A group of local behavior analysts gets together quarterly for a continuing education presentation followed by a
Question:
A group of local behavior analysts gets together quarterly for a continuing education presentation followed by a group social and informal dinner. One of the members of our group is the owner of a large consulting firm. At a recent dinner, he mentioned that on Saturday morning he was having some parents of clients come to the office to have their photos taken for his new Web page. "We'll have a statement from each one about the great things we did for their child," he said. Someone at the table told him that behavior analysts were not supposed to solicit testimonials. He responded that doctors, dentists, and other professionals did this and that there was no problem as long as the parents could choose to not participate. Was he wrong about this? Is there any situation under which testimonials would be acceptable?
- List all applicable ethics codes ("old" & "new" Codes).
- Provide the rationale for the chosen code(s). Has a violation occurred?
- Identify factors that may have led to this scenario & strategies that could have prevented this scenario from occurring.
- Given the scenario, describe the ethical course of action moving forward (including potential risk factors & areas that may require continued monitoring).