Body Image Through a Behavior Analysis Lens: Environmental Contingencies and Functional Assessment matters because it changes what a BCBA notices when decisions have to hold up in caregiver coaching, home routines, team meetings, and values-sensitive decision making. In Body Image Through a Behavior Analysis Lens: Environmental Contingencies and Functional Assessment, for this course, the practical stakes show up in better alignment between intervention and the family context in which it must survive, not in abstract discussion alone.
Provider: BehaviorLive — via Women in Behavior Analysis
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Join Free →Body image concerns affect millions of individuals worldwide, yet traditional approaches often overlook the crucial role of environmental contingencies in shaping these challenges. This session presents a behavior-analytic framework for understanding and improving body image, examining how respondent and operant conditioning processes contribute to the development and maintenance of body image concerns. The presentation analyzes how social media algorithms, peer comparison contingencies, and cultural reinforcement patterns establish and maintain negative self-evaluation repertoires. Functional behavior assessment methods demonstrate the identification of antecedents and consequences maintaining specific body image-related behaviors, including body checking, avoidance responses, and negative self-talk patterns.
| Certification Body | Credits | Type |
|---|---|---|
| BACB® | 1 | General |
| COA | 1 | — |
Sarah Burby is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC), Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor, Certified K-6 teacher in the state of New Jersey, and certified Barre Eclipse instructor.Sarah is the founder of Mind Body Behavior, LLC, where she has developed the first and only National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching (NBHWC) approved program tailored specifically for students with a background in applied behavior analysis. Students who complete the Mind Body Behavior Health Coaching Certificate Program earn 32 BCBA continuing education units and are eligible to sit for the NBHWC board exam. Her mission is to help professionals transition into the coaching space confidently and competently.Sarah has co-founded the Behavior and Body Conference, a two-track conference for BCBAs and Board Certified Health Coaches to learn about the science of lasting behavior change through helping various populations. She also hosts in-person retreats designed to help professionals break through limiting beliefs and tap into their authentic selves.Through her practice, Sarah utilizes the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to provide one-on-one health coaching to clients who struggle with body image and disordered eating. She also offers small business mentorship to fellow professionals.Additionally, Sarah has created a supervision program where BCBA candidates can accrue their fieldwork hours outside of autism and developmental disabilities.Sarah is passionate about liberating helping professionals from the belief that they must stay in traditional autism and ABA roles, and from the fear that they can't build careers doing what they truly love. She dismantles the limiting belief that professionals must choose between what they "should" do and what lights them up. Her mission is to build community, create safe spaces for growth, and give professionals permission for more—to relentlessly pursue what sets their soul on fire.Sarah has presented at ABAI, NJABA, CALABA, WIBA, CTABA, and ABA ReImagined, and has been an invited speaker at the Self Set Go Conference.
Dig into the research behind this topic — plain-English summaries written for BCBAs.
280 research articles with practitioner takeaways
258 research articles with practitioner takeaways
252 research articles with practitioner takeaways
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All behavior-analytic intervention is individualized. The information on this page is for educational purposes and does not constitute clinical advice. Treatment decisions should be informed by the best available published research, individualized assessment, and obtained with the informed consent of the client or their legal guardian. Behavior analysts are responsible for practicing within the boundaries of their competence and adhering to the BACB Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts.