Read & Reflect: Some Current Dimensions of Applied Behavior Analysis (Baer, Wolf, and Risley)

ABAI’s Task Force for the Promotion of Quality & Values-based ABA will be regularly sharing selected articles and readings across several themes related to ABA and ABA-based autism services. These articles and readings will be accompanied by prompts in an effort to evoke reflection and progress regarding the issues addressed in the suggested items.

“ABA” may evoke responses that are likely to differ among behavior analysts, so what better place to start then with Baer, Wolf, and Risley’s (1968) seminal article “Some current dimensions of applied behavior analysis”?

While reading (or hopefully revisiting) this influential work, we encourage behavior analysts to consider:

the conditions that may have occasioned the selection and description of these dimensions;
how these dimensions may, or should, have changed overtime;
how understandings and applications of these dimensions have changed since 1968- if they have,
what these dimensions mean to you.

A Final Consideration
After reflecting regarding the dimensions of applied behavior analysis, what changes in how applied behavior analysis is done might be important for the field of behavior analysis in general and for your own work in applied behavior analysis?

Article
Baer, D. M., Wolf, M. M., & Risley, T. R. (1968). Some current dimensions of applied behavior analysis. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1(1), 91 – 97. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.1968.1-91