Practice question
Ethical and Professional Issues

Practice within scope of competence and seek consultation.

Original BCBA scenario practice question with answer explanation and wrong-choice notes.

Question

Difficulty: hard. Skill: analyze. Type: ethics professional judgment.

A caregiver asks the BCBA to treat interrupting peers in a specialized area where the BCBA has no training or supervised experience. What should the BCBA do first? The team wants the next step to be defensible from the current data.

A
Accept immediately because all behavior is within scope
B
Refer, collaborate, or obtain appropriate supervision before providing services

Correct answer

C
Use a familiar procedure without assessment
D
Tell the caregiver behavior analysis can never help

Explanation

Answer B

Ethical practice requires working within competence and arranging consultation, referral, or supervised training when needed.

Why the other choices are weaker

A
Choice A

Behavioral relevance does not eliminate competence requirements.

C
Choice C

Familiarity with a procedure does not establish competence for the case.

D
Choice D

The issue is competence and collaboration, not whether ABA may be relevant.

Study tags

EthicsScope of CompetenceEthics

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