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You are an RBT that works with a BCBA who has an educational background in psychological testing. You are working with an individual who engages in severe SIB in the form of biting his arms and legs, typically drawing blood. These wounds often become infected, therefore, the local physician prescribed ABA therapy for this individual. The BCBA observes the client and recommends conducting an FA and a psychological assessment that will identify the diagnostic criteria for temporary psychosis during the SIB episodes. These tests are performed at the ABA clinic in a separate room with a nurse on site in case of emergency. Is there an ethical violation in this situation?

A behavioral therapist is worried because her client has begun to work on increasing his tacting repertoire, but the client seems to be engaging in a response that may be functioning as a mand. What would the therapist need to evaluate to determine if the behavior is a tact?

When you begin a supervisory relationship with an individual, what is the first thing you should do?

You are a BCBA working with a 25-year-old female client in a group home. She has a boyfriend that comes over, but the staff only let them visit in the common living room so they can “keep an eye on them”. Your client has asked the staff to allow her boyfriend back in her room so that they can be alone. The staff continue to say “no”. What is the most relevant ethical principle present in this dilemma?

You are a BCBA who works for the school district. You get a call from a teacher asking you to come to the classroom ASAP and help her with a student who is “acting up” in class. The teacher hangs up the phone and you don’t get any other information. What is the first thing you should do after getting the phone call?

You are a BCBA consulting with one of your client’s parents in the home setting. You just began providing services to them and you have observed some of the interactions they have had with their child during intervention implementation. You are including parent training in your services, so you have weekly meetings to debrief with them and discuss topics to improve fidelity and answer any questions. This past week, the parents were implementing extinction procedures for their child that wanted to escape taking a bath. The child screamed and hit until the parents were exhausted, so they let him elope. You explain that the need for consistency in extinction is important. You also tell them that is important to consider their child’s behavior and function, but it is just as important to…

You are a BCBA working for a local school district. You are completing an FA on a student who yells the answer to the teacher’s questions without raising her hand. When the student does this, the teacher sends her to the back of the classroom to sit in timeout. You really want to decrease this behavior. What is the best intervention strategy for decreasing calling out behaviors based on the hypothesized function?

You work as a BCBA at a local clinic. A co-worker starts talking to you during the lunch break and you get into a discussion about behaviorism. She tells you that she is a “realist” and believes that behaviorists should just focus on observing and changing behavior. She also says that private events may be real, but we can’t observe them, so they should not be included in our methods. What type of behaviorism does she subscribe to?

You are an RBT working in-home with a client. Your BCBA just accepted this client, so this is your first session with the child. After the session, the mother comes up to you and says, “how much do I owe you for this session?”. You have never been asked this question before. Which ethical step was skipped in this situation? Choose the best answer.

One day, your supervisee asks you if single-case studies are inferior to group designs that implement statistical analyses. You mention that the field of single-case analysis is continually growing, but there are currently statistical calculations to acquire the magnitude of change.  The name for the calculated magnitude of change is called…