By Matt Harrington, BCBA · Behaviorist Book Club · Research-backed answers for behavior analysts
The original framework identifies common professional behaviors that undermine effectiveness and credibility. While specific formulations vary, these typically include arrogance about behavior analytic expertise, rigidity in treatment approaches, dismissiveness of client and family preferences, jargon overuse, defensiveness in response to criticism, overreliance on narrow procedures, and failure to attend to the therapeutic relationship. These are not character flaws but behavioral patterns maintained by environmental contingencies within the field, making them amenable to analysis and change.
The field has made significant progress on some of these sins while others remain entrenched. Increased attention to client-centered practice, assent-based approaches, and neurodiversity-affirming care has addressed some aspects of dismissiveness and rigidity. Updated ethical standards have created professional mandates for cultural responsiveness and client involvement. However, arrogance, jargon overuse, and defensiveness remain common, and the rapid growth of the field has introduced these patterns in new practitioners who may not have been exposed to the original critique. Progress is real but uneven.
Several field-specific factors contribute. The effectiveness of behavioral principles can foster overconfidence in the science's ability to address all problems. Training in technical skills may come at the expense of interpersonal skill development. The field's emphasis on precision and operational definitions can create communication habits that alienate non-behavioral audiences. Rapid growth has brought many practitioners with limited mentorship in professional conduct. And the field's historical isolation from other disciplines has sometimes fostered an insular culture that resists external feedback.
Self-identification requires deliberate effort because these behaviors are normalized within the field. Strategies include seeking feedback from non-behavioral colleagues and families who may perceive your behavior differently than behavioral peers, recording and reviewing your own consultations or team meetings, asking a trusted colleague to observe your professional interactions and provide honest feedback, and engaging with critiques of the field from consumers and advocates. The discomfort you feel when reading these critiques may itself be useful data about which sins resonate with your own practice.
Defensiveness typically manifests as dismissing criticism of behavior analysis or one's own practice, responding to concerns from families or advocates with explanations rather than genuine listening, deflecting blame when treatment is not working, and interpreting questions about practice as attacks on the science. Functionally, defensiveness serves to escape the aversive experience of being wrong, to maintain a sense of professional competence, and to protect professional identity. Understanding this function helps identify alternative behaviors that serve the same needs without shutting down learning.
Alternatives include humility (acknowledging the limits of our knowledge and seeking input from others), flexibility (adapting approaches based on individual client response), responsiveness (genuinely incorporating client and family preferences into treatment), accessible communication (using plain language with non-behavioral audiences), openness to feedback (treating criticism as information rather than attack), procedural breadth (maintaining a wide repertoire of evidence-based strategies), and relational awareness (attending to the quality of therapeutic relationships). Each alternative serves the same professional needs as the sin it replaces but does so in a way that benefits clients and colleagues.
The next generation of behavior analysts has brought increased attention to client autonomy, neurodiversity, social justice, and compassionate care. They are more likely to prioritize client-led treatment, to engage with critiques from the autistic community, and to question traditional practices that prioritize compliance over autonomy. This generational shift has created productive tension within the field, pushing established practitioners to reexamine their own behaviors and updating the professional culture to be more responsive to the people we serve.
Supervisors should model the alternative behaviors rather than simply lecturing about them. Create supervision activities that develop self-awareness, such as reflective journaling, video review of clinical interactions, and structured feedback exercises. Address specific instances of the sins when they occur in clinical work, treating them as learning opportunities rather than failures. Include professional conduct and values as explicit dimensions of supervisee evaluation. Create a supervision environment where discussing one's own sins is safe and valued. Remember that supervisees are more likely to do what they see modeled than what they are told to do.
Research across therapeutic disciplines consistently demonstrates that the quality of the therapeutic relationship is one of the strongest predictors of treatment outcomes. In behavior analysis, the therapeutic relationship affects client engagement, willingness to participate in challenging activities, generalization of skills, family satisfaction, and retention in services. Behavior analysts who attend to the relationship, through warmth, responsiveness, genuine interest in the client as a person, and respect for autonomy, create conditions that support more effective treatment. Neglecting the relationship in favor of purely procedural focus is a sin with measurable clinical consequences.
Build self-reflection into your routine through practices such as regular journaling about professional interactions, seeking structured feedback from multiple sources, engaging with literature and perspectives that challenge your assumptions, participating in peer supervision or consultation groups that prioritize professional development, and setting specific, measurable goals for professional behavior change. Create environmental supports for growth by finding mentors who model the behaviors you want to develop, joining professional communities that value humility and learning, and committing to lifelong professional development beyond technical skills.
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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.