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Behaviorism, Autism, and Procrastination
Contents
Chapter 30
Jobs and Grad School
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FUNDAMENTALS
Where should I go from here?
In the heading of most of the case studies and
experiments, we’ve indicated the professional field to which they are most
relevant; we did this to help you select the professional field you want to
enter. Here are the professional fields we’ve often cited and that you might
want to consider for a career:[1]
}
Applied Behavior
Analysis
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Behavior Social
Work
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Behavioral Sports
Psychology
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Behavioral
Medicine
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Behavioral
Developmental Disabilities
(The Mentally Handicapped)
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Behavioral
Special Education
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Behavioral School
Psychology
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Behavioral
Clinical Psychology
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Behavioral
Community Psychology
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Behavioral
Counseling Psychology
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Experimental
Analysis of Behavior
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Organizational
Behavior Analysis
(Behavioral Industrial/Organizational Psychology)
} Behavioral Pharmacology
There’s great overlap among many of these fields. For
example, most of the studies relevant to behavioral special education are also relevant
to behavioral school psychology and vice versa. And many are also relevant to
behavioral clinical psychology.
In addition, they’re all relevant to the mother
field—behavior analysis, with its subfields experimental
Analysis of Behavior and Applied Behavior
Analysis. A graduate degree in
behavior analysis would be excellent training to deal with any of the problems
dealt with by professionals in those fields. The exception might be that to
work in the public school systems, you will most often, though not always, also
need a degree in Special Education
or School Psychology. In many human services settings you will often
need some sort of state license that might involve taking up to four
nonbehavioral courses, whether you get your degree in Behavior Analysis,
Behavioral Counseling Psychology, or Behavioral
Clinical Psychology.
Where should I not
go from here?
If you like the behavior-analysis orientation of this
book, you’ll want to choose your graduate program with special care, because
most traditional programs are incompatible with behavior analysis and the
approach this book advocates. For example, the main thrust is psychodiagnostics
in traditional school psychology, traditional clinical psychology, and
traditional industrial/organizational psychology. In other words, these
traditional approaches often relegate the role of the psychologist to that of a
mere test giver, one who purports to measure a person’s “personality,”
“intelligence,” “mental health,” and “aptitude.”
It’s a long story, but we believe most testing does
more harm than good, fatalistically putting a label on human beings, which
generally does more to limit their future opportunities in life than to expand
their horizons, in spite of the rhetoric of the multimilllion-dollar testing establishment.
On the other hand, behavior analysts like Ivar Lovaas,
working with children labeled autistic, have shown that we can save many
of the people who are most lost. Of course, he had to ignore the predictions,
theory, and philosophy of traditional psychology and traditional
psychodiagnostics. And he had to make careful use of the principles of
behavior—a much more optimistic approach.
Unfortunately, testing is sometimes a necessary evil.
For example, many human-services jobs in the state of
In addition to concentrating on diagnosis in terms of
the medical model, of course, traditional psychologists actually do work to
help people with problems. However, their talk-therapy interventions are often
too minimal and too ineffective, often involving little more than everyday,
commonsense advice dressed up in the jargon of psychological reifications. The
general, unstated assumption behind talk therapy is that there is no problem
that a little insight and a little plausible-sounding advice can’t fix. But the
scientific data suggest almost the opposite: while talk therapy can sometimes
help, there are few serious psychological, sociological, educational,
behavioral problems fixed with an hour’s advice once a week.
It may seem we’re coming down too hard on tradition,
but do a quick scan of the graphs in the previous chapters of this book. Baseline
is usually just another name for traditional approaches that almost always
lose.
People often say, “I want to sample the best of the
traditional approaches and the best of behavior analysis and then apply what’s
appropriate to a particular cause.” We call that approach eclecticism;
and, at first glance, it seems the most reasonable, doesn’t it?
But most often eclecticism is like trying to mix oil
and water. And most often, to try to “apply behavior analysis” where it best
fits and to try to “apply traditional approaches” where they best fit means
that you don’t really understand either. And, furthermore, it means that you’ve
not committed yourself enough to any one approach to attain the level of
expertise you will need to be an effective professional who can really
help people.
This doesn’t mean there is no value in studying
traditional approaches from a behavioral perspective. But our observation is it
requires a PhD level of expertise in behavior analysis before you can tread the
dangerous swamps of traditional psychology without getting sucked into the
quicksand of mentalistic reifications and the medical model or else running for
the superficial high ground of rejecting what might be salvaged from
traditionalism. So our advice is this: If, and only if, you think behavior
analysis is the way to go, get at least an MA and ideally a PhD in some form of
behavior analysis. Do this before you risk blowing it with traditional
psychology, at least if you think behavior analysis is the way to go.
