The ABAA Process of Human Behavior Change in the Real World- Part 1
with Kaitlin Wilder$200 · 1 Learning CEU · certificate included
One-time purchase, permanent access. Cert delivered to your inbox the moment you pass the quiz.
What you’ll learn
- Describe an ACT application of human behavior change within the context of life Describe the values of the ACT application of human behavior change within the context of life Describe “problems” and ideal conditions of the ACT application of human behavior change within the context of life Use experiential exercise to find fluency with an ACT application of human behavior change within the context of life
Kaitlin WilderPresented by Kaitlin Wilder
About this CEU
This event presents the ABAA ACT application to support conversational human behavior change in the real world using previously concepts and experiential exercises to better understand the values of the application to generalizing them to their daily lives and prepare them to support challenges typically seen the BCBA and BCaBAs in daily practice.
Credits
1 CEU · 50 min
From the talk
What was covered
Kaitlin Wilder defines the ABAA values model: acceptance, awareness, compassion, hope, and more, plus a paperwork exercise you can run.
- Define your values words in plain language first, because an operational definition is not the goal here.
- Check your own list for acceptance that is really resignation, where you say yes but still feel grumbly.
- Offer compassion to yourself before you try to offer it to anyone else.
- Treat a person's experience as true for that person, and stop arguing with it.
- Notice your judgments as normal, then choose for reasons instead of acting on the first opinion.
- Rate your clarity from 1 to 10 before you start, then revise your paperwork if new information shifts it.
The ABAA Model: Teaching the Process by Running It Live
This session continues a series on ACT (working with thoughts and feelings) in daily life. Kaitlin Wilder calls it playing the game of life with ACT forever and always. The topic is the human application of behavior change behind ABA Actionable. Her teaching choice is the interesting part. She does not lecture about the model. She fills out the model's own paperwork out loud, in front of the group.
She completes it from the point of view of the program itself. What does the program value? What are its problems, and what are its ideal conditions? Attendees have already done this same paperwork for themselves. Now they watch the same steps run at a larger scale. That gives them a second pass at their own answers.
The stated goals are plain. Describe the ACT application of human behavior change in the context of life. Describe its values. Describe its problems and ideal conditions. Then use an experiential exercise (learning by doing, not hearing) to build fluency with it. The aim is to carry it into daily practice. That is the kind of week a BCBA (a board certified behavior analyst) faces.
We keep it simple, y'all.
From the talk — Kaitlin Wilder
Why You Define Your Values Words Instead of Operationalizing Them
Wilder names eleven values for the program: acceptance, awareness, compassion, non-judgment, hope, experience, autonomy, authenticity, flexibility, innovation, and balance. She says they can change over time. She also says some of them she did not go looking for. She just decided that is what they were.
Then she heads off a common reaction. People kept reaching for an operational definition (a precise, measurable behavior description). She says that is not the task. The task is to define these words the way you plan to use them in your life. This comes from her background in positive behavior support (a schoolwide approach to behavior). Teams there pick words like respect, responsible, ready, and safety. Almost nobody talks about what those words mean. They list behavior examples instead, which lean toward compliance and what you can see with your eyes. That works for a teacher handing out tickets or rewards. It does not work here.
The payoff is shared meaning. If you know what your word means to you, you can explain it to other people. You can also notice when someone else means something different, which she says is basically always.
Because most of our verbal behavior miscommunications come from us, one person speaking with one meaning and then another person listening with a different understanding.
From the talk — Kaitlin Wilder
Acceptance Means Receiving the Gift, Not Giving Up
Acceptance gets the most time, and Wilder flags it as a big one. She defines it as receiving the gift of life. She notes the creator of ACT defines it this way too. In practice that means knowing there is good and bad in each and all things. Then choosing to take it anyway, in service of the life you want. The hard part is that you may not have full certainty about that life. You are literally trusting the process.
What she sees most often in BCBAs using ACT is not acceptance. It is resignation. Someone is in a situation they do not like. They want to accept it, so they say they accept it. But they still do not like it, and they have not seen the gift. The gift is what moves you from merely living with something to finding it helpful or good.
She does leave room for letting something sit. Sometimes you do not need to change or fix a thing. She calls that more of a present moment exercise (noticing what is here now). Once you can look within and observe, the next step is gathering information. Then you choose what you want to accept, and why, even with parts you do not like. Her prompt for practitioners is direct. Look for anything you have accepted but still feel grumbly about. That is the kind of thing you would rather get rid of.
Resignation is where we have the most suffering.
From the talk — Kaitlin Wilder
Awareness and Non-Judgment: Noticing on Purpose
Awareness is choosing to notice, observe, and find understanding in service of a valued end. The phrase doing it on purpose matters. You do not have to be aware all the time. Wilder separates this from overanalyzing. Awareness is something you pick up when you decide it would help you.
Non-judgment is noticing without forming an opinion or deciding. Instead, you gather information and then choose for reasons. She is quick to say you will still judge. You can notice the judgment showing up and cultivate non-judgment right in that moment.
She also defends why judging happens at all. Judgment, assumption, and rule make our thinking and our lives more efficient and automatic. If we stopped and decided on every single thing, every time, it would take a long time. So the target is not a mind with no judgments. The target is noticing them and still choosing for reasons.
Judgments coming up are perfectly normal and reasonable.
From the talk — Kaitlin Wilder
Compassion: Hear the Person, and Start With Yourself
Wilder defines compassion as awareness of another's suffering from that person's perspective. It also includes choosing action to help relieve it in a workable way (a way that actually works). That action has to be something the person is open to receiving. Both halves carry weight. The perspective is theirs, and so is the decision about what help they will take.
