Training Supervisor Perspective-Taking Abilities to Enhance Compassionate Practices
One of the greatest responsibilities for Behavior Analysts is to disseminate our work and its contributions to the science of Behavior Analysis. One essential audience for dissemination are future behavior analysts in training. Although the core goals of supervision remain unchanged over the years- teach them the philosophical underpinnings, instruct them in technical procedural design, and support them in applying their knowledge. But as the field has grown and the supervised fieldwork requirements have evolved to align with best practices, the experiences of supervisees are noticeably different from the supervision experiences of Behavior Analysts from previous generations. To be a dynamic supervisor today means that practitioners need to be skilled at seeing the supervision experience from the supervisee’s perspective and taking a collaborative approach to ensuring the supervisory relationship aligns with each participant's values.
As expectations for supervisors continue to evolve, researchers have begun examining how interpersonal repertoires—particularly compassion and perspective taking—can be explicitly taught using behavior analytic methods. Denegri et al. (2026) investigated one such approach. This group examined the use of competency-based training to teach “soft” skills, like compassion, to existing BCBA and students completing behavior analytic coursework.
Generally, a repertoire of compassionate behavior has been defined by the component skills of observation, empathy, and action in accordance with empathy (Lown, 2016; Strauss et al., 2016).
Relational Frame Theory (RFT) provides one behavioral account of perspective taking through deictic relational framing, including I/YOU, HERE/THERE, and NOW/THEN relations. These repertoires allow individuals to discriminate their own experiences from those of others and respond in accordance with another person's perspective (Vilardaga, 2009; West et al., 2024).
Methods
Participants in this study were Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBA), Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analysts (BCaBA), or graduate students taking coursework in a clinical supervisory role. Seven participants took part in the intervention program.
Participants typed a response to hypothetical scenarios during baseline. During the intervention phase, participants completed a Behavioral Skills Training (BST) program consisting of instructional videos, rehearsal opportunities, and feedback designed to teach perspective-taking responses. Post intervention, the participants received a video scenario designed to allow each participant to demonstrate targeted empathetic, perspective- taking skills.
The primary dependent variables were measured using a non-concurrent multiple probe design across participants and focused on the component skills to perspective-taking, including
(1) “context”, or identifying antecedents and consequences involved in aversive functional relations contributing to another person’s experience;
(2) “impact”, or demonstrating deictic perspective taking by responding from another person’s learning history and experiences;
(3) “meaning”, or generating behavior strategies likely to alter contingencies and reduce aversive conditions; and
(4) “action”, or engaging in contextually appropriate action consistent with those strategies.
Results
During baseline, participants scored an average of 2 out of 8 possible points (range 0-6) for demonstration of each perspective taking skill. During the intervention phase, participants scored an average of 5.84 out of 8 possible points (range 2-8). In the post-intervention follow ups the participants scored an average of 6.4 out of 8 possible points (range 4-7).
For five of the seven participants, their baseline scores were low or variable, increased during the intervention, and maintained at a high level during the post-intervention follow up.
Participants scored the lowest on scenarios involving cultural differences with clients, workplace communication issues, interaction with school teachers, scope of practice issues, and workplace gossip.
Overall, participants demonstrated meaningful improvements in perspective-taking performance following BST, with gains generally maintained during follow-up.
Limitations
The authors acknowledge that the target behavior of compassion is a multi-faceted skill that is likely to continue to evolve and its definition includes multiple component skills that may not have been included in the present study. Additionally, the authors recognize that each participant has a unique learning history, which might have made responding to the different training scenarios more or less challenging for participants based on their context.
The final limitation to this study discussed by the authors was the reported systemic constraints experienced by the participants, who felt that the structure of their organization would not allow for these learning opportunities to occur in the natural environment.
Future research on this topic could include discrimination training for supervisors to determine what variables are within their control to change and how best to respond (either actual or hypothetical), applying trained compassion skills into natural practice, and how long supervisor compassion can persist when organizational constraints exist.
As competency-based supervision continues to become the standard in behavior analysis, this study provides preliminary evidence that compassionate responding can be operationally defined, measured, and taught. Rather than assuming interpersonal skills develop through experience alone, supervisors may benefit from incorporating explicit instruction, rehearsal, and feedback to strengthen perspective taking during supervision.
References
Denegri, S., Catrone, R., Slowiak, J., & Paliliunas, D. (2026). Training supervisor perspective-taking abilities to enhance compassionate practices toward supervisees and stakeholders. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 1-25. doi: 10.1080/01608061.2026.2683721
Lown, B. A. (2016). A social neuroscience-informed model for teaching and practicing compassion in health care. Medical Education, 50(3), 332–342. https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.12926
Strauss, C., Lever Taylor, B., Gu, J., Kuyken, W., Baer, R., Jones, F., & Cavanagh, K. (2016). What is compassion and how can we measure it? A review of definitions and measures. Clinical Psychology Review, 47, 15–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2016.05.004
Vilardaga, R. (2009). A relational frame theory account of empathy. International Journal of Behavioral and Consultation Therapy, 5(2), 178–184. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0100879
West, D. M., Assemi, K., Ragulan, S., & Houmanfar, R. A. (2024). Compassionate care, cultural humility, and psychological flexibility: Examining the potential for consilience in applied behavior analysis. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 19(1), 325–342. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-024-00950-0