|
| Immigration and Human Rights Symposium |
| Friday, October 9, 2020 |
| 9:30 AM–10:30 AM |
| Online |
| Domain: Systems |
| Chair: Mark A. Mattaini (Jane Addams College of Social Work-University of Illinois at Chicago) |
| CE Instructor: Mark A. Mattaini, Ph.D. |
| Abstract: In response to Guevara’s examination of current immigration policies and their repercussions, the panelists will present behavior analytic interpretations of this issue and offer strategies for behavior scientists to engage in activism and human rights advocacy efforts. Beginning with a better understanding of the history of behaviorism in supporting humane immigration policies, the panelists will offer a call to action for culturo-behavior scientists to extend this analysis in light of existing conditions. Ongoing research designed to change verbal behavior and promote social activism using stimulus control procedures and shaping will be discussed as well as the critical role of graduate students and future behavior analysts in addressing global humanitarian crises. |
| Instruction Level: Intermediate |
| Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the presentation, participants will be able to: (1) understand behaviorism’s legacy of advocacy for progressive social change in general and for humane immigration policies in particular; (2) understand how one can utilize behavior analytic and cultural behavior science in the service of personal progressive values; (3) appreciate the skills beyond technical ones that are needed to apply behavioral analyses effectively in the service of social activism; (4) generate ideas for cultural behavior science research, social action, and education/training that promote humane immigration policies; (5) identify one or more existing societal-level problems that influence their professional practice possibly maintained through group contingencies within the behavior analytic community; (6) analyze how differences between one’s own cultural variables and learning history and those of their clients’ or co-workers may “significantly affect” professional work; (7) list resources shared that provide support to behavior analysts seeking to extend the science and practice of behavior analysis to solving local or global humanitarian crises; (8) assess environmental variables and/or behaviors amenable to change that facilitate scaling of behavior analysis to societal-level problems such as immigration, migration, sustainability, climate crisis, income inequality, etc.; (9) identify injustices and dangers experienced by vulnerable populations in borderlands; (10) identify five component skill sets that may lead to more compassionate responses to the suffering of vulnerable populations; (11) describe the process of translating values into actions. |
| |
Cultural Behavior Science and Humane Immigration Policies: Let’s Go Back to the Future! |
| RICHARD RAKOS (Cleveland State University) |
| Abstract: Behaviorism’s history of progressive social-cultural analysis and action started with its founder, John B. Watson. Among the social issues he addressed most stridently was the anti-immigration fervor that swept the United States during and after World War I. This nativism, energized by a surging eugenics movement that included virtually all the leading figures in US psychology, triumphed with the passage of the Johnson-Lodge Immigration Act of 1924 that established discriminatory “national origin quotas.” In this context, I discuss Watson’s famous “give me a dozen healthy infants” challenge, usually dismissed as ridiculous ideological hyperbole, as embedded in his scientific rebuttal to the eugenicists who championed the 1924 act. Unfortunately, though scientifically advocating for humane immigration policies is a legacy of behaviorism, a review of the literature since Watson indicates that immigration rarely has been an interest of cultural behavior science. However, given current anti-immigration policies and the criteria used to accept applicants, it is time for behaviorism to reclaim this legacy. Toward this end, I propose that an immigration policy grounded in a behavior analytic model offers a scientific alternative to current policies that is both humane in its treatment of applicants and beneficial in important ways to US society. I suggest what might comprise such a behaviorally-based immigration policy and conclude by indicating several different ways -- research, social activism, and graduate student education – that cultural behavior science can return to one of its important roots and join other sciences in using its understandings to inform and promote humane immigration policies. |
 I received my Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Kent State University and now am Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Cleveland State University. I retired in 2016 after 37.5 years at CSU, most recently as associate dean for faculty and program development in the College of Sciences and Health Professions. I have concentrated my publications and presentations in the areas of assertiveness training, self-management, law and psychology, and behavioral-cultural analysis of social, political, and societal issues that relate to improving equity, cooperation, and justice among people. I served as Editor of Behavior and Social Issues (and its predecessor journals Behaviorists for Social Action Journal and Behavior Analysis and Social Action) from 1981-1993 and as associate or consulting editor of BSI from 1993 to the present. I also served on the editorial board of Law and Human Behavior from 2000-2016 and am a Fellow in the American Psychological Association. Since retiring from CSU, I have maintained my behavior analytic scholarly activities while expanding my private clinical practice significantly, focusing on the behavioral out-patient treatment of persons experiencing difficulties with anxiety, stress, depression, self-control, obsessions and compulsions, social/interpersonal relationships, and parenting/child management. |
