear.
How this fits with other research
Kazdin (1975) saw the escape coming. A count of old journals shows ABA papers already lived in nine different fields by 1974. The 2015 essay simply crowns that forty-year trend.
Mueller (2025) widens the lens. The narrative review says ABA is now a global profession, not just a U.S. breakaway. The 2015 independence act became the seed for worldwide growth.
Graber et al. (2025) sounds a warning. The newer paper says internal branding fights could still fracture the very independence Mazefsky (2015) celebrates. Same independence theme, updated risk.
Why it matters
Remember you are part of a field that chose its own table. Use that freedom wisely. When you write goals, pick assessments, or design staff training, lean on BACB guidelines and ABAI task lists instead of generic psychology templates. Guard the brand unity Graber et al. warns about—share terms, share data, and speak with one voice so the independence Mazefsky (2015) praised stays strong.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Twenty years ago I suggested that behavior analysts could effect a quiet and covert takeover of the American Psychological Association (APA). I gave as precedents the operation of similar initiatives in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Darwinian-inspired X-Club, and the psychoanalytically-oriented Secret Ring. Though a conscientious program of working within established APA bylaws and rules, behavior analysts could ensure that behavior analysts were nominated for every significant elective position within the APA, and move to get their colleagues placed in appointive positions, such as journal editorships, review boards, and major committees. This would be one approach to remake psychology along behavioral lines, which was an early ambition of B. F. Skinner. The community of behavior analysts ignored my suggestion, and instead pursued the path of creating an independent discipline of practitioners, one with its own degree-granting programs, conventions, journals, and legal regulation. This effort has been immensely successful, although much critical work remains to be done. In retrospect, I was wrong to suggest changing psychology from within, and I have been delighted to witness the emergence of our new and independent field.
The Behavior analyst, 2015 · doi:10.1007/s40614-014-0024-z