Mapping the Evidence on Compassion Skills in Applied Behavior Analysis: Protocol for Scoping Review
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Applied behavior analysis (ABA) is a scientific approach that applies principles of learning and motivation to assess, design, implement, and evaluate social and environmental modifications to produce meaningful changes in human behavior. It has been widely used in various settings, particularly in the treatment of individuals with autism spectrum disorders and other developmental disabilities. Recently, compassion has emerged as a topic of growing scientific interest within ABA. To improve socially relevant behaviors, it is essential to explore how behavior analysts can provide maximum support to clients and promote significant changes through compassionate care. Although compassion skills have been studied by ABA researchers, the literature still presents gaps in understanding how these skills can be effectively integrated into ABA practice. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to map, identify, and provide data available in the existing literature on compassion skills and applied behavior analysis. METHODS: This scoping review will follow the methodological framework of Arksey and O'Malley with previously proposed refinements. The search strategy will use combinations of descriptors and their synonyms according to the Health Sciences Descriptors and MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) terms, using the PCC (population, concept, and context) mnemonic, combined with the Boolean operators AND Mesh OR. The electronic databases to be searched include Embase, Index Psicologia, Lilacs, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. Studies published between 2020 and 2024 in English, Portuguese, and Spanish will be included. Two independent reviewers will screen titles, abstracts, and full texts, with a third reviewer resolving any disagreements. RESULTS: As this is a protocol, results are pending. The review will synthesize definitions of compassion in ABA, map compassionate skills, analyze existing interventions, and identify outcomes associated with compassionate ABA practice. CONCLUSIONS: This scoping review is expected to contribute to the evolution of ABA toward a more compassionate and holistic approach, potentially leading to improved outcomes for clients and practitioners. The findings may inform the development of compassion training programs and influence care policies in ABA. TRIAL REGISTRATION: OSF Registries 10.17605/OSF.IO/F3A6H; https://osf.io/f3a6h. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): PRR1-10.2196/66399.
Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.
How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.007 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.003 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.006 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.003 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".