The concept of compassion-focused applied behavior analysis represents a deliberate effort to articulate what many behavior analysts intuitively practice but have not historically had a formal framework to describe. As the field undergoes a period of significant self-reflection, multiple movements have converged on the position that the purpose of ABA extends beyond the technical manipulation of behavior to encompass the nurturing and empowerment of whole human beings.
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Join Free →The field of applied behavior analysis is currently undergoing several evolutions that are converging into the position that the purpose of ABA is to nurture human beings. Trauma-informed ABA, neurodiversity-affirming ABA, and social justice work in ABA all contribute to a vision for ABA that our purpose is not, and arguably has never been, to increase and decrease behaviors. Our purpose is to empower whole human beings to thrive in their own chosen paths in life. For almost a century, our founders made it clear that liberating human beings from coercion and aversive control, to the greatest extent possible, was a functional analytic path to this purpose. The concept of compassion, when approached from a functional perspective, directs behavior analysts to identify suffering and aversive control wherever it is present, including in our own practices, and to use the principles of the science of behavior analysis to empower ourselves and others to root out and dismantle coercion. This presentation will review existing behavior analytic work on compassion and will discuss a proposed set of tenets that define compassion-focused ABA, as described in a recent paper by Rodriguez and colleagues (2023). The definition of compassion-focused ABA is preliminary and will require the research, practice, and stakeholder communities to engage the definition, with data, and improve it. We propose that adopting a compassion-focused approach has the potential to reconnect ABA with our morale roots, to help us respond with openness and humility to our greatest critics, to help us more fully engage our clients as whole human beings, and to breath new meaning and purpose into our daily work.
| Certification Body | Credits | Type |
|---|---|---|
| BACB® | 1 | Ethics |
Dr. Jonathan Tarbox is the Co-Founder and Program Director of the Master of Science in Applied Behavior Analysis program at the University of Southern California, as well as Director of Research at FirstSteps for Kids. Dr. Tarbox is the past Editor-in-Chief of the journal Behavior Analysis in Practice, and a past founding member of the Advisory Board of the Women in Behavior Analysis (WIBA) conference. He has published five books on applied behavior analysis and autism treatment, is the Series Editor of the Elsevier book series Critical Specialties in Treating Autism and Other Behavioral Challenges, and an author of over 90 peer-reviewed journal articles and chapters in scientific texts. His research focuses on behavioral interventions for teaching complex skills to individuals with autism, Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT), and applications of applied behavior analysis to issues of diversity and social justice. Dr. Tarbox is proud to have multiple neurodivergent family members and is working hard to become a better ally to the Autistic community.
Dig into the research behind this topic — plain-English summaries written for BCBAs.
279 research articles with practitioner takeaways
258 research articles with practitioner takeaways
239 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.