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Interesting times: practice, science, and professional associations in behavior analysis
1Illinois State University.
The Behavior Analyst
|April 26, 2012
Summary
Practitioners and scientists are dissatisfied with the same behavior-analytic organization. Separate professional associations are recommended to serve the distinct guild interests of both scientific and practicing behavior analysts.
Area of Science:
- Behavior analysis
- Professional association management
- Organizational psychology
Background:
- The largest behavior-analytic membership organization faces dissatisfaction from both scientific and practitioner communities.
- Each group fears that initiatives benefiting the other will compromise the organization's ability to serve its own members.
- Historical precedents indicate that discord is common when scientific and practicing professionals share a single association.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze the root causes of dissatisfaction within a large, dual-community professional organization.
- To explore the inherent conflict between the distinct guild interests of scientific and practicing professionals.
- To propose a structural solution for better serving both communities within behavior analysis.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of historical trends in professional associations.
- Examination of the differing "guild interests" of scientific versus practicing professionals.
- Theoretical discussion on organizational structure and member satisfaction.
Main Results:
- Professional associations inherently serve specific "guild interests."
- The interests of scientific and practicing behavior analysts are distinct and often conflicting.
- An organization attempting to serve both simultaneously is unlikely to satisfy either community fully.
Conclusions:
- The fundamental differences in guild interests necessitate separate professional associations for scientific and practicing behavior analysts.
- This separation is proposed as the optimal solution to ensure both communities are adequately served.
- Strategies for promoting this separation are briefly considered.
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