BA285 Unit 4 Boundaries and Gifts Paper Example

Preserves, a Birthday Party and a Friend Request: A BA285 Unit 4 Boundaries and Multiple Relationships Paper

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

BA285: Ethics in Behavior Analysis

Unit 4 Boundaries and Multiple Relationships Paper

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The writer, her supervisor and the family are composite; the code and sources cited are real.

Three Offers in One Month

Caleb's grandmother's farmhouse is one of my regular stops. Caleb, a four-year-old I have worked with for eight months, lives with his grandmother, Mrs. Pruitt. Caleb has made real progress, and Mrs. Pruitt is grateful. In one month she made three offers.

First, at the end of a session in July, she handed me a jar of blackberry preserves she had put up from her own bushes. Second, a week later, she invited me to Caleb's fifth birthday party, saying he talks about me every day and it would mean the world to him. Third, that same evening, I received a friend request from her on Facebook.

Each offer came from kindness. Each also touched on the boundaries between my professional role and a personal relationship. This paper analyzes all three.

The Standards

The Behavior Analyst Certification Board's ethics code addresses multiple relationships and gifts directly (Behavior Analyst Certification Board, 2020). It directs behavior analysts to avoid multiple relationships with clients and stakeholders, because a second relationship, such as friendship, can impair objectivity, create conflicts of interest or lead to exploitation. It also directs them not to give or accept gifts, with a narrow exception for infrequent expressions of gratitude of minimal monetary value, and to tell families about this requirement at the start of services. The RBT ethics code applies similar expectations to technicians (Behavior Analyst Certification Board, 2021).

Bailey and Burch (2022) note that boundary issues are among the most common ethical problems in practice, and that they often begin with small, well-meant gestures. They recommend that practitioners think through not only the immediate situation but where it could lead, and that they explain boundaries to families early, before a gesture puts anyone in an awkward position.

The Preserves

A jar of homemade preserves is an infrequent expression of gratitude with almost no monetary value. Refusing it would likely hurt Mrs. Pruitt, who offers it as she would to a neighbor, and would gain nothing in protection for Caleb. My agency's policy follows the code's narrow exception for small, infrequent tokens of thanks.

I accepted the preserves, thanked her, and mentioned the gift in my session note, as my supervisor asks us to do with any gift. If such gifts became regular, or grew in value, the analysis would change.

A jar of preserves did not change how I work with Caleb; a seat at his birthday table could.

The Birthday Party

The party is a different kind of offer. Attending would place me in a social role with the family: a guest among relatives and neighbors, eating cake and watching Caleb open presents. That second relationship could blur my role in several ways. It could make Mrs. Pruitt feel less free to raise concerns about services with someone she now sees as a friend of the family. It could make it harder for me to follow the plan when it calls for something Caleb dislikes. And if services end or change, Caleb could experience the loss of a person he sees as a friend rather than a therapist.

The emotional pull was strong. Mrs. Pruitt told me Caleb talks about me daily, and I care about him. But the code's concern is precisely that caring relationships with clients need clear roles to remain safe. I declined, explaining to Mrs. Pruitt that I could not attend family events because it would change my role with Caleb, and that I would be glad to celebrate his birthday at our next session. My supervisor suggested a small celebration within the session, a birthday song and a sticker book, which Caleb loved.

The Friend Request

Social media raises its own risks. O'Leary et al. (2017) examined the ethical implications of social media for behavior analysts and identified risks including multiple relationships, breaches of client confidentiality through posts, photos or comments, and blurred professional boundaries when practitioners and families share personal lives online. They recommended that practitioners avoid connecting with clients and their families on personal accounts and that agencies adopt clear social media policies.

Accepting the request would let Mrs. Pruitt see into my life outside work and open hers to me, and either of us could post or comment in ways that reveal Caleb's services. I did not accept it. At the next session, I explained that I do not connect with families on social media and that it was not personal, and I gave her the agency's general contact information for any questions between sessions.

Rural Realities

The analysis would be incomplete without acknowledging where I work. In a small community, I see families at the grocery store, the gas station and church. Mrs. Pruitt and I attend services in the same town, though not the same congregation. Complete separation is not possible, and the code does not require it. What it requires is that I avoid relationships that could harm the client and manage unavoidable contact professionally. When I see Mrs. Pruitt in town, I say hello and do not discuss Caleb's services where others can hear.

What I Would Change

In hindsight, the month would have been easier if I had followed the guidance to explain boundaries at the start of services. When I began with Caleb, I mentioned the gift policy only in passing, and I said nothing about social media or family events. Mrs. Pruitt had no way to know that her offers would put me in a difficult position. Since then, I have asked my supervisor to add a short, plain-language page on boundaries to the agency's intake packet, covering gifts, events, social media and running into each other in town, so that families hear it once, early, before anyone's kindness has to be declined.

Conclusion

Three kind offers from a grateful grandmother led to three different answers. The preserves fit the code's narrow exception for small tokens of thanks. The birthday party would have created a second relationship that could compromise Caleb's services, so I declined and brought the celebration into a session. The friend request carried risks to confidentiality and boundaries, so I declined and explained why. In each case, the decision rested on the same question: would this change how well I can serve Caleb?

References

Bailey, J. S., & Burch, M. R. (2022). Ethics for behavior analysts (4th ed.). Routledge.

Behavior Analyst Certification Board. (2020). Ethics code for behavior analysts. Author.

Behavior Analyst Certification Board. (2021). RBT ethics code (2.0). Author.

O'Leary, P. N., Miller, M. M., Olive, M. L., & Kelly, A. N. (2017). Blurred lines: Ethical implications of social media for behavior analysts. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 10(1), 45-51. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-014-0033-0