Ethics Code and Core Ethical Principles for Behavior Analysts
For this week’s assignment, you are playing the role of an experienced Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) who has been working in the field for several years. You have worked in various settings including an elementary school, and an in-patient unit for adults. You just started a new job at a small ABA clinic for adolescents diagnosed with autism.
As an experienced BCBA, you are asked to present on supervising others and the core principles from the Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts to new employees. This group of employees at the company you are working for includes a mix of RBTs, BCaBAs, and BCBAs. You will be providing them with real-life supervision scenarios that apply to the core principles as well as relevant ethical codes.
****Use the following link for the ethics code
https://www(dot)bacb(dot)com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Ethics-Code-for-Behavior-Analysts-230119-a.pdf
Scenario 1
When you first started working in the field, you were asked to supervise 20 supervisees at your company. This company was run by a CEO who had never worked in the field of ABA and was concerned about making a profit off of the business. You realized that the number of clients was increasing at a pace that impacted the treatment of clients. The quality of care started to dip, and your clients started engaging in more behaviors due to inconsistent schedules. There were a few recommendations that the CEO made that were questionable. One of the recommendations made was that students conduct supervision and bill insurance to save time and money. These students were in school to become BCBAs but had not yet graduated or completed their supervision hours. You were asked to sign off on these supervision notes so that billing could be approved.
Scenario 2
You were working with a 6-year-old client with autism who engages in mild problem behaviors and struggles with activities of daily living. During mealtimes, this client ate with his hands and did not know how to eat with utensils. In the functional life skills assessment, a goal stated, “Client will use utensils to eat with during mealtimes independently.” You thought about entering this goal in, as it is typically the next goal you work on based on his skill level and age. Before implementing this life skill goal, you wanted to discuss it with the parents first. The primary RBT on his case said, “He shouldn't be eating with his hands; it is bad manners.” You spoke with the parents, and the parents informed you that culturally, they ate all meals with their hands and did not need to worry about him using utensils. You decided to discuss this with your RBT and explain your reasoning. The RBT said, “Well everyone else is eating with utensils; I will just work on this anyways.”
Scenario 3
After you had a few years of experience, you worked for one year at an in-patient behavioral health center. At this center, you were being trained by a colleague who copy and pasted behavior intervention plans, and changed the names regardless of background information. You noticed that these behavior plans were not client-specific and were the same. These plans also included wording like, “Rush to use physical prompting if needed, and restrain if they act up.” You noticed these plans were lacking reinforcement systems or least-to-most prompting. When you were asked to review these plans and edit them, you decided to bring these issues up to your supervisor.
Assignment Directions
the Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts, applying these core principles to the case scenarios above and applying relevant codes in relation to supervision skills.
1: Title
2: Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts
Briefly describe the role of the Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts.
Introduce yourself and describe, in detail, the importance of the Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts.
3: Core Ethical Principles
List each of the core principles.
Describe each core principle in detail.
4: Ethics Code and Core Principles for Supervision - Scenario 1
Identify the ethics code(s) relevant to the scenario (from Sections 4, 5, and 6).
Based on the supervision case scenario, relate the relevant core principles that apply to the situation.
Using specific information from the scenario, explain the situation, your rationale for choosing the relevant codes and core principles, and how the situation adheres to or violates the codes.
5: Ethics Code and Core Principles for Supervision - Scenario 2
Identify the ethics code(s) relevant to the scenario (from Sections 4, 5, and 6).
Based on the supervision case scenario, relate the relevant core principles that apply to the situation.
Using specific information from the scenario, explain the situation, your rationale for choosing the relevant codes and core principles, and how the situation adheres to or violates the codes.
6: Ethics Code and Core Principles for Supervision - Scenario 3
Identify the ethics code(s) relevant to the scenario (from Sections 4, 5, and 6).
Based on the supervision case scenario, relate the relevant core principles that apply to the situation.
Using specific information from the scenario, explain the situation, your rationale for choosing the relevant codes and core principles, and how the situation adheres to or violates the codes.
7: Multiculturalism
List at least three examples of multiculturalism from the Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts (age, disability, ethnicity, gender expression/identity, immigration status, marital/relationship status, national origin, race, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status).
Based on your selected examples, explain in detail how behavior analysts embrace multiculturalism and diversity in the field.
8: Conclusion
Summarize the main points of your presentation.
9: References
Include at least two sources to support your responses.
Ethical Codes as BCBA
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course
Instructor
Date
Ethical Codes as BCBA
Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts
The ethics code for behavior analysts acts as a guide to professional practice. Behavior analysts embrace the ethics code to evaluate their behaviors and those of others, especially those implicated in violating ethical standards and expectations (Behavior Analyst Certification Board, 2020). I am an experienced Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA). I have worked in setting such as inpatient units and an elementary school. As such, I have experience in supervising and presenting core principles of the ethics code for Behavior Analysts. A behavior analyst is expected to embrace the ethics code for behavior analysts that ensures they comply with the regulations, do not violate provisions, resolve issues, and act in the best interest of their clients, colleagues, and other stakeholders.
Core Ethical Principles
According to Behavior Analyst Certification Board (2020), the core foundational principles include treating others with compassion, respect, and dignity, behaving with integrity, benefiting others, and ensuring one’s own competence.
Benefiting others revolves around beneficence and nonmaleficence ethical principles, which compels one to minimize harm and maximize positive outcomes (Stone, 2018). The behavior analyst is expected to protect clients’ and colleagues’ rights and welfare, address their mental and physical health to ensure it does not impede their professional practice or capacity, identify sources of conflict, such as religious and cultural differences and resolve them efficiently. The objective is to ensure the interest of the clients, including avoiding harm, are met, often through collaboration and conflict management techniques. Ensuring one’s own competence includes constantly improving their knowledge regarding practice, which can be achieved by embracing professional development practices such as advancing in ABA. The third principle entails treating others with respect, compassion, and dignity. It entails prioritizing equality in diverse settings with differences in gender, race, ethnicity, age, socioeconomic status, or religious background (Behavior Analyst Certification Board, 2020). It also includes observing the client’s right to privacy. The last principle is behaving with integrity, where the behavior analyst adheres to their obligations, embraces responsibility for their work, and creates a professional environment that observes the ethics code, among others.
Ethics Code and Core Principles for Supervision-Scenario 1
The relevant core principle applicable in this situation is benefiting others, which entails facilitating the protection of the rights and welfare of the clients and other people within the behavior analysts’ professional capacity. The behavior analyst has to ensure the supervisees’ rights and welfare are protected from imminent exploitation from the CEO, who is more keen on profits. The ethics stan...