A Master's program in Applied Behavior Analysis: Contingencies for initiation and maintenance.

Abstract

We describe a Master's program in Applied Behavior Analysis that involves collaboration between an academic graduate program in psychology and the departments of an institution dedicated to the delivery of behavioral services: in this instance, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and the Kennedy Krieger Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The launching of a new program and its subsequent maintenance involves a variety of contingencies, both academic and professional. This paper discusses a few of them, and demonstrates how quickly and effectively progress can be made when compatible and reciprocal contingencies of support are identified for all of the various participants in a program. As we enter the Decade of Behavior, we hope this program will provide a source of more practitioners of applied behavior analysis, so sorely needed to meet the growing demand for our demonstrably successful interventions. ********** One hallmark of behavior analysis and one source of its success in interventions is its recognition of multiple causation in the determination of complex behavior. Multiple causation operates, for example, in verbal behavior, as when the order that someone places at a fast food restaurant is simultaneously determined by many different variables: the person behind the counter as an audience, the menu as an occasion for textual behavior, the food visible in pictures and on the trays of other customers as an occasion for tacting, the overheard orders of other customers as an occasion for echoic behavior, the factors that make the food to be ordered reinforcing as establishing operations, and so on. When many variables that each occasion the same verbal response come together at one time, the verbal behavior that follows may be virtually inevitable. It is no surprise that many causes also enter into institutional behavior, and because much of our own activity as behavior analysts occurs in institutional settings, it may be useful to explore the multiple causation that may be involved in the creation and maintenance of behavior analytic programs. History It is difficult to pinpoint just when discussions began about a possible collaborative program involving the Department of Psychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) and the Kennedy Krieger Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (KKI); they may go back two decades or more. Some of the more recent and key administrative discussions (within the past five years) involved A. Charles Catania at UMBC, the chair of the Department of Behavioral Psychology at KKI, Michael F. Cataldo, and the chair of the UMBC Department of Psychology, Carlo DiClemente. Once agreement had been reached about the desirability and feasibility of the program and the nature of its administration, Wayne W. Fisher and A. Charles Catania undertook the implementation of the program, with special attention to design of courses and professional training. The mutual interests of all participants quickly became evident. They included but were not limited to the following: The growing field of applied behavior analysis called for more well-trained practitioners; the UMBC administration wanted to expand the enrollment of graduate students, especially at the Master's level; and, the behavior analysts at KKI needed more qualified people to staff inpatient treatment units and wanted more opportunities to interact with students of behavior analysis. The collaborative program was approved by the UMBC Department of Psychology during the 1997-1998 academic year, and the call for applications went out late in Spring 1998 with a July 1 deadline. Under those circumstances, the numbers were of course too small to really constitute a class, and a couple of students who were unable to complete applications in time were provisionally admitted to course work as special students. More standardized application procedures brought in four more students in the 1999-2000 academic year (including one student from Iceland) and six more in the current (2000-2001) academic year. …