Assessing the Reliability of and Preference for an Ethical Decision Model

Promoting ethical behavior among behavior analysts is important to enhance the quality of services. One method to enhance ethical decision making is using a decision model; however, there is limited research evaluating decision models to address ethical dilemmas in behavior analysis. This study used an online survey to investigate ethical decision making. Seventy-five board certified behavior analysts (BCBAs) were presented with scenarios that posed ethical dilemmas. During baseline, participants were instructed to use their own method to identify solutions to the ethical dilemmas and identify factors that led to their decision. Following exposure to a decision-making model, participants were instructed to choose between their method ("My Way") or the decision model prior to solving additional ethical dilemmas via a concurrent chain arrangement. The results showed considerable variability in ethical decisions across participants, with an increase in reliability when using the decision model. However, participants preferred using their own method over the decision model, and preference varied based on years of experience and cultural variables (race, gender identity).