Baer, Donald

Donald M. Baer (1931–2002) conducted seminal research on child behavior in the learning theory tradition of experimental psychology, he made fundamental contributions to behavior theory in child development, and he pioneered in the application of conditioning theory to behavioral problems in early childhood. Most notably, he was pivotal in founding applied behavior analysis, which experimentally analyzes problems of individual, social, and cultural importance and systematically discovers and applies empirically based solutions to them. Informed by B. F. Skinner's behaviorism, applied behavior analysis is today a basis for many “best practices” in education, especially in early childhood and for persons with autism, mental retardation, and other developmental disabilities.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, on October 25, 1931, Baer grew up the son of a labor organizer in Pennsylvania and Illinois. He received his bachelor of art and PhD degrees at the University of Chicago, the latter in experimental psychology where, with Jacob L. Gewirtz, he conducted research on social motivation. On receipt of his doctorate in 1957, he accepted a faculty position in the Department of Psychology at the University of Washington. There he advanced the experimental analysis of child behavior in the areas of imitation and aversive control and joined Sidney W. Bijou in founding the behavior analysis approach to developmental psychology. Moving to the Department of Human Development and Family Life at the University of Kansas in 1965, Baer also began programs of research on language development and on the problem behaviors of preschool children in classroom settings.

In 1968, Baer, Montrose M. Wolf, and Todd R. Risley founded the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA) and defined the field's basic dimensions. In particular, Baer became the field's intellectual leader. He promoted its high standards of experimental proof (e.g., within-subject experimental designs), modeled incisive logic in conceptual analysis (e.g., behavior theory), and clarified its research agenda (e.g., the experimental analysis of behavioral interventions, empirically based decision making). His basic and applied research continued unabated in the areas of language development and self-regulation, early childhood education, developmental disabilities and mental retardation, chronic aberrant behavior, the generalization of treatment outcomes over time and across settings, and the dissemination of empirically based interventions. He also served often as an expert witness, advocating on behalf of parents who sought appropriate and top-rate education for their children with autism.

Among Baer's numerous honors were the Don Hake Award and the Edgar A. Doll Award from the American Psychological Association for work that bridged basic and applied research and contributed to the lives of people with developmental disabilities. He served as the president of the Association for Behavior Analysis and the Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, editor of JABA, and associate editor of the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology and the American Journal of Mental Deficiency. He was also widely sought after as an international visiting scientist [Page 68]and scholar (e.g., Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Spain). Baer passed away on April 28, 2002.