Teaching Compassion Skills to Students of Behavior Analysis: A Preliminary Investigation

Socially valid practices are at the heart of applied behavior analysis and can influence how interventions are experienced by families. However, the training of practitioners of applied behavior analysis is primarily focused on the implementation of technical procedures with little focus on therapeutic approaches. Empathy and therapeutic rapport have been associated with improved outcomes in allied professions (Beach et al., Journal of the American Board of Family Practice, 15(1), 25–38, 2006; Hojat et al., Academic Medicine, 86(3), 359, 2011; Horst et al., Journal of Child & Family Nursing, 3, 5–14, 2000), but have been minimally studied within the field of behavior analysis. In the present study, several sources were utilized to identify and define empathic and compassionate care skills. These skills were divided into three skill areas (i.e., basic interviewing skills, interest in the family, joining with the family) and taught to ABA master’s students using behavioral skills training via a telehealth platform. All four participants significantly improved their engagement in compassionate care skills following training and maintained these skills in follow-up probes and with a different experimenter. Several post-study measures of outcome were taken, including social validity measures from participants, ratings of compassion from consumer and professional experts, as well as comparison measures on the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy. Participant reports of social validity were high, as were consumer and professional ratings of compassionate behaviors. Improvements on the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy were also observed. Implications for training practitioners and for expanding the focus on compassionate care skill development within the field are explored.