Keynote: Dealing with Difficult People matters because it changes what a BCBA notices when decisions have to hold up in case conceptualization, intervention design, staff training, and literature-informed problem solving. In Dealing with Difficult People, for this course, the practical stakes show up in stronger conceptual consistency and better translational decision making, not in abstract discussion alone.
Provider: BehaviorLive — via BABAT
Take This Course →Including ethics, supervision, and topics like this one. New live CEU every Wednesday.
Join Free →Some people can be, well, so darn difficult. This talk is focused on dealing with them. A group that is likely to come immediately to mind involves our clients. They are either posing difficulties for others or others are posing difficulties for them. And indeed the talk is going to be pertinent to them. But it is also going to be pertinent to persons in general and to no single group of persons in particular. They could be on the spectrum or off, delayed or typically developing, young or old, black or white, rich or poor, male or female, or somewhere in between those and a broad range of other discrete and dimensional categories. Although it is true that some of my (our?) clients can be very difficult, truth to tell, so can I. And if I may be so bold, I suspect you can be difficult too. Our formal training prepares us pretty well for the difficulties presented by our clients, although there is always a need for more. But our training does little to prepare us for the difficulties posed by persons who are not on our client list but who are very much on the beaten path we follow as we live our professional and personal lives. Even those of us with an extraordinary capacity for resolving the difficulties posed by clients can be significantly waylaid by the difficulties posed by these other persons. Quite simply, optimal success in our professional and personal worlds depends heavily on our ability to deal successfully with other people, especially when they are being difficult. The promise of this talk is an increase in our empowerment to do just that.
| Certification Body | Credits | Type |
|---|---|---|
| BACB® | 1 | General |
| COA | 1 | — |
Dr. Patrick C. Friman received his Ph.D. from the University of Kansas. He is the current Vice President of Behavioral Health at Boys Town and a Clinical Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Nebraska School of Medicine. He was formerly on the faculties of Johns Hopkins University, University of Pennsylvania, and Creighton University Schools of Medicine. He was also formerly the Director of the Clinical Psychology Program at University of Nevada. He is a Fellow of the Association for Behavior Analysis International, in three divisions of the American Psychological Association, and of the American Board of Behavioral Psychology. He is the former Editor of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and former President of the Association for Behavior Analysis International. He has published more than 200 scientific articles and chapters and three books. The majority of his scientific and clinical work is in Behavioral Pediatrics and Behavioral Medicine. Dr. Friman’s work in behavioral pediatrics has concentrated on the gap between primary medical care for children on one side, and referral-based clinical child psychological and psychiatric care, on the other. A secondary focus is on adolescent behavior and development. He also specializes in consultation regarding workplace issues such as motivation, dealing with difficult people, change, happiness and pathways to success.
Dig into the research behind this topic — plain-English summaries written for BCBAs.
212 research articles with practitioner takeaways
189 research articles with practitioner takeaways
183 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.