Teaching Behavior Analysts to Address Unethical Behavior: Developing Evidence-Based Ethics Instructional Methods

The field of behavior analysis has dictated an Ethics Code (Behavior Analyst Certification Board, 2020), requirements for instructing ethics content within a Verified Course Sequence, and the mandate that behavior analysts address unethical behavior of others. However, no evidence-based practice for how to instruct behavioral ethics, nor the specific skills for addressing unethical behavior exist. This article evaluated the effectiveness of ethics instruction developed from evidence-based instruction from other fields and applied behavior analysis' behavior skills training (BST) with implementation of basic gamification. Comparison of student improvement on independent completion of behaviors for addressing unethical behavior were compared across applied behavior analysis (ABA) ethics classes at three different universities. The results indicated that the instructional package resulted in significantly improved student independence in addressing unethical behavior. As the first research evaluating effective methods of ABA ethics instruction, the article provides suggestions for future instructional methods and evaluation for evidence-based instruction.