Association for Behavior Analysis International

Several behavioral programs are advancing the culture of behavioral science. These presenters will offer recent research across universities in the U.S. and Brazil relevant to large scale behavior change and social activism. Topics discussed will focus on how culturo-behavior scientist can use research to inform and impact public policy.

Universities should highlight the consequences of antagonistic approaches to societal challenges. These are often paralleled into ideological frontiers. Even though there are need for highly specialized competencies to solve some of the wicked problems society encounter, the ability to exploit and explore complementary solutions increases as complexity grows. On all levels, from agent interaction to policy makers, the multidisciplinary behavioral insight offers tools that more effectively and more efficiently meet intended goals and address the real needs of citizens and end-users. Government interventions are often based on deductive approach, assuming human behavior to be profoundly rational and implementing reforms at full scale. By using the growing body of behavioral insights, one might debias this process by moving away from sometimes unrealistic assumptions of rationality to discover the actual behavior of individuals through problem identification, behavior analysis, experimentation and trialing that tests multiple policy responses at a smaller scale to determine the best course of action in a cost-effective manner. This will enable our students to not only addressing societal challenges, but also ability to contributing to the solutions.

Behavior analysis is well known in Brazil as one of the main approaches to experimental psychology, and a clinical practice to intervene with neurotypical or delayed developmental audiences. Less known in the country is how behavior analysis may approach social issues and systemic interventions. Although this has been an area of intense growth in Brazil in the last two decades, most of the students in psychology don't know that behavior analysis deals with such topics. This presentation discusses some of the contingencies and metacontingencies that selected approaching social issues in Brazil, especially how Psychology Faculties and students over the years in general (Behavior Analysis in it) have been part of social movements and directly related to social sciences since the 1970s. The presentation finish with some of the strategies used to propagate this area among students in Brazil.

As a recently formalized specialization, Culturo-Behavior Science (CBS) explores how to take behavior science to scale; how to better understand the influences of social, institutional, and cultural variables on cooperative and competitive behavior; and how behavior science can contribute to solving some of the world’s most pressing problems. However, determining where to start and what strategies to use to develop expertise in an emerging specialization may prove challenging. Opportunities to be mentored, join labs, take formal courses, and conduct research in CBS are not yet widely available. Nonetheless, the Department of Behavior Analysis at the University of North Texas has been instrumental in providing such opportunities for students, faculty, and scholars (i.e., the Behavior and Culture Lab coordinated by Glenn from 2006-2012). Recently, we have rekindled such efforts with the creation of the Cultural Design and Systems Lab (Cihon, Becker, & Ortu 2018 to present) and the provision of graduate-level coursework in CBS. The goal of this presentation is to describe our recent efforts to provide opportunities for students, faculty, and scholars to pursue their interests in CBS and to make tangible suggestions for students, faculty, and scholars interested in getting started in CBS.

Dr. Traci Cihon received her master’s degree from the University of Nevada-Reno and her PhD from The Ohio State University. Currently, she is an Associate Professor in the Department of Behavior Analysis at The University of North Texas where she teaches graduate level courses in ethics and behavioral systems analysis and the undergraduate Organizational Behavior Management courses. Dr. Cihon has developed behavioral interventions for individuals with and without disabilities in home and school settings both domestically and internationally. Her scholarship focuses cultural and-behavioral systems science, verbal behavior, international and interdisciplinary work, and behavioral education. At UNT, Dr. Cihon co-leads the Cultural Design & Systems Lab, conducting research that contributes to our understanding of how cultural phenomena develop from a systems and selectionist perspective. In addition, she serves on editorial boards for several peer-reviewed journals including The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, Behavior and Social Issues, Perspectives on Behavior Science, and the American Annals of the Deaf. Her most recent projects include co-editing a special section of Perspectives on Behavior Science focused on cultural and behavioral systems science and co-editing Behavior Science Perspectives on Culture and Community, part of a new ABAI book series - both with Dr. Mark Mattaini, and serving as the editor for a special section in Behavior and Social Issues on papers developed from the 5th Think Tank on Cultural Analysis.

For many social activists and applied researchers, once a technology that can solve a social problem is found, basic science loses its importance. For them, dealing with “big issues” is more important than investing in abstract understanding or predicting natural phenomena. In fact, ideas such as social justice, human rights, and environmental changes require urgent solutions. For this reason, knowledge directly related to behavior changes on a large scale is usually viewed as more important for social change than the ones made by basic science. The first is assumed to deal with “real-world problems” while the second is viewed as something abstract and distant from social demands in a world that claims for social change. However, the knowledge that comes from basic science is probably the most fundamental source of power in modern societies and more than an initial step to technology and innovation. Technology and innovation is only one aspect of scientific development. This presentation stands that basic science in culturo-behavior science is also a “real-world problem” in the sense that it explores fundamental questions of human existence, constantly reviews our comprehensions on our basic phenomena, provides a deep understanding of why certain practices works or not and connects us with other sciences. This is what makes scientific literacy a key component for social activism: we cannot only be efficient to promote behavior and social change in large scale, we must also inform people about what behavior means, what is cultural practices, so people can independently make better decisions in their daily lives. I will try to highlight the need for a mutual relationship among basic science, applied science, programs for behavior change in large scale, and scientific literation as a mission for culture-behavior science.