Cultural responsiveness in applied behavior analysis: Self‐assessment

Abstract

Culture has a substantial impact on a wide range of behaviors related to behavioral research and services such as rapport building, preferences for specific targets and treatments, communication, and even the quality of health care. The need for professionals in the field of applied behavior analysis (ABA) to incorporate culturally responsive practices is underscored by the current and projected increase in diversity in the United States. Further, the update to the Ethics Code (BACB, 2020) supports addressing diversity in behavior analytic practice. Self‐assessment of one's values, biases, and culture are a critical step in delivering culturally responsive services. The purpose of this paper is three‐fold: a) to introduce a framework for cultural responsiveness in ABA, b) to showcase research and practice recommendations from within and outside the field of ABA in the area of self‐assessment, and c) to inspire research in self‐assessment to support cultural responsiveness in ABA.

Cultural responsiveness in applied behavior analysis: Research and practice

“…Therefore, to potentially reduce the likelihood of an individual feeling singled out, it may be better to include an option for translation and interpretation services on the intake form all new clients and research participants complete. Understanding that individuals from various backgrounds will perceive things differently is an important part of providing culturally responsive services (Beaulieu & Jimenez‐Gomez, 2022) and it is important to use a posture of cultural humility and apologize when we have offended others.…”

“…Using a posture of cultural humility (see Table 1 for definition) is critical throughout the assessment process (e.g., selecting goals). Cultural humility requires behavior analysts to engage in continuous self‐monitoring and self‐assessment (see Beaulieu & Jimenez‐Gomez, 2022), while remaining open to learning new information regarding the cultural background of others. This approach is vital to behavior assessment as it can help practitioners uncover important cultural and environmental variables relevant when evaluating clients' behaviors.…”

“…Gay (2002, p. 106) Note. Reprinted from Beaulieu and Jimenez-Gomez (2022) with all clients (BACB, 2020). In this section, we describe the degree to which behavior analytic assessments align with culturally responsive services and describe how behavior analysts can develop more culturally responsive intakes, descriptive assessments, and functional analyses by incorporating aspects of culturally responsive services (e.g., assessing and incorporating cultural variables, using a posture of cultural humility, collaborating with stakeholders).…”

“…There are several key terms related to diversity. We briefly define the key terms in Table 1, but we encourage readers to refer to Beaulieu and Jimenez-Gomez (2022) for a thorough discussion on the dimensions of cultural competence to gain a foundation on this topic with an emphasis on self-assessment-a fundamental step to providing culturally responsive services. We have chosen to use the term culturally responsive, which is aligned with the terminology used in the new Ethics Code (BACB, 2020).…”

Review of Multiculturalism and Diversity in Applied Behavior Analysis, edited by Conners and Capell

“…Therefore, for the purposes of our review, we organize our discussion by aligning the chapters of the text across the three dimensions of cultural competence: awareness, knowledge, and skills (Sue et al, 1982; Sue et al, 1999) to ascertain the extent to which this text can promote the training of applied behavior analysts in culturally responsive behavior analytic service provision (see Table 2). Readers may refer to Beaulieu and Jimenez‐Gomez (accepted) and Jimenez‐Gomez and Beaulieu (accepted) for in‐depth discussions of these three dimensions of cultural competence from a behavioral perspective as a framework for discussing cultural responsiveness in behavior analysis.…”