Editor's Note: Societal changes and expression of concern about Rekers and Lovaas' (1974) Behavioral Treatment of Deviant Sex‐Role Behaviors in a Male Child

2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 1830-1836
Author(s):  
◽  
Linda A. LeBlanc
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Treatment ◽  
Sex Role ◽  
Male Child ◽  
Societal Changes ◽  
Role Behaviors

scholarly journals Social Significance and the Centrality of Human Beings: A Response to “Editor’s Note: Societal changes and expression of concern about Rekers and Lovaas’ (1974) Behavioral Treatment of Deviant Sex-Role Behaviors in a Male Child”

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Austin H Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Behavior Analysis ◽  
Applied Behavior Analysis ◽  
Behavioral Treatment ◽  
Sex Role ◽  
Male Child ◽  
Current Response ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Social Significance ◽  
Experimental Analysis Of Behavior ◽  
Role Behaviors

In 1974, Rekers and Lovaas published an article in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA) entitled “Behavioral Treatment of Deviant Sex-Role Behaviors in a Male Child,” wherein the authors coached a gender-non-conforming child’s parents to ignore and physically abuse that child when he engaged in gender-non-conforming behaviors. In October 2020, the Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (SEAB) and JABA’s editor-in-chief Dr. Linda LeBlanc published a Statement of Concern regarding Rekers and Lovaas (1974), which described some concerns regarding the paper and then provided justification for the journal’s decision to not retract this paper. In this current response, I describe criticisms of JABA’s rationale for not retracting this paper. I note that the criteria used to determine retraction by SEAB and LeBlanc (2020) were not applied in the manner suggested by official retraction guidelines. I describe contemporaneous criticisms of the Rekers and Lovaas (1974) paper (i.e., Winkler ,1977; Nordyke et al., 1977) which were written by a set of authors that included Donald Baer, one of the foundational figures in applied behavior analysis (ABA). I describe the active discussion within the psychological sciences at the time of publication to depathologize homosexuality. I criticize the 2020 Statement of Concern’s focus on damage to the field of ABA as opposed to the harm done to Kirk, and question errors of commission and omission made by SEAB and LeBlanc in the 2020 Statement of Concern. I end with an argument that Rekers and Lovaas (1974) should be retracted from JABA.

scholarly journals Behavioral treatment of deviant sex-role behaviors in a male child1

1974 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
George A. Rekers ◽  
O. Ivar Lovaas
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Treatment ◽  
Sex Role ◽  
Role Behaviors

Sex-role behaviors and personality traits of male day care teachers

Sex Roles ◽  
1978 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 853-865 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan E. Robinson ◽  
Helen Canaday
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Day Care ◽  
Sex Role ◽  
Day Care Teachers ◽  
Role Behaviors

Self-Ratings and Projected Ratings of Sex Role Attitudes

1982 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 406-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marilyn A. Borges ◽  
Joseph R. Levine ◽  
Patricia A. Naylor
Keyword(s):  
Test Scores ◽  
Sex Role ◽  
Attitudes Toward Women ◽  
Sex Role Attitudes ◽  
Role Behavior ◽  
Accurate Perception ◽  
Attitudes Toward Sex ◽  
Total Test ◽  
Role Behaviors

To ascertain the veridicality of projected attitudes toward sex role behavior, 74 male and 74 female undergraduates filled out the Attitudes Toward Women Scale (AWS) using three different targets: self, typical female classmate, and typical male classmate. Analyses of variance on respondents' total AWS scores and on the six AWS subscale scores showed significant interactions between sex of respondent and sex of target for all seven variables. Since the directions of the interactions were not consistent across subscales, the results indicated the methodological necessity of using measurements which examine a variety of specific subclasses of sex role behaviors (rather than using unidimensional scales or total test scores) when stereotypic sex role attitudes are sought. In general, both sexes were found to have a fairly accurate perception of women's attitudes, but both sexes consistently perceived the typical male as more conservative than the male self-ratings justified.

Reinforcing contingencies for sex-role behaviors in preschool children

1976 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 241-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boyd R McCandless ◽  
Carol Bush ◽  
Ayse Ilgaz Carden
Keyword(s):  
Preschool Children ◽  
Sex Role ◽  
Role Behaviors

Masculine Instrumentality and Feminine Expressiveness: Their Relationships with Sex Role Attitudes and Behaviors

1980 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet T. Spence ◽  
Robert L. Helmreich
Keyword(s):  
Sex Role ◽  
Behavioral Flexibility ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Personal Attributes ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Sex Role Attitudes ◽  
Bem Sex Role Inventory ◽  
Attitudes And Behaviors ◽  
Personal Attributes Questionnaire ◽  
Role Behaviors

Data from the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) and the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ) Masculinity and Femininity scales have led to the hypothesis that androgynous individuals are more “behaviorally flexible” than others, manifesting both masculine and feminine role behaviors. Sex-role androgyny is also said to have other beneficial consequences such as high self esteem. The content of these instruments, however, is largely confined to socially desirable instrumental (masculine) and expressive (feminine) personality traits. A review of the literature indicates that these abstract trait dimensions have only minimal relationships with sex-role attitudes and sex-role behaviors not tapping instrumentality and expressiveness, and provide little support for the general behavioral flexibility hypothesis. Although PAQ and BSRI findings cannot be generalized to sex-role behaviors in general, the literature suggests that instrumentality and expressiveness per se have important implications. Appreciation of their contributions may be advanced more rapidly if these trait dimensions are disentangled from global concepts of sex-roles or masculinity, femininity, and androgyny.

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