Of course, if you aren’t sold on behavior analysis,
you should continue searching until you find something you are sold on, and
then go for it wholeheartedly. Don’t stand at the edge of the sandbox
equivocating. Jump in and get your hands dirty and your shoes full of sand;
start building those castles. Do what you can to work toward the well-being of
your fellow human beings. For info on eclectic grad programs, check out
http://www.abainternational.org/start
How do I find the right grad programs?
Now suppose you say, “Yes, you behavior analysts have
gotten my heart and my soul; where do I go from here?”
Probably into an M.A. program.
Which one?
Well, it’s fairly easy if you can find one with behavior
in the title. But there’s a good chance you can’t because many good behavior
analysis programs are simply called school psychology, special ed., or
even human development and family life. But watch out, because most are
just the same old traditional, ineffective, unscientific stuff.
Where should you look for grad programs?
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Ask the teacher
of this course.
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Go to the
Association for Behavior Analysis’ (
http://www.abainternational.org
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It’s all there
with the programs listed by state, so if you want to select the state with the
world’s most ideal climate (i.e., Michigan, heh, heh, heh) you would find 4
grad programs listed, including—guess which one—WMU’s, heh, heh, heh.
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Also, look
through the references in this book for authors whose work you like and track
‘em down. One of those authors may be looking for a grad student just like you.
By the way, many of these people are the only, or the only one of two or three,
behavior analysts in a traditional department. That way you’ll get some
unavoidable eclecticism. But don’t think you can maintain your behavioral
perspective in a program with absolutely no behaviorists; you can’t. (You can
probably find the addresses of your favorite behavior analysis
researcher/authors in the
Http://www.wmich.edu/aba/membership.html
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Go to
E-mail me (dickmalott@dickmalott.com), and I’ll try to let you know if we have
any special
} Finally, here is a list of a few of the fine programs
with a behavior analysis emphasis with which I am personally familiar and which
I would personally recommend. There are many excellent ones I’ve failed to
mention. This is just to get you started. And, again, there are many excellent
opportunities with only one or two behavior analysts in a general department.
What are some good MA and PhD Programs?
Again, these are just some of the good programs in
behavior analysis, generally the ones I know the most about. But there are many
others equally as good.
What are some good M.A. programs?
Eastern
Here’s another way to cut the cake:
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Southern
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Southern
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what are some good international programs?
There are a number of outstanding behavior analysis
programs around the world, if you’ve got your language act together or are
willing to pay the dues. Here are few I personally know about.
Pontifical Catholic
WHAT DEGREE SHOULD I GET—B.A., M.A., Ed.S., M.S.W., or
Ph.D.?
The B.A. Degree[2]
Behavior analysis may be the only field within
psychology where you can actually get a job using what you learned as an
undergrad and not end up waiting tables instead. If you get a B.A. with an
emphasis on behavior analysis and are willing to move where the job is, you can
fairly easily get a job in human services, especially working with the
developmentally disabled. In 2002, jobs started at around $25,000 to $35,000
annually. I had one B.A. student was pulling down $45,000 in human services,
but that’s not typical. In any case, if you have a good background in behavior
analysis, you’ll probably end up doing what an M.A. normally does.
Unfortunately, we only know of two undergrad programs with an emphasis on behavior
analysis, WMU and the
The M.A., M.S.W., and Ed.S. Degrees
In some ways, the intermediate-level degrees are the
sweet spot, the optimal, most cost-effective applied degrees in human services,
education, school psychology, organizational behavior management (OBM or I/O),
and social work. And plenty of places are looking for behavior analysts in
these areas.
In 2002, M.A. jobs typically started at around $35,000
to $55,000 per year with plenty of room for growth. A few started at $65,000 to
$75,000. One, for a program director started at $85,000 to $100,000. I’ve heard
of other M.A. jobs in autism starting at $100,000, but don’t hold your breath.
Typically, you will begin by designing programs for clients. After a year or
two in human services, you may not be spending most of your time working
directly with clients, yourself. Instead, you will be training and supervising
those who do. With an MA you might also be able to get a job teaching in a
community college.
The Ph.D. Degree
If you’re having a great time in grad school (many people
are), and if you want to keep having a great time two or three more years, and
if you’re in perhaps the top 25% on the exams, in your M.A. courses, go for a
Ph.D. degree. But, otherwise, don’t feel obliged to, because you probably won’t
need it. With a Ph.D. you’ll do all the things an M.A. does, and an M.A. may be
your boss. However, you almost have to have a Ph.D. if you want to do research
or teach in a four-year college or a university, and that’s about as much fun
as anything I can think of that they actually pay you to do.
In 2002, there happened to only be two Ph.D. jobs with
salary listings posted at
OBM + Autism = Solution to Hard Times
One year ago, my students who graduated with an M.A.
or Ph.D. with a specialty in organizational behavior management (OBM) were
getting good behavior analysis jobs before the ink had dried on their diplomas.
But, at the moment (