Many cities have implemented behavior change programs in an attempt to get drivers to stop running red lights. Specifically, they put cameras at traffic lights and the driver gets mailed a ticket if they run a red light. These cameras are extremely effective at reducing the number of drivers who run red lights. Unfortunately, drivers do this by frequently stopping short and dramatically increasing the number of rear-end incidents.
Applied Behavior Analysis has a whole literature on how making one behavior change often impacts many other unplanned behavior changes. Sometimes, the unplanned behavior changes may be positive as in this example. However, I think that negative side effects happen in practice much more than is usually appreciated.
I have previously argued that we should both think ahead about possible negative side effects and make plans to prevent them. This is especially true with programs to improve staff behaviors. Planning is a good start, but we would also like a measurement. That’s pretty hard. How do you measure a negative side effect that you haven’t planned?
Well, of course, you have to spend time talking to staff. I strongly suspect how you ask about negative side effects matters a lot. If you ask staff, parents, or others, “How is everything going?” or “Are you doing all right?” The likely answer is “good” or “fine.” If you truly want to dig into the problems of negative side effects, it is necessary to be more direct. When asking, you need to assume that there are negatives still occurring, or else you substantially reduce the chances that you will be told about them. Use statements like:
“It looks like the program to reduce self-injury is going great, what problems have you been experiencing?”
“All programs appear to be going fantastic right now, what are your current 3 biggest problems?”
In other words, unless we are at a point where the child no longer requires intervention, there will still be big problems to address. Some of them may be negative side effects of programming; others may be challenges we have yet to address. Perhaps you don’t want to do this too much. We want to keep an overall positive environment and not having everyone looking for the negatives all the time. In my view, this is a subtle but important skill for BCBAs.