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. 2022;31(1):133-158.
doi: 10.1007/s42822-022-00092-4. Epub 2022 Mar 25.

Humble Behaviorism Redux

Megan S Kirby  1 , Trina D Spencer  1 , Shane T Spiker  2
Affiliations

Humble Behaviorism Redux

Megan S Kirby et al. Behav Soc Issues. 2022.

Abstract

The need to bring behavior analysis to scale is no more obvious or urgent than now. Collaboration between behavior analysts and healthcare workers, educators, policymakers, mental health clinicians, social workers, and so many other professionals is critical to reaching under-resourced and traditionally marginalized populations. First, however, interprofessional collaboration must be adopted widely and reinforced within the behavior analytic community. Disciplinary centrism and hubris pose barriers to effective interprofessional collaboration, leading one to assume the position that practitioners of the same discipline are better trained and smarter than those of a different field. However, cultural humility (Wright, Behavior Analysis in Practice, 12(4), 805-809, 2019) is an alternative to disciplinary centrism that allows professionals to retain identities born of cultural histories and training (Pecukonis, Journal of Teaching in Social Work, 40(3), 211-220, 2020). Furthermore, cultural reciprocity is a process of self-observation and collaborative inquiry that involves questioning one's own assumptions and forces individuals (and professions) to confront the contradictions between their values and their practices (Kalyanpur & Harry, 1999). In this paper, we revisit the call for Humble Behaviorism first made by Alan Neuringer in 1991 and the recommendations of fellow behavior analysts since. Specifically, we introduce a framework of cultural reciprocity to guide humble behaviorists as they acquire behaviors necessary to establish and maintain productive interprofessional relationships. We encourage them to act on their ethical and moral duties to address social problems of global concern and bring behavior analysis to scale.

Keywords: Behavior analysis; Cultural humility; Cultural reciprocity; Humble behaviorism.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of InterestThe authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Interprofessional collaboration competencies, adapted from Interprofessional Education Collaborative (2016)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Comparison of disciplinary centrism and cultural humility
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Steps of cultural reciprocity, adapted from Kalyanpur and Harry (1999)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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