Deconstructing Compassionate ABA: Session 283 with Greg Hanley

The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria

A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to find a few hours to catch up with many-time guest and all-around podcast fave, Dr. Greg Hanley. We had what turned out to be a lengthy conversation that included the following:

• His recent professional association with Action Behavior Centers.
• Available jobs at Action Behavior Centers.
• The evolution of FTF Behavioral Consulting.
• The term, Compassionate ABA, including some of my misgivings on whether terms like these are necessary.
• The nuanced role of extinction in Skills Based Treatment.
• Distinguishing between the immediate and long-term effects of reinforcement.
• Efficacy vs. effectiveness.
• Some historical perspectives on Functional Analysis, including the unexpected topic in which the term 'automatic reinforcement' was used.
• Questioning the role of descriptive functional assessment.
• Greg's recent thoughts on head-directed self-injury.
• The role of tics in self-injury.
• Skills-based treatment's intersection with constructional approaches to behavioral intervention.

If you think that's a lot, it's just a sample of what we talk about.

Here are the links to what we discussed:

• Session 276 with Dr. Anthony Cammilleri.
• Ghaemmaghami et al. (2024). Toward Compassion in the Assessment and Treatment of Severe Problem Behavior.
• Slaton et al. (2024). Long-term effectiveness and generality of practical functional assessment and skill-based treatment.
• Carr et al. (1976). Stimulus control of self-destructive behavior in a psychotic child.
• Dr. Jessel's ResearchGate page.
• van Haaren (2015). Automatic negative reinforcement: Its possible role in problem behavior with treatment implications.

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