This is where she most wants to stop fixing. When you notice someone's pain, hear them for exactly what they are saying. Do not judge it as not a big deal. Do not tell them they should not be worried. Do not jump to a quick alternative over here. Be there for them and for what they believe to be true right now. She calls that part the magic.
Then she turns it inward. If you are suffering, you need to validate your own perspective. That means not pushing lines like you should not be worried about this. It also means not saying this is dumb or telling yourself to toughen up. She notes those lines often trace back to parental or other experiences from earlier in life. The work is to find a form of compassion for yourself that you are actually open to receiving.
Also, this compassion needs to be extended first and foremost to yourself.
From the talk — Kaitlin Wilder
Hope and Experience: Trusting a Process You Cannot Fully See
Hope is another big one. She defines it as expecting an outcome with confidence and trust, even without certainty. You may not know how. You may not know when. You may not know why. You can still choose to trust the process. There is a sense that greater meaning and more is going on behind the scenes. She flags creative hopelessness (noticing that old strategies keep failing) as a later topic. Helping other people build hope, and building your own, is central to the work.
Experience is awareness, knowledge, and skills gained through observation, participation, or living through events. She stresses that observation includes self observation, not just looking at the world. She uses the idea of workability (whether something actually works for a person) here too. Whatever a person has experienced, believes, or thinks is true for that person.
Her warning here is practical. We build aversive history (past events that feel bad) and create avoidance when we keep pushing attachment to some outcome. That happens with ourselves and with the people we serve. The alternative is allowing what is true for someone to be true.
We want to give more credit to experience than we ever have before.
From the talk — Kaitlin Wilder
Autonomy, Authenticity, Flexibility, Innovation, and Balance
Autonomy is a human's right to make informed and uncoerced decisions. Wilder adds a note that lands for most of us: we coerce ourselves all the time. Authenticity is a human's right to be who they choose to be, without fear of judgment or rejection. She does not oversell it. We are still going to be judged and rejected.
Flexibility is choosing to pivot or change in service of a valued end. In this model that end is the life you want. Innovation is choosing to move away from conventional ways, in service of more workable solutions and more meaningful outcomes.
Balance arrives as number eleven, past her planned ten. She describes it as creating a homeostasis (a steady, balanced state). In that state you can sufficiently manage time, energy, and attention across multiple domains of life. She asks how that would feel and answers with one word: meaningful.
Innovation, choosing to move away from conventional ways in service of more workable solutions.
From the talk — Kaitlin Wilder
How to Run the Exercise on Your Own Paperwork
The session opens with invitations, and they are worth copying. Give yourself this time instead of doing a million things at once. Take one small step toward focusing on only this. Put away distractions. Open your hands, mind, and heart, and she means literally stop and turn your palms toward the sky. Keep an eye on the squirrel puppy brain that wanders off, especially when something gets difficult. When it wanders, walk it back. No big deal. Bring paper and a pen, and bring your paperwork.
Next comes a pre-assessment. On a scale of 1 to 10, rate your clarity. The topic is using a human model of behavior change in the real world. Then she reviews her program's values and gives time to journal. The task is to look at what you already wrote and see if anything should shift with this new information. Changing it is not required.
The last step is optional and useful. If your definitions are where you want them, write yourself a short summary paragraph that pulls them into a philosophy. Hers does a lot of work in a few lines. It goes beyond asking what you value and aims to notice values in action, in context. It treats strong emotions as pointers to deepest needs. It views problems as chances to build awareness and capacity. That work helps you find compassion for yourself and the people you serve. It commits to practicing ACT and finding flexibility in yourself first. That is how you can actually model the skills you want to see.
We're open to learning from pain, discomfort, and removing judgment from the inevitable challenges of life in service of learning and finding flexibility.
From the talk — Kaitlin Wilder
Common questions
What is the ABAA process of human behavior change?▾
It is the human ACT application that ABA Actionable is built around. In this session, Kaitlin Wilder teaches it by completing the program's own values paperwork out loud. Part 1 covers the values, their definitions, and an exercise to apply them to your own life.
What is the difference between acceptance and resignation in ACT?▾
Acceptance is receiving the gift of life. That means knowing there is good and bad in all things. You choose to take it anyway, in service of the life you want. Resignation is saying you accept something while still not liking it and not seeing the gift. Wilder says resignation is where we have the most suffering.
Do I need operational definitions for my values?▾
No. Wilder says this exercise is just defining the words as you plan to use them in your life. Operational definitions and observable behavior examples fit a different purpose, like a teacher giving out tickets or rewards. Here the point is shared meaning so you can explain yourself and notice when someone means something else.
Which values does this model use?▾
Acceptance, awareness, compassion, non-judgment, hope, experience, autonomy, authenticity, flexibility, innovation, and balance. Wilder planned ten and added balance as number eleven. She notes the list can change over time.
What do I need to take part in the exercise?▾
Paper, a pen, and your own values paperwork. You also need a block of time with distractions put away. The work asks you to focus on one thing. Expect to rate your clarity from 1 to 10, review your definitions, and optionally write a short philosophy paragraph.
About the speaker
Kaitlin Wilder teaches the human ACT application of behavior change behind ABA Actionable. In this session she defines eleven values for the model and leads an experiential exercise for revising your own paperwork. She draws on her background in positive behavior support, and she calls ACT the hope factory.
This summary was generated from the recording’s transcript. Quotes are taken word for word from the talk.
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