35 Data-Based Actions You Can Take Today to 
Support Social Responsibility:

  1. Develop a self-management program to ensure you do one of the following, or contribute in some other way.

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  3. Work with the local justice system, schools, or other networks to establish systems of Conferencing to support restorative justice, improve outcomes for victims, reduce recidivism, and reintegrate offenders into schools and communities.

  4.  
  5. Work with local helping agencies to expand the use of home-based cognitive stimulation programs modeled after the Choctaw Home-Centered Family Education Project(Quigley, Morris, & Hammett, 1976;Wolfe, 1991) with low-income families to improve long-term child outcomes.

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  7. Make a specific plan to use what is known about effective parenting in your daily life, with particular emphasis on increasing positive reinforcement, reducing coercive exchanges, parental monitoring, and the use of consistent discipline (Webster-Stratton, 1992; Patterson, 1975; Sloane, 1988).

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  9. Provide educators with information about the PASS (Greenwood, Hops, & Walker, 1977;Greenwood, Hops, Walker, Guild, Stokes, & Young, 1979) and CLASS (Hops, Walker, Fleischman, Nagoshi, Omura, Skindrud, & Taylor, 1978) programs for improving academic performance and prosocial classroom behavior.

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  11. Work to have multisystemic family intervention (Henggeler, Schoenwald, Borduin, Rowland, & Cunningham, 1998) and functional family therapy (Alexander & Parsons, 1982) used in lieu of incarceration and other traditional correctional approaches for youth in the community who are involved in serious antisocial behavior.

  12.  
  13. Advocate for a review of the extent to which data-based programs to prevent school dropouts (Evans & Matthews, 1992) are being used in your local area.

  14.  
  15. Advocate for an active parent support and parent education program in an organization or community, that emphasizes the research supporting increasing positive reinforcement, parental monitoring, and the use of consistent discipline while reducing reliance on power-assertive, coercive discipline (Biglan, 1995; Patterson, 1982; Hembree-Kigin & McNeil, 1995;Dangel & Polster, 1984; Barkley, 1981).

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  17. Initiate a self-management group for older adults, in which they can learn skills related to remaining intellectually active and enjoying old age (Skinner & Vaughan, 1983).

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  19. Work with school personnel and parents to implement a youth violence reduction program consistent with the research indicating that programs that rely on reinforcement, recognition, and changes in the culture of the school can dramatically reduce violence and vandalism, and increase on-task behavior (Mayer & Butterworth, 1979; Mayer, Butterworth, Nafpaktitis & Sulzer-Azaroff, 1983), as opposed to more limited programs focusing on anger management and conflict resolution (which can, however, be useful components of an overall program). Several current programs, including PeaceBuilders at the Elementary School level, the PAXIS School Climate System, and PEACE POWER! at the intermediate and high school levels, rely on this technology.

  20.  
  21. Develop a personalized approach to local recycling or other local issue with global implications (Keller, 1991--a study by an eight-year old!).

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  23. Review existing environmental behavior analytic research (or that in another area of social concern) and "package" it in a marketable form, accessible to consumers and decision-makers (Geller, 1990). Such a package could also be submitted for posting on this site.

  24.  
  25. Advocate for the use of the Community Reinforcement Approach to substance abuse treatment in community programs, in preference to others without empirical support.

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  27. Advocate for an immediate admission policy for substance abuse treatment (Festinger, Lamb, Kirby, & Marlowe, 1996).

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  29. Work with an organization (business, university, etc.) to develop an incentive system to increase the use of car pooling or public transportation (Jacobs, Fairbanks, Poche, & Bailey, 1982).

  30.  
  31. Construct a policy-relevant conceptual analysis (incorporating available empirical data) and present it to policymakers (Fawcett et al., 1988).

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  33. Share with stakeholders in your local policy-making process the results of studies indicating that distribution of inexpensive recycling containers, certain forms of prompting, and particular collection schedules can dramatically increase the level of recycling participation (Jacobs, Bailey & Crews, 1984).

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  35. Conduct an analysis of an organization you are involved with to determine the extent to which that organization (school, social agency, workplace) relies on coercion, threats, and punishment to achieve its goals. Pay particular attention to the treatment of commonly disempowered groups, including persons in low-paying jobs, students, or clients, particularly those of minority status. Develop and advocate for a plan incorporating reinforcement-based alternatives, which can produce improved organizational outcomes while demonstrating respect for all participants (Sidman, 1989; Daniels, 1994).

  36.  
  37. Copy and disseminate a fact sheet on the prevention of reading failure (a major determinant of poverty and social problems) to persons who have influence with decision-makers (parents, politicians).

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  39. Suggest a community partnership in which youth at risk for dropping out of school gain access to fast food, movie, or other coupons or gift certificates, reducing absenteeism by more than half, and dramatically reducing failing grades as well (Damico, 1992).

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  41. Recommend a safety program at the workplace in which groups of workers receive incentives for periods without injuries (Fox, Hopkins, & Anger, 1987).

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  43. Summarize and market the "social reinforcement approach to job-finding"--that can increase the number of job leads for persons in need of employment by up to 10 times--to key decision-makers (Jones & Azrin, 1973).

  44.  
  45. Develop and implement a membership recruitment effort using incentives for a non-profit organization contributing to social justice or other important social goals (Herndon & Mikulas, 1996).

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  47. Plan and implement a voter registration program in a social agency, shopping center, or other site in which disadvantaged persons or others who commonly lack access to power are found (Fawcett, Seekins, & Silber, 1988; Mattaini, 1996).

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  49. Construct a program to increase social acceptance of a rejected child (Ervin, Miller, & Friman, 1996).

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  51. Develop a public feedback system to increase the level of public contributions to a non-profit organization (Jackson & Mathews, 1995).

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  53. Teach disabled individuals how to evaluate and select programs that are most reinforcing for them, increasing their level of self-determination (Faw, Davis & Peck, 1996).

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  55. Write a letter to the editor calling for the use of empirical data for making a particular public decision (Thyer,1996).

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  57. On your own, or preferably in collaboration with others you might recruit, compare the state of services for homeless persons in your area with the state-of-the-art (Johnson & Cnaan, 1995), and prepare an accessible report that can be used by advocacy groups in the community.

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  59. Write a letter to the editor supporting the use of incentive-based approaches to welfare reform that incorporate necessary contextual supports (Mattaini & Magnabosco, 1997).

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  61. Prepare an accessible summary paper regarding what is known about effective educational technologies (Crandall, Jacobson, & Sloane, 1997), and take it to a local or state decisionmaker.

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  63. Begin a self-help group that incorporates adequate incentives (Miller & Miller, 1970) and training for effective decision-making (Briscoe, Hoffman & Bailey, 1975) in a neighborhood or community.

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  65. Develop a feedback system tracing an important issue in a community or organization, presenting data in an accessible way to community members to maximize the likelihood of establishing a metacontingent link between action and aggregate outcomes (Hayes & Cone, 1981; Van Houten, Nau,& Marini, 1980)

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  67. Develop and administer a detailed questionnaire or interview schedule in which respondents are asked to evaluate the magnitude and desirability of multiple consequences associated with a public decision with social justice implications (Consequence Analysis, Sanford & Fawcett, 1980).

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  69. Develop and administer a similar questionnaire on the WWW.

  70. Return to BFSR Home Page