Ethics Reading

Sellers, Alai-Rosales & MacDonald (2016)

This research article is recommended reading by the BACB and provides analysis and application examples for each of the seven supervision ethics codes.

Read the article with special focus on applications to your situation and anticipated supervision contexts.

Summary of Recommendations

Below is a summary of applied examples and recommendations provided in Sellers, Alai-Rosales and MacDonald (2016).

Supervision Code	Applied Demonstration	Suggestions for Avoiding Violation
5.01 Supervisory Competence	Supervisor never conducted an FA, steers the trainee to use a descriptive assessment, gets function wrong and problem behaviors escalate	A referral to a different supervisor may be made for this case activity Behavior analysts can access mentorship, supervision, and experience in new areas and with new populations.
5.02 Supervisory Volume	Supervisor does well with supervision and gradually takes on more trainess/supervisees to a point where she can no longer manage and provide effective supervision	Organizational structures: A clear schedule that includes supervision responsibilities Evaluation feedback: Implementing a system to monitor supervision effectiveness Community of practice: Identifying other professional who can provide support and feedback with supervision problems
5.03 Supervisory Delegation	An RBT trained others in a program before being trained in training others	Make a list of both responsibilities and things the trainee/supervisee is not qualified to do
5.04 Designing Effective Supervision and Training	A supervisor is intimidated by a trainee/supervisee's age or confidence and does not implement all training components, such as modeling and rehearsal to mastery A supervisor allowing trainee to bill as behavior analysts	Procedures for supervision have professional, ethical, and legal mandates that must be followed Supervision is evidence based and supervisors have a responsibility to keep up with advances in training
5.05 Communication of Supervision Conditions	An RBT does not make progress and the supervisor refuses to sign off on the hours - the RBT is confused because he was not aware that he was being evaluated or that a signature could be withheld	Be familiar with research that outlines practice guidelines for structuring supervision for success Clearly outline in writing and discuss the performance expectations and conditions under which the supervisor will not sign off on hours
5.06 Providing Feedback to Supervisees	Feedback is not provided immediately following the observation and at the supervision meeting it is mentioned in a minimized way so the trainee never takes it seriously	Careful not to over-do praise Provide timely and specific performance feedback
5.07 Evaluating the Effects of Supervision	A supervisor misses that the staff are not finding the supervision training useful because she is only measuring their performance and does not ask for feedback (their performance improves because they sought help outside of supervision)	Use all three methods to measure effectiveness of supervision: supervisee/trainee performance, client performance, and supervisee/trainee feedback

Ethics to-do

Sellers, Alai-Rosales and MacDonald (2013) provide analysis, application examples, and strategies for avoiding violations for each of the seven supervision ethics codes. Consider the many ways the article applies to your future practice of supervision and share an answer to the question below.

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