Ethical Decision Making in Applied Behavior Analysis: Session 294 with Ilene Schwartz and Beth Kelly

The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria

Drs. Ilene Schwartz and Beth Kelly joined me to discuss the never ending conundrum of navigating ethical dilemmas. As Ilene points out in the podcast, most people know right from wrong, but the types of dilemmas BCBAs encounter are what she calls 'right vs. right' dilemmas...

Therefore, ethical practice requires a continuous decision making process. And in my guests' view, this is not a matter of decontextualized rule-following. In this podcast, we get into these nuances, using Ilene and Beth's newly published book, Ethical Decision Making in Applied Behavior Analysis.

We also discussed a framework for articulating one's values and principles that you might find helpful in your work setting.

Resources for this podcast:

• Ethical Decision Making in Applied Behavior Analysis.
• Rosenberg and Scwhartz (2018). Guidance or Compliance: What Makes an Ethical Behavior Analyst?
• Kelly, Greeny, Rosenberg and Schwartz (2020). When Rules Are Not Enough: Developing Principles to Guide Ethical Conduct.
• Dr. Schwartz's faculty page.
• Dr. Kelly's faculty page.
• BOP's CEUs, with many Ethics events.

This podcast is brought to you with the support of:

• The Profound Autism Summit. The Profound Autism Summit is a two-day conference taking place on April 10th and 11th in Boston, MA. Following on the massive success of the 2024 Summit, the 2025 event brings together leaders from the areas of research, medicine, treatment, advocacy, and education to discuss the needs and support of those with Profound Autism across disciplines and throughout the lifespan.
• CEUs from Behavioral Observations. Learn from your favorite podcast guests while you're commuting, walking the dog, or whatever else you do while listening to podcasts. New events are being added all the time, so check them out here.
• The Behavioral Toolbox. Check out our courses for school-based and other behavioral professionals, including our newest one, Motivational Interviewing: Getting Educator Buy-In.
• The Verbal Behavior Conference. Whether you attend in-person in Austin, TX, or online via BehaviorLive, you're going to love this year's Verbal Behavior Conference! Click here to get all the details!
• Behavior University. Their mission is to provide university quality professional development for the busy Behavior Analyst. Learn about their CEU offerings, including their 8-hour Supervision Course, as well as their RBT offerings over at behavioruniversity.com/observations. Don't forget to use the coupon code, PODCAST to save at checkout!