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The Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting
behavior analysis Behaviorism is a systematic approach to understanding the behavior of humans and animals. It assumes that behavior is either a reflex evoked by the pairing of certain antecedent stimuli in the environment, or a consequence of that individual' ...
. The organization has over 9,000 members. The group organizes conferences and publishes journals on the topic of
applied behavior analysis Applied behavior analysis (ABA), also called behavioral engineering, is a psychological intervention that applies empirical approaches based upon the principles of respondent and operant conditioning to change behavior of social significance.Se ...
(ABA). ABAI has issued detailed, specific position papers intended to guide practitioners of ABA. The ABAI publishes six scholarly journals including ''
The Psychological Record ''The Psychological Record'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering behavior analysis. It was established in 1937 by Jacob Robert Kantor, with B.F. Skinner serving as founding editor of the journal's experimental department. It i ...
'' and their primary organ, '' Perspectives on Behavior Science'', formerly ''The Behavior Analyst''. They also publish an informational journal, ''Education and Treatment of Children'', describing practical treatment of children with behavioral problems. ABAI been criticized for its connections to the
Judge Rotenberg Center The Judge Rotenberg Center (founded in 1971 as the Behavior Research Institute) is an institution in Canton, Massachusetts, United States, for people with developmental disabilities, emotional disorders, and autistic-like behaviors. The center ...
(JRC), a school that has been condemned by the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...
for torture. According to the
Autistic Self Advocacy Network The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit advocacy organization run by and for individuals on the autism spectrum. ASAN advocates for the inclusion of autistic people in decisions that affect them, including: le ...
(ASAN), ABAI has repeatedly endorsed the methods of the JRC, including its use of the
Graduated Electronic Decelerator The graduated electronic decelerator (GED) is an aversive conditioning device that delivers a powerful electric skin shock to punish behaviors considered undesirable. The GED was created by Matthew Israel for use on students at the Judge Rotenb ...
, a device that delivers painful electric skin shocks as punishment for the purpose of
behavior modification Behavior modification is an early approach that used respondent and operant conditioning to change behavior. Based on methodological behaviorism, overt behavior was modified with consequences, including positive and negative reinforcement continge ...
. ABAI has honored Robert A. Sherman for his legal defense of the JRC's use of aversive punishments on its students.


History

The Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI) was founded in 1974 as the MidWestern Association for Behavior Analysis (MABA) to serve as an interdisciplinary group of professionals, paraprofessionals, and students.(1978) ''The Behavior Analyst, 1''(1) The first annual conference was a response by a group of behavior analysts who were having problems presenting their work at psychology conferences and other related events.Kangas, B.D. & Vaidya, M. (2007). Trends in presentations at the annual conference of the association for behavior analysis. Behavioral Analysis, 30, 2, 117-131 Some of the members included Sidney Bijou, James Dinsmoor, Bill Hopkins, and Roger Ulrich. The first headquarters were located on the campus of
Western Michigan University Western Michigan University (Western Michigan, Western or WMU) is a Public university, public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was initially established as Western State Normal School in 1903 by Governor Aaron T. Bliss for the tr ...
(WMU) in
Kalamazoo Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. At the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropo ...
, Michigan. The association changed its name to the Association for Behavior Analysis in 1979. In 2002, the headquarters were moved off WMU's campus. In 2008, the association relocated to nearby Portage, Michigan (where it is today), and added "International" to its name.Craighead, W.E. & Nemeroff, C.B. (2004). Association for Behavior Analysis. In The Concise Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science. (3rd ed., pp. 87-88) Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons ABAI has more than 9,000 members and 28,000 affiliate members .


Activities and positions


Conferences

ABAI organizes various conferences related to the practice and promotion of behavior analysis. Every two years, ABAI hosts an international conference. The association also holds an annual
autism The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...
conference, and an annual conference dedicated to the advancements of behavior analysis. Additionally, ABAI has hosted many single-track conferences on topics of special interest to behavior analysts, such as theory and philosophy, climate change, behavioral economics, and education. The
Judge Rotenberg Center The Judge Rotenberg Center (founded in 1971 as the Behavior Research Institute) is an institution in Canton, Massachusetts, United States, for people with developmental disabilities, emotional disorders, and autistic-like behaviors. The center ...
has attended some ABAI conferences to promote the
Graduated Electronic Decelerator The graduated electronic decelerator (GED) is an aversive conditioning device that delivers a powerful electric skin shock to punish behaviors considered undesirable. The GED was created by Matthew Israel for use on students at the Judge Rotenb ...
, a device that has been condemned by the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...
as torture.


