Episode
Episode 38: No Man's Land-The Myth of Ascent: Why Choice is Just a Contingency
- Podcast
- Rad N Bad Podcast
- Published
- May 29, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2160
- Processing state
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Summary
Is "assent" the future of ethical ABA, or is it a clinical retreat into "fragile tolerance"? In this installment of the No Man’s Land series, Sean Yocum and Mike Carrero step directly into one of the most emotionally charged debates in behavioral health. While the field currently treats assent as an ethical evolution, Sean and Mike strip away the marketing and the buzzwords to look at the raw mechanics underneath. From a radical behaviorist perspective, does "assent" even exist? Or is it simply a hypothetical construct—a label we’ve placed on behavior that is actually being shaped by environmental contingencies? Sean and Mike dive deep into: The Reality Gap: Are we preparing learners for a world that requires persistence and resilience, or are we engineering "safe spaces" that fail to translate to the real world? Buzzwords vs. Science: Why "Trauma-Informed Care" and "Assent-Based Care" are often just rebrands for what should have been good behavioral design all along. The Middle Ground: Moving past the extremes of forced compliance and unlimited refusal to focus on shaping, reinforcement schedules, and functional communication. The Radical Lens: Reframing refusal not as a philosophical choice, but as critical data that tells us exactly where our behavioral design is failing. Stop asking if your learner "assents" and start asking what your environment is reinforcing. It’s time to move beyond the "feel-good" terminology and get back to the science of shaping independence.