Kindness Is the Method, Not the Reward: An Evaluation of the Effects of Kindness on Three Children With Autism

Abstract

Kindness has been generally defined as being compassionate, empathetic, friendly, forgiving, generous, considerate, or as showing genuine concern for and a desire to help others. This definition has utility when speaking informally but lacks technical precision when used in a scientific capacity. Given that kindness encompasses several different behaviors rather than a single behavior, it is potentially beneficial to conceptualize kindness as a set of smaller behavioral components consisting of specific soft skills. Operationalization of such soft skills affords researchers the ability to objectively measure those behaviors, and therefore, allows for researchers to experimentally evaluate their collateral effect on client behavior. Within behavior analysis, previous research has been conducted which demonstrates certain soft skills can be taught to therapists. Furthermore, research indicates that when therapists engage in appropriate soft skills, such as relationship or rapport building, individuals show increased indices of happiness and compliance, as well as reduced problem behavior. Despite relevant research on teaching soft skills and related conceptual discussion on the importance of soft skills, limited empirical evaluations have been conducted which have objectively evaluated the direct effect kindness may have on client behavior. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the relative effect of two conditions, kind or neutral, on behavior of clients receiving therapy within a clinic setting. This study employed a multiple probe across participants design with an embedded alternating treatments phase, which was replicated across three participants who were exposed to both the kind and neutral conditions. After exposure, they were given the choice of selecting which condition they preferred. The primary dependent variables were Skill acquisition, problem behavior occurrence, on-task behavior, and indices of happiness or unhappiness. The findings indicated that individuals preferred the kind treatment condition and show decreased problem behavior, increased skill acquisition, increased on-task behavior, and increased levels of happiness and decreased levels of unhappiness when exposed to this condition as well. These findings indicate the need in behavior analysis for kind treatment, with a call to be vigilant in our pursuit of kind and compassionate care.