Association for Behavior Analysis International

Behavioral treatments for chronic pain have amassed an impressive and progressive record of success. As with any area of clinical science, challenges and shortcomings have also been identified. These include difficulties in maintaining clinical effectiveness from clinical trials into large scale implementation efforts, unclear identification of specific intervention components that are clearly linked to improved adaptive outcomes, and lack of clarity with regard to the necessary and active ingredients of effective treatment. Overall, these problems highlight the practical difficulty of translating research into practice. They also helpfully illuminate several potential avenues for improvement, including the need for: (1) a precise delineation of what constitutes treatment success and differentiates it from treatment failure, (2) lucidity in the specification of processes by which treatment is hypothesized to work followed by explicit tests of these hypotheses, and (3) methods to promote the generalization and continuance of within-treatment adaptive behavioral changes to the non-treatment environment. This presentation will describe Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) as one potential model that can aid in helpfully progressing down these avenues. In particular, the potential for augmenting patient behavior that displays an open, accepting, and non-struggling response to pain will be highlighted, as this area perhaps differs most markedly from other approaches where a primary focus may be on better management of pain and distress. Furthermore, the importance of identifying important and meaningful areas of living to pursue with pain present will be evaluated, as this has the potential to naturally promote generalization and longevity of treatment gains. Based on the data presented, it seems feasible for individuals with complex and potentially disabling pain to respond to that pain with acceptance and willingness, choose important areas of living that are of personal relevance, and take effective action to improve quality of life. Importantly, these responses are possible when pain is low, but crucially also when pain is elevated or even at its maximum.

Clinicians and researchers working with chronic physical health conditions or who are interested in such conditions.

Behavioral interventions for pain typically target individuals and when loved ones are involved, their roles are often conceptualized as information providers or reinforcers of pain behaviors. At the same time, a growing literature on supportive behaviors such as partner responsiveness, emotional validation, and empathy has suggested that interventions may be more effective if these types of behaviors are incorporated into treatment. Dr. Cano will provide an overview of correlational and experimental research on empathic behaviors in pain and describe a new intervention for couples that is based on this research. Evidence of intervention feasibility and acceptability will also be presented to describe the challenges of intervention development. Finally, Dr. Cano will share a set of lessons learned to inform work aimed at bridging the gap between basic behavioral and clinical intervention research.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Bullying has received unprecedented attention from legislators, media, and the general public. Studies of the phenomenon have widened the lens from focusing solely on perpetrators and victims to examining the role of peers who are almost always present when bullying occurs. These “bystanders” often remain passive or even join in, which can maintain or increase the bullying behaviors. To inform prevention and intervention efforts, it is important to understand the factors associated with bystanders’ attitudes and actions. In this presentation, findings from a program of research examining the behavior of peers in bullying situations and the factors that predict the likelihood of actively defending (directly or indirectly) in bullying will be highlighted. The measurement, validation, and application of a five-step model of bystander intervention in bullying will be shared. Implications for practice, including the importance of shaping prosocial norms and explicitly teaching the 5-step bystander intervention model and offering multiple intervention options according to individual and situational variables, will be suggested.

Researchers, educators, mental health professionals (focus on children and adolescents in schools)

Dr. Gleb Tsipursky is passionate about promoting truth-oriented behavior, rational thinking, and wise decision-making. He currently serves as the President of Intentional Insights, a nonprofit devoted to popularizing these topics. Its main current focus is the Pro-Truth Pledge, a project that aims to reverse the tide of lies and promote truth in public discourse through combining behavioral science and crowd-sourcing. He is also the CEO of Disaster Avoidance Experts, Inc, a boutique consulting firm that uses behavioral analysis to improve organizational performance. He has a strong research background with over 15 years in academia, including 7 years as a professor at Ohio State University and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He published dozens of peer-reviewed publications in academic publications such as Journal of Political and Social Psychology and Behavior and Social Issues, and currently serves on the Editorial Board of the ABAI journal Behavior and Social Issues. He writes frequently for a broad audience, most notably his national bestseller on truth-seeking The Truth Seeker’s Handbook: A Science-Based Guide, and is currently writing From Post-Truth to Pro-Truth: Fighting Misinformation with Behavioral Science. Pieces by or about him regularly come out in prominent venues such as Time, Scientific American, Psychology Today, Newsweek, The Conversation, Inc. Magazine, CNBC, and elsewhere. He has appeared as a guest on network TV in the US, including CBS News and affiliates of Fox and ABC, and internationally, such as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and on US and international radio stations such as NPR, WBAI (New York City), KGO (San Francisco), 700WLW (Cincinnati), KRLD (Dallas), AM980 (Canada).

We have witnessed an alarming deterioration of truth in democracies around the globe, especially in the political arena. This presentation describes a behavioral analysis-based intervention, the Pro-Truth Pledge, which combines behavioral science research with crowd-sourcing to help address this problem. The pledge asks signers – private citizens and public figures – to commit to 12 behaviors that behavioral science has shown to be correlated with an orientation toward truthfulness. Pledge mechanisms have been shown in other contexts to lead private citizens to engage in more pro-social behavior. For public figures, the pledge offers specific incentives to behave in concordance with the pledge, with rewards in the form of positive reputation for honesty and truth-telling, and accountability through crowd-sourced evaluation and potential aversive consequences contingent upon deception. A study conducted on the pledge and published in the journal, Behavior and Social Issues, has demonstrated its effectiveness in reducing the sharing of misinformation on social media. These preliminary findings suggest that the pledge offers an important behavioral analysis-based intervention for addressing at least some of the problems caused by fake news and post-truth politics.

Any attendees interested in how to use behavioral analysis to address the current global problem of misinformation in democracies