35 Data-Based Actions You Can Take Today to
Support Social Responsibility:
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Develop a self-management program to ensure you do
one of the following, or contribute in some other way.
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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.
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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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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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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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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.
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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.
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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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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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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.
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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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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.
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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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Advocate for an immediate admission policy for substance
abuse treatment (Festinger, Lamb, Kirby,
& Marlowe, 1996).
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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).
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Construct a policy-relevant conceptual analysis (incorporating
available empirical data) and present it to policymakers (Fawcett
et al., 1988).
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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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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).
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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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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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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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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).
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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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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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Construct a program to increase social acceptance of
a rejected child (Ervin, Miller, & Friman,
1996).
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Develop a public feedback system to increase the level
of public contributions to a non-profit organization (Jackson
& Mathews, 1995).
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Develop and administer a similar questionnaire on the
WWW.
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