Ethics Resources

The Challenge

The Behavior Analyst Certification Board’s® (BACB®) Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts (2020; hereafter referred to as the BACB Code) defines multiple relationships as “A comingling of two or more of a behavior analyst’s roles (e.g., behavioral and personal) with a client, stakeholder, supervisee, trainee, research participant, or someone closely associated or related to the client” (p. 7). Here, the term “comingling” is key: two or more factions of a behavior analyst’s life “mix” together with one another, forming the basic ingredients of a multiple relationship.

Before going further, it is important to first describe some examples of multiple relationships. Though it is impossible to list every example of a multiple relationship, three examples are provided below.

Example 1: Matt (he/him) is Ashley’s (she/her) MA advisor and directs Ashley’s thesis committee. Matt is also Ashley’s instructor for one of Ashley’s MA courses. Here, Matt and Ashley are in a multiple relationship: Advisor – Advisee; Instructor – Student.

Example 2: Emily (she/her) and Aman (he/him) both work for a university in the same academic department. They are also legally married. Here, Emily and Aman are in a multiple relationship: Colleague – Colleague; Spouse – Spouse.

Example 3: Jesse (he/him) and Phil (he/him) have been friends since elementary school. Phil has a son who has autism. Phil has asked Jesse if Jesse knows of any research studies that can help his son’s challenging behavior. Jesse sends Phil a flyer, and then Phil enrolls his son in one of Jesse’s research studies. Here, Jesse and Phil are in a multiple relationship: Friend – Friend; Researcher – Parent.

See Dr. Brodhead's Response here. 

Taylor (they/them) is a clinician and has been the Clinical Director at an ABA provider organization for two years. The company has been going through some recent changes, resulting in a lot of clinician turnover, and Taylor has had to take on more clients than usual as the company works on hiring more clinicians. Another clinician recently resigned. Taylor is concerned that they cannot take on more clients while supporting the newly hired clinicians and completing their other tasks as the clinical director for the center. Taylor reached out to their supervisor to share their concerns and was told they had two options: find a way to cover services or put services on hold for the clients who recently lost their supervising clinician until they hired a new clinician. What should Taylor do next?

Josita, a Registered Behavior Technician® (RBT®) and aspiring Board Certified Behavior Analyst® (BCBA®), has worked in her company for several years under the supervision of the same supervisor. After making appropriate arrangements for a transition, Josita began receiving supervision from a newly hired BCBA at the same company. From the very first week of supervision, Josita appreciates how the new supervisor approaches things slightly differently from the way she was previously trained. For example, her new supervisor has been incorporating additional intake interview questions and social validity assessments into the clinical practice and they favor a particular method of functional analysis over the method used by most other BCBAs in the organization. Josita feels this experience is helping to expand her scope of competence and her readiness to collaborate with people whose professional training differs from her own. Josita happens to cross paths with her previous supervisor, Kade, and shares her enthusiasm about what she is learning. Kade replies, "Not to alarm you, but those practices sound inconsistent with the best available science, and I'm not even sure some of them are truly behavior analytic. If you ever feel uncomfortable with the things your supervisor is doing with clients, please come to me. If you talk to your supervisor about this and they get defensive, you can always continue your fieldwork under my supervision instead." What should Josita do next?

Dario (they/them) is a BCBA® who works for a company that provides in-home ABA services for children ages 2-10 years. An RBT® who Dario supervises calls from their ongoing client session with an urgent problem. The RBT states that the client they are in session with keeps saying they “don’t want to ‘do’ ABA today” and refuses to participate in any activities with the RBT—even their typically preferred favorite activity of swinging on the backyard swing where the RBT often incorporates communication and social goals. This had been going on for about 40 mins at which point the RBT told the client’s parents what was happening and suggested they should cancel the rest of the session. The client’s parents stated, “He is just trying to get out of doing work.” They also pointed out that they already have to pay for the session, and that their son should get something out of it. Finally, they reminded the RBT that they have the legal authority to make healthcare decisions for their child and want him to get ABA that day. When Dario questions the RBT further, no other causal variables are readily apparent (e.g., the client is sick) and the RBT shares that they think the client is simply “not into participating in ABA that day.” Other contextual information Dario considers is that the client does not have a history of escape-maintained behavior and—though the client is always enthusiastic about ABA sessions—they have historically participated without any similar challenges. What should Dario tell their RBT to do? 

