Why ‘Good’ BCBAs Make Bad Decisions

BCBAs have a standardized ethics code they have been taught since grad school. They can recite them, read them and print them off with ease. However, once in the ‘real world’ situations do not always line up perfectly with the code. The result can be unethical behavior, poor decision making or even a lack of decision making. This talk dives into how ethical behavior is behavior that follows the law of effect as well as the rules of response effort, BST, and group contingencies. A dip into why seemingly ‘good’ people make bad or unethical decisions is highlighted using research from both behavioral and psychological literature.

Speaker Name

Nicolle Carr, PhD, BCBA-D

Course Objectives

By the end of this course, learners will be able to:

Outline methods to increase the chance of ethical decision-making behavior

Define three variables involved in poor ethical decision-making behavior

Discuss contextual variables that play a role in mediating ethical decision making

Nicolle Carr, PhD, BCBA-D

Dr. Nicolle Carr grew up in a small town in Oklahoma playing sports and reading. She received a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Oklahoma City University before attending the University of Texas’s Psychology / Behavior Neuroscience department working in two labs on the effect of conditioning on the mating behavior of quail and genetic sequencing, brain cutting and metabolic imaging related to maternal rat behavior. She served as an Asst. Director for Clinical Services at a residential treatment facility for behaviorally challenged individuals with a variety of diagnoses, and went back to school in 2008 to become a BCBA. She taught for over 15 universities for 20+ years both online and in person before overseeing the ABA program at the University of Oklahoma for a few years. She has published two books in the ABA space - one for teachers and one on ethics. Most recently, she became the CEO of Mindful Play ABA in NW Oklahoma City.