Here is a link to the most recent issue of the Association for Behavior Analysis International Newsletter. It is a really important one. A scary one.
The President, Dr. Janet Twyman, states: "This is a time of great change for the field of behavior analysis, for our science, our practice, our scientists and our practitioners."
Things are changing, practice is expanding, branching is inevitable. Many of us in my generation of South American behavior analysts started our carreers as very young students, involved in basic animal research and reading Skinner. Attending ABA (now ABAI) was like visiting the centre of the universe, where we could see the masters of the universe, our universe of course, attend their talks, chat with them when they stopped by our posters, check out the latest trends in the areas we were researching, delight ourselves with the theoretical talks, strengthen the skinnerian dream in us. It felt like home, it felt like we had nothing to worry about but the conceptual and procedural integrity of our little scientific endeavors. We grew up, someone told the world that behavior analysis was everything we thought it was, and things expanded, and expanded. Many of us continue protected by the university walls. Others adventured into the 'prohibited' applied land and are spending every breath to protect that same procedural integrity and our scientific endeavor; trying to prove to our masters that it is possible to bridge without losing our values. It must have happened to many of us. And to many others who are not us, because the expansion happened; it exploded. Are we going to get lost?
