Brian Anthony Iwata (August 20, 1948 – October 7, 2023)
was an American psychologist. He was a Distinguished Professor at
University of Florida
The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...
.
Research
Iwata was best known for his article, "Toward a Functional Analysis of Self-Injury" which was initially published in 1982 and was republished in 1994 in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. Iwata and his coauthors developed an approach to determining why self-injury was happening on an individual basis, which involved empirically measuring the role of environmental events on self-injurious behavior to determine what function it played in helping the individual access reinforcement. This approach allowed for the development of function-based interventions emphasizing reinforcement instead of punishment.
Iwata was briefly involved in the evaluation of SIBIS, an approach to self-injurious behavior suppression that involved application of electric skin shock contingent on self-injury, but after being involved in a single research article, abandoned work in this area. He was not involved in the development of the
graduated electronic decelerator or GED, which is an
aversive
In psychology, aversives are suffering, unpleasant Stimulus (physiology), stimuli that induce changes in behavior via negative reinforcement or positive punishment (psychology), punishment. By applying an aversive immediately before or after a be ...
conditioning device that delivers a powerful electric skin shock to punish behaviors considered undesirable. Dr. Iwata spoke out against the use of GEDs by the Judge Rotenberg Center and even testified in court against their use. He stated that he found success treating even the most difficult of self injurious behaviors using less punitive methods. His writing on this topic can be found in Iwata (1988)
GEDs have since been banned in the United States by the
United States Food and Drug Administration
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respo ...
in 2020. Also, the Association for Behavior Analysis International published a position statement against the use of Contingent Electric Skin Shock in 2022.
Death
Iwata died on October 7, 2023, at the age of 75.
See also
*
Nathan Azrin
Nathan H. Azrin (November 26, 1930 – March 29, 2013) was a behavioral modification researcher, psychologist, and university professor. He taught at Southern Illinois University and was the research director of Anna State Hospital betwee ...
References
External links
Brian Iwata listing at Association of Behavior Analysis International
1948 births
2023 deaths
University of Florida faculty
21st-century American psychologists
Loyola College (Montreal) alumni
Florida State University alumni
People from Scotch Plains, New Jersey
{{US-psychologist-stub