Psychological Safety: Lucrative or Liability. How to build a culture of caring without sacrificing capital belongs in serious BCBA study because it shapes whether behavior-analytic decisions stay useful once they leave a clean training example and enter supervision meetings, staff training, clinic systems, and performance review.
Provider: BehaviorLive — via Behavioral Talent Consulting
Take This Course →Including ethics, supervision, and topics like this one. New live CEU every Wednesday.
Join Free →Psychological safety has been increasingly identified as an important workplace factor that leads to employee satisfaction and success (Edmondson, 1999; 2019). The definition of psychological safety can vary, ranging from "a perception related to the consequences of taking interpersonal risks at work" (Edmondson, 1999), to an environment in which individuals feel safe to voice ideas, provide honest feedback, task risks and experiment (Kahn, 1990). Much research has found a positive relationship between psychological safety and learning or performance behavior (i.e., Edmondson & Lei, 2014). However, not all job responsibilities invite creativity or allow for risk-taking. Some projects are not up for debate and some tasks cannot be changed. In fact, for some job tasks, high levels of psychological safety may even be detrimental to task completion, compared to moderate levels (Eldor, Hodor, & Cappelli, 2023). Other factors, such as employee demographics, have not been sufficiently studied when it comes to psychological safety and its effects on job performance. The role of a behavior technician is one that may not always allow a flexible, creative, or risk-based approach. Thus, we must learn to balance the importance of psychological safety with required job duties to ensure job performance remains high. This presentation will discuss ways to ensure a psychologically safe workplace within the limits of a given job's scope. It will also introduce the related concepts of psychological capital (Luthans et. al., 2006) and psychological sovereignty (Nartova-Bochaver, 2018), both of which can be important employee-specific factors that contribute to feelings of psychological safety in the workplace.
| Certification Body | Credits | Type |
|---|---|---|
| BACB® | 1 | General |
| COA | 1 | — |
Dr. Lauryn Toby is a licensed psychologist and Board Certified Behavior Analyst. She is the Director of Behavioral Health for an integrated primary care clinic in Indiana. Dr. Toby has over 10 years experience in the field assessing and diagnosing autism, working with patients with severe and challenging behavior, and has spent time in rural settings establishing behavioral support and diagnostic services in areas with limited resources. She previously taught for Drake University’s ABA program in Des Moines, Iowa. Dr. Toby has published in multiple journals and has written book chapters on the topic of co-morbid conditions in individuals with autism. She recently released her first book, Psychology Essentials for Behavior Analysts. Dr. Toby is passionate about integrated care and improving the interdisciplinary practice of behavior analysts. Her current research interests include the use of decision-making models to enhance the training of BCBAs, non-traditional symptom presentations in autism, and the intersection and application of psychological principles to behavior analysis to enhance training for new clinicians.
Dig into the research behind this topic — plain-English summaries written for BCBAs.
233 research articles with practitioner takeaways
225 research articles with practitioner takeaways
200 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.