Journals

The Association of Applied Behavior Analysis International publishes four journals about behavior analysis various subjects of behavior analysis: * ''The Analysis of Verbal Behavior'' is a collection of experiments and theoretical papers regarding verbal behavior and applied behavior analysis. * ''Behavior Analysis in Practice'' is a peer-reviewed journal that includes articles on how to efficiently practice applied behavior analysis. * ''Perspectives on Behavior Science'' (previously ''
The Behavior Analyst ''Perspectives on Behavior Science'' is a semiannual peer-reviewed scientific journal covering behavior analysis. It was established in 1978 and is published by Springer Science+Business Media on behalf of the Association for Behavior Analysis Inte ...
'') is a journal that includes literary reviews, reinterpretations of published data, theoretical and experimental articles, and articles that discuss behaviorism as a philosophy. * ''
The Psychological Record ''The Psychological Record'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering behavior analysis. It was established in 1937 by Jacob Robert Kantor, with B.F. Skinner serving as founding editor of the journal's experimental department. It i ...
'' includes articles concerning behavioral analysis, behavioral science, and behavior theory. It was founded in 1937 by
Jacob Robert Kantor Jacob Robert Kantor (August 8, 1888, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania – 1984, Chicago, Illinois) was a prominent American psychologist who pioneered a naturalistic system in psychology called interbehavioral psychology or interbehaviorism. He was the f ...
. *''Behavior and Social Issues'' *''Education and Treatment of Children''


Position Statements

ABAI has published seven position statements which are nominated and voted on by membership. These include: * Position Statement on the Use of CESS, 2022 * Statement on Conversion Therapy and Practices, 2022 * Expression of Support for the Asian-American Pacific Islander Community, 2021 * Commitment of Equity, 2020 * Restraint and Seclusion, 2010 * Facilitated Communication, 1995 * Students' Rights to Effective Education, 1990 * Right to Effective Behavioral Treatment, 1989 Peter Sturmey suggests in his chapter on Ethics that practitioners use these statements to guide their practice. The Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis (SABA) provides financial support for ABAI activities and serve as a clearinghouse for outside funding of ABAI activities.


Awards

Through the sister organization of SABA, several categories of awards are given to individuals, organizations, and ABA research during the ABAI annual convention. As of 2022, they offer 5 awards: * The Distinguished Service to Behavior Analysis * The Scientific Translation * The International Dissemination of Behavior Analysis * The Effective Presentation of Behavior Analysis in the Mass Media * The Enduring Programmatic Contributions in Behavior Analysis


Controversy

One activist group, Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN), has published critical blog posts about The Association for Behavior Analysis International, suggesting that it provides a platform for the
Judge Rotenberg Center The Judge Rotenberg Center (founded in 1971 as the Behavior Research Institute) is an institution in Canton, Massachusetts, United States, for people with developmental disabilities, emotional disorders, and autistic-like behaviors. The center ...
(JRC), a controversial school which uses aversives. Specifically, the ASAN president
Ari Ne'eman Ari Daniel Ne'eman (; born December 10, 1987) is an American disability rights activist and researcher who co-founded the Autistic Self Advocacy Network in 2006. On December 16, 2009, President Barack Obama announced that Ne'eman would be appoin ...
reviewed two books for Vox in which he criticized both the Autism Society of America and ABAI for not prohibiting the employees of JRC to submit presentations while it was concurrently under investigation from the Food and Drug Administration, the United States Department of Justice, and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture. In 1987, it gave the lawyer, Robert Sherman, the Humanitarian Award for the Right to Effective Treatment for winning a case that guaranteed the
Judge Rotenberg Center The Judge Rotenberg Center (founded in 1971 as the Behavior Research Institute) is an institution in Canton, Massachusetts, United States, for people with developmental disabilities, emotional disorders, and autistic-like behaviors. The center ...
the right to continue using
aversives In psychology, aversives are unpleasant stimuli that induce changes in behavior via negative reinforcement or positive punishment. By applying an aversive immediately before or after a behavior the likelihood of the target behavior occurring in th ...
on its students. ABAI has repeatedly endorsed the Judge Rotenberg Center's use of the
Graduated Electronic Decelerator The graduated electronic decelerator (GED) is an aversive conditioning device that delivers a powerful electric skin shock to punish behaviors considered undesirable. The GED was created by Matthew Israel for use on students at the Judge Rotenb ...
, an aversive device that administers painful electric shocks and has been condemned by the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...
as torture. The Therapist Neurodiversity Collective made a statement about ABAI's connection to the JRC: "We are appalled and horrified that the Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI) chooses to condone painful electric shock aversion therapy at the Judge Rotenberg Center, which the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture has condemned. We are horrified that the JRC will continue the fight to be allowed to continue torturing human beings." In 2022, ABAI's membership voted to support a position that strongly opposed contingent electric skin shock. ABAI was slow to respond because the JRC is the only facility in the US that publicly uses CESS and the organization has a conflicting policy on the right to effective treatment. The organization's policy on the right to treatment leaves the determination on what constitutes effective treatment in the hands of the person being treated, the clinician, and any other interested parties (''e.g.'', parents, guardians, etc.) and did not specifically disallow CESS. Thus, the organization's membership had to approve overriding a portion of the previous position.


See also

*
Behavior analysis of child development The behavioral analysis of child development originates from John B. Watson's behaviorism. History In 1948, Sidney Bijou took a position as associate professor of psychology at the University of Washington and served as director of the universit ...
*
Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior The Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior was founded in 1957 by a group of researchers in the field of behaviorism. It publishes the '' Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior'' and the ''Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis T ...


References

{{Reflist


External links


Association for Behavior Analysis International homepage
Behavioural sciences Kalamazoo, Michigan Psychology organizations based in the United States Behaviorism