At the end of their training lab graduates are offered the opportunity to take the lab science oath. If they do, they then can receive the "Behavioralis Junkus" degree and be eligible for all of the incredible benefits that flow from it such as being able to sign their letters "Behavioral Yours." Steve Hayes conducts a solemn ceremony in which lab graduates swear to the oath, learn the secret behavioral handshake, and are awarded the highest honor any lab graduate can ever receive, the Behavioralis Junkus degree.
The Behavioralis Junkus Science Oath
Among other more specific forms of training, lab members are trained to have a set of scientific values. These are they. As I state each, affirm it -- if it is in your values to do so:
1. Without diminishing the importance of other forms of knowledge, such as that based in clinical and life experience, do you affirm the value of science as a way of knowing?
2. Will you work to protect science from social, personal, and political pressures that can distort its integrity and do you promise never to lie in a scientific document?
3. Will you fight for the right of scientists to observe, analyze, experiment, theorize, and freely exchange ideas in any domain of human interest?
4. Will you promote the broad application of scientific knowledge to problems of human concern and will you insist that scientific knowledge be given proper attention and due weight in human decision making, in public policy, and in the alleviation of human suffering?
Then as Chief Bozo on this Bus, by the powers invested in me by my mentors and by my mentors’ mentors, from A. R. Gilliland to Allen L. Edwards, from Allen L. Edwards to John D. Cone; and from John D. Cone to me, and from Nate Schoenfeld and Fred Keller to Jim Dinsmoor, from Jim Dinsmoor to Hal Leitenberg; from Hal Leitenberg to David Barlow, from David Barlow to me, I ask you to respect that tradition, honor it, to do right by it, and to carry it forward as I declare you recipient of Behavioralis Junkus degree number #xx with all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities that obtain thereto.
Let us all congratulate xx as (she/he) learns the secret behavioral handshake.