The Challenge

A new child began receiving services at your clinic and they were assigned to your caseload. During the intake, you learn that the family shares a cultural background with you. In fact, your supervisor assigned you this case because they felt that you would be able to communicate with caregivers in their native language. It is nice to be able to use your knowledge of common language, heritage, and customs to provide services to this family in a socially meaningful way. During the intake meeting, caregivers and the maternal grandmother describe their main concerns of their four-year-old boy, which center around limited communication, difficulty following simple directions, and intense tantrums. You provide them with an overview of ABA services at the clinic and let them know you will communicate with them throughout the process.

As a parent of a young child yourself, you consider how aspects of your culture impact decisions about supporting learning with your child. You are the perfect BCBA® to provide services for this family! You dive into conducting a VB-MAPP and know exactly what goals to target. In addition to working on the client’s verbal behavior (manding and listener responding), you identify independent skills related to mealtime (e.g., self-feeding, cleaning up after themself) and group activities (e.g., sitting in a group, completing craft activities with minimal adult support) as additional areas to target. The ultimate goal you set for your new client is school readiness, so you prioritize social and group programming over other areas.

You are eager to show caregivers the progress their son has made in just a short amount of time. Three months into the program, you invite the client’s mom to stay after dropping her son off to observe him during a group activity and snack. She mentions she would prefer to have her partner, and her mom present when discussing her child’s services, but agrees to stay, nonetheless. As you describe the goals you have been targeting and the child’s progress on self-feeding and self-care skills, the client’s mom appears taken aback and upset. She does not say much during the observation period and excuses herself shortly after. It is not clear to you whether, despite describing everything in her native language, it is possible mom did not understand what you were saying during the observation. Upon returning to pick him up later in the day, you ask her what she thought of what she observed earlier and whether she has any questions. Her response is brief and less friendly than usual. She asks that you schedule a meeting as soon as possible for a time when her husband and mom can attend. What happened? 

Read Drs. Jimenez-Gomez & Karsten's Response here. 

The Challenge

Aman (he/him) works for a mid-sized human service organization where he oversees continuous quality improvement of organizational systems. One day Aman, who holds a Board Certified Behavior Analyst® (BCBA®) certification, was reviewing files located within the corporate office when he decided to visit his friend and co-worker Michael (they/them) to discuss their plans for the upcoming weekend. As Aman walked into the employee lounge to meet up with Michael, he overheard his supervisor, Kevin (he/him), make a lewd comment to Michael about the way they were dressed. Kevin must have heard Aman enter the room because he quickly turned around to acknowledge Aman, shook his hand, and then left. Michael stood in silence in an obvious state of discomfort, while another employee and BCBA, Tatum (she/her), stood in the corner of the room, also in shock.

After Aman spent an extensive length of time providing emotional support to Michael, he went to a quiet workspace, opened his laptop, and pulled up his employer’s website to report the sexual harassment he had witnessed earlier that day. Aman’s employer had a policy requiring employees who witnessed an episode of sexual harassment to report it. Aman filled in the required information on the company’s reporting form, submitted the form, shut his laptop, and walked out of the corporate office.

A few weeks later, Aman received a phone call from his employer’s lead human resource (HR) representative, requesting his immediate attendance at the corporate office for an urgent meeting. Aman figured the meeting would be about the episode of sexual harassment he had reported earlier, given he had just learned that Kevin had resigned from the company. When he arrived at the meeting, the HR representative told Aman that he was suspended without pay for failure to file a sexual harassment report in a timely manner (a violation of corporate policy). Aman was understandably confused because a few weeks earlier, he had indeed filed such information. Aman suspected that HR must have become aware that he witnessed the episode of sexual harassment via the report Tatum (the other BCBA in the room) submitted that probably indicated Aman was present when the incident occurred.

Aman told the HR representative that filled out the required report about 15 minutes after the event. When the HR representative pressed Aman for proof that he filed that information, Aman admitted he did not have it. Where did Aman go wrong and what steps could Aman have taken to document his efforts to fulfill his mandated reporting responsibilities?

Read Drs. Brodhead & Lichtenberger's Response here.