On May 24th at the Association for Behavior Analysis International annual convention, Phoenix, AZ there were two panels about the dissemination of behavior analysis, one that has been mentioned before on the blog is:
Professional Development Series: Dissemination: Spreading the Word without Sounding the Alarm [Previous post on the panel]
The Professional Development Series is a group of presentations selected and organized by the student committee of ABAI as a means for students (current or just recently graduated) to enhance their development. The Dissemination Professional Development Series included Drs. Bobby Newman, Joe Wyatt, Paul Chance, and Susan Friedman. Paul Chance began the talk by discussing 9 things to do to disseminate behavior analysis – to keep this post brief, we'll only discuss 3 of them, for more information, contact the Dissemination of Behavior Analysis SIG (http://www.aboutbehavior.com/)
- Leave an interesting article, book, or other types of reading material in the waiting rooms of doctors, dentists, etc. etc…circle the article you want them to read, and write "Good Article" next to it in the Table of Content…it was because a friend/family member picked up an article in a waiting room that Catherine Maurice 'discovered' behavior analysis
- Write reviews on Amazon.com (I'll even extend this to: 'and other online review sites')…sign your name with your real name and 'behavior analyst', or 'BCBA' (only do the latter if you are a BCBA so as to avoid legal troubles). Write reviews on much more than just behavioral books, and be positive in your reviews. Why should you write in non-behavioral books? Well- it combats the image of behaviorists as non-feeling, cold, robotic beings that are so single-mindedly pursuing the data that we ignore the rest of the world/life. Its hard to say those things after reading a passionate review of a book of poetry by a behavior analyst, no? Check out Bobby Newman and Paul Chance's reviews on Amazon for examples.
- Be Nice – it is incredibly important that you are nice to people. Each time you interact with others, you are representing our science (whether you're wearing that hat or not). Most often, being nice, positive, and constructive is much more effective than being nasty, negative, and destructive.
Bobby Newman then got up to the podium and in his usual fashion, he utilized fantastic humor aimed most often at himself to get the point across (including stripping off a layer to show his "World's Sexiest Behavior Analyst Shirt") – take your science, your data, and your audience seriously – do the opposite with yourself J He described some of the most touching things his audience had ever said, pointed out that helping with other causes is a very important way to help disseminate (although, I do appreciate his meaning, I have to wonder at the sanity of someone willing to hop into the ocean on a snowy day). Several of his major points complimented the three points mentioned earlier – such as don't be afraid to show emotion, passion, and/or cry. He described an anecdote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, describing a pastor standing in front of a church, providing the sermon in a monotone – droning on and on about subjects about which he should have been passionate. However, his demeanor, his tone, and his affect didn't express any emotion, any passion, and made the audience question whether he was even alive. However, he was standing in front of a huge window through which the audience could see a beautiful snow storm. Bobby described how the snow storm had people fixated, ignoring the sermon in its entirety. He said that we as behavior analysts must be aware of this fact, that we must be seen by the audience as human. To do this, he works in references to movies, books, historical events –
"We aren't so overspecialized that we don't know things from other areas".He stated that we should pepper our presentations with case studies, personal anecdotes and information, and don't be afraid to show emotion – if you're describing an event that brought you to tears, that is ok to show! It is important that we are doing more than just 'preaching data' – we must provide a clear picture that we are vibrant, living, emotional human beings!
We want to be the snow, not the sermon.
DISCLAIMER: Personal opinion and blog, not an official outlet intended to represent ABA-International® or other official entity or organization.
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