Ellie Kazemi's exploration of how Skinner's analysis of behavior informs kindness as a practiced skill — not merely a disposition — opens an important conversation in the behavior analytic community about the values that should animate our scientific practice. Behaviorism, properly understood, does not reduce human action to mechanical stimulus-response chains.
Provider: BehaviorLive — via Skinner Foundation
Take This Course →Including ethics, supervision, and topics like this one. New live CEU every Wednesday.
Join Free →I stumbled upon Skinner's analysis of behavior as a graduate student at UCLA, towards the end of my graduate studies. I was so inspired by his perspective that it completely changed the trajectory of my career. Behaviorism, for the first time, helped me understand how we are all truly interconnected. I realized that if the behaviors we emit have been selected by their consequences, then our behaviors in turn influence the environment, subsequently we all have influence on each other. At its heart, behaviorism deters the use of blame and punishment and sets the occasion for humility, kindness, and compassion for all people. Adoption of this perspective has led to powerful technologies applied for human care and widespread adoption of this view would make our world much more kind.
| Certification Body | Credits | Type |
|---|---|---|
| BACB® | 1 | Supervision |
Dr. Ellie Kazemi has devoted her career to workforce development. She merges the science of learning, advanced digital technology, and data-based decision-making with her years of experience working with leadership to promote practical, performance-based training. She has worked on several large nationwide projects (e.g., with FEMA and NASA) focusing on measuring outcomes. She currently wears multiple hats. She is a tenure-track professor at CSUN, where she founded the M.S. in Applied Behavior Analysis program and where she is also the Director of AI/VXR Initiatives for the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. She is the founder and CEO of Transform VXR, creating a world where everyone can learn to have hard conversations through safe experiences and fun.
Dig into the research behind this topic — plain-English summaries written for BCBAs.
279 research articles with practitioner takeaways
256 research articles with practitioner takeaways
252 research articles with practitioner takeaways
You earn CEUs from a dozen different places. Upload any certificate — from here, your employer, conferences, wherever — and always know exactly where you stand. Learning, Ethics, Supervision, all handled.
No credit card required. Cancel anytime.
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.