| |
I Am One of Skinner’s Uncommitted |
| MEGAN KIRBY (University of South Florida) |
| Abstract: Although majority of behavior analytic practitioners work in a medical/outpatient model of ABA service delivery, a growing number of behaviorists express a desire to collaborate with other professions and apply the science of behavior to solve global crises. This talk will share one BCBA’s experience pivoting a career as a Director of ABA Services to graduate researcher designing educational interventions for displaced children (i.e., migrants, refugees). The purpose of the presentation is to educate others about what it may entail to be one of Skinner’s “uncommitted” (Skinner, 1987) and hopefully inspire fellow behavior analysts to combat the “inertia of affluence” (Mattaini & Aspholm, 2016) and join the fight to save the world with behavior analysis. |
 Megan Sullivan Kirby, BCBA (pronouns: she/her/hers) is a doctoral student and graduate research assistant at the University of South Florida (Advisor: Trina Spencer, PhD, BCBA-D). Having co-founded UncomfortableX in 2017, she engages in personal and professional interests linking the application of behavior analysis to social justice, education and human rights. Her primary research interests involve the measurement of narrative language in early childhood and designing storytelling interventions to support educational programming for displaced children in refugee camps around the world. |
| |
| We Are All in This Together: Changing Individual Behavior to Support Humane Policies |
| SHAHLA ALA'I (University of North Texas) |
| Abstract: Global injustices and dangers experienced by vulnerable populations are becoming more and more apparent. Many of these occur in borderlands and involve complex responses to people of different national, racial and ethnic identities. The purpose of this presentation is to share the process and preliminary outcomes of an education project aimed to increase compassionate responses to suffering in vulnerable populations in borderlands. “Nur-e-Esperanza” is a collective learning project grounded in the philosophies of behaviorism, womanism, and the people’s science movement. Our approach involves inductive and participatory practices to increase the expansiveness and depth of social discourse within local communities. Specifically, we are developing and evaluating component training modules for: 1) Noticing and relating to the feelings of others, especially those that are very different than ourselves; 2) Noticing and evaluating the social justice relationships between ourselves, communities and institutions; 3) Noticing dimensions of social privilege, coercion and attraction; 4) Engaging in skilled dialogs between people of diverse lived experiences; and, 5) Engaging in the translation of values into strategic actions and reflections. Our topics center on race, gender, religion and nationality. Our dependent variables are changes in verbal behavior, feelings, and reported activism. The instructional design involves stimulus control procedures (systematic introduction and discrimination of increasingly complex classes of social justice/injustice examples) and collective shaping of noticing and engaging. The project is discussed in relation to the ways that understanding and changing individual behavior may support actions and policies that protect and enhance human life and reduce suffering. |
 Shahla Ala’i received her B.S. from Southern Illinois University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Kansas. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Behavior Analysis at the University of North Texas (UNT) and the director of the North Texas Autism Project (NTAP). NTAP is a service, training and research program working in cooperation with several global partners, with applied anthropologists, and with Easter Seals North Texas. Shahla is also a member of a social justice collective at UNT. This is an interdisciplinary effort designed to create a space for applied research and activism in social justice and includes faculty and students from Woman’s and Gender Studies, Applied Anthropology and Behavior Analysis. Shahla teaches classes on ethics, autism intervention, parent training, applied research methods, and behavior change techniques. Shahla served on the governing board of the Behavior Analysis Certification Board (BACB) and as a subject matter expert on supervision and on ethics. Shahla currently serves on the ABAI Practice Board and the APBA Diversity Ad Hoc Task Force. She has published and presented research on ethics in early intervention, play and social skills, family harmony, change agent training, and evidence-based practice. Her research is applied and grounded in a commitment to love and science. She has trained hundreds of master’s level behavior analysts who have gone on to serve families and communities with honor. Shahla has over four decades of experience working with families, particularly those from non-dominant cultural backgrounds. She travels and presents her work nationally and internationally to both professional and lay audiences. She was awarded an Onassis Foundation Fellowship for her work with families, was the recipient of UNT’s prestigious student selected “Fessor Graham" teaching award, and received the Texas Association for Behavior Analysis Career Contributions Award in 2019. |
|
| |