Ethics for Behavioral Analysts

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Author: Tammy Willis, Ph.D., SP, BCBA

CEU Course Description

Behavior analysts regularly face situations that call for ethical decision-making, both when working directly with clients and when supervising others who do. This course is organized around the Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts (BACB, 2020). It reviews the Code’s structure, core principles, and recommended decision-making process; ethical concerns that have been raised about ABA-based interventions and the standards that address them; factors that can influence a practitioner’s ethical decisions, such as competing contingencies, delayed and probabilistic outcomes, limited time and information, and supervisory pressure; organizational systems for teaching and maintaining ethical behavior, including behavioral systems analysis, risk-screening tools, ethics committees, and supervision practices; culturally responsive and nondiscriminatory collaboration with professionals inside and outside the discipline; and Code requirements for multiple relationships, gifts, confidentiality, public statements and social media, and research. Case studies and reflection questions throughout ask participants to apply specific Code standards to situations drawn from behavior-analytic practice.

CEU Course Objectives

1. Identify the four core principles and the six standard sections of the Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts (BACB, 2020) and describe the steps of the Code’s structured ethical decision-making process.
2. Describe ethical concerns that have been raised about ABA-based interventions and identify the Code standards that address social significance, client involvement, informed consent and assent, and risk of harm.
3. Identify factors that can influence ethical decision-making in practice (e.g., competing schedules of reinforcement, delayed and probabilistic outcomes, limited time and information, expertise, resources, and supervisory pressure) and the related Code standards on competence, billing, and continuity of services.
4. Describe the components of an organizational system for teaching and maintaining ethical behavior, including behavioral systems analysis, the Continuum of Care Screener, ethics committees, and supervision standards.
5. Identify strategies and Code standards for culturally responsive, nondiscriminatory, and effective collaboration with professionals inside and outside behavior analysis.
6. Identify Code requirements for multiple relationships, gifts, confidentiality, public statements and social media, and research.

Course Date: 2026-11-13

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