Update: Colombia ABA

By Camilo Hurtado-Parrado and Wilson Lopez-Lopez

Our chapter went through important changes during the last year. First, a new board was elected, which now includes the following members: Sonia Calderón (President), Arturo Clavijo (Vice-president), Diana Vergara (Secretary), Yors Garcia (Treasurer), Wilson López-López (Spokesman), and Camilo Hurtado-Parrado (Spokesman). Second, bylaws were updated, which resulted in a redefinition of ABA Colombia’s mission to “promote the wellbeing of individuals that require ABA services, and contribute to the professional and scientific development of behavior analysis in Colombia via dissemination, research and application of this science.” ABA Colombia’s vision was also redefined accordingly to “represent nationally and internationally Colombian behavior analysis as a science and profession.”

Additional and important changes to the bylaws included updates on membership requirements and rights, which ultimately are expected to better represent the present challenging status of Behavior Analysis in Colombia (e.g., diverse training, degrees and professional experience in academic and professional behavior analysis). One major related concern, and thus, main goal of ABA Colombia for the following years, is establishment of minimum behavior-analytic practice standards in our country and political and legal recognition of them. ABA Colombia’s efforts in this direction will include cooperation with other organizations, including national and international professional and academic associations, and accreditation of training programs based on minimum quality and content standards.

Other significant contributions of ABA Colombia this year include Wilson Lopez-Lopez’s representation in the “Task Force in International Education and Practice.” The official outcome of the task force is greatly awaited by ABA Colombia, as it hopefully will provide tools needed to accomplish some of the goals mentioned above. Second, a study supported by ABA Colombia entitled “Emotional Response to Pictures of the Armed Conflict in Colombia” (Hurtado-Parrado et al. 2020) was recently published. This effort is expected to importantly contribute to more laboratory-based behavioral research in socially-relevant topics in Colombia and other countries affected by intractable conflict. Lastly, Arturo Clavijo, Felipe Parrado, Paulo Dillon, and Camilo Hurtado-Parrado presented during a symposium on Experimental Analysis of Behavior that was part of the recent Meeting of Researchers in Behavioral Sciences, organized this year by University of La Sabana (Bogota, Colombia). The topics of this event included self-control and commitment, conditioned inhibition, drug demand, and interteaching.

We are looking forward to the positive impact that the recent changes in ABA Colombia’s leadership and bylaws will have across experimental, applied and professional Behavior Analysis in Colombia and Latin America.

References

Hurtado-Parrado, C., Arias-Higuera, M., Sierra, M. C., López-López, W., Velásquez, L., Moncaleano, C., Parra, M. F., & Gantiva, C. A. (2020). Emotional response to pictures of the armed conflict in Colombia. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 6(2), 202–212. https://doi.org/10.1037/pac0000451