Overview
The Department of Applied Behavior Science is housed, administratively, in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Kansas and physically in the Dole Human Development Center at 1000 Sunnyside Avenue on the south side of campus. We have 15 regular faculty members, 200 undergraduate majors, and more than 100 graduate students.
Why are we here?
The Department is here because a natural science of behavior uniquely helps us understand and improve the human condition locally, nationally, and globally. Our undergraduate mission is to teach students to understand behavior and solve societal problems through evidence-based practice and critical thinking. Our graduate mission is to train scientist-practitioners and researchers in the discovery, production, translation, application, and communication of knowledge for the same purposes.
These missions entail four domains of teaching, training, and research:
- Basic principles of a natural science of behavior;
- Research methods in basic and applied research, the latter including prevention and intervention research;
- Historical, conceptual, and comparative foundations; and
- The extension and application of these domains for understanding and improving the human condition.
Among the areas we currently apply our principles for important behavior change are in addiction; adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities; autism and other childhood intellectual and developmental disabilities; community health and development; performance management and organizational behavior management; early childhood development (both typical and atypical); and other health and well-being applications.
What have we done well?
We have pioneered translating basic behavioral research into evidence-based practices and, in the process, founded our field's leading journal, the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. In 2004, KU ranked fifth nationally in its number of applied behavioral science publications. We have continuously garnered among the most research funding in the College and are principal investigators on over $10 million in awards. Our ground-breaking research immediately improved the lives of people locally and statewide (e.g., in early childhood at Juniper Gardens) and is now disseminated and adopted nationally and internationally (e.g., Boy's Town, Peru's Ann Sullivan Center). Our community health and development program is a World Health Organization Centre, and one of four department centers in the Life Span Institute. In 2000, we received the award for Outstanding Programmatic Contributions from the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis.
We are also a campus leader in service and community-engaged scholarship. Our intensive undergraduate practica are at the forefront of a national trend toward hands-on coursework. The Center for Service-Learning has approved many of our courses for Certification in Service Learning. A sequence of courses fulfills the requirements for certification for the College Undergraduate Research Experience. Our courses and practica lead to national Master's BCBA level Behavior Analysis Board Certification. We were the first department in the College to offer a Multi-Cultural Scholars Program. Our joint M.P.H./Ph.D. program is one of the first that integrates Applied Behavioral Analysis and Public Health. The Department is a partner of the KU Advocacy Corp and serves as an advocate for Safe Kids Douglas County. And, we have won numerous teaching, research, and service awards, in part, because we integrate them. The Department engages faculty, staff and students in service through integrated research and scholarship. Learn more about services provided through the Department's Research and Training Centers, including the Edna A. Hill Child Development Center.