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
John D. Cone, who was given that authority by
Allen L. Edwards, who was given that authority by
A. R. Gilliland; and from
David H. Barlow who was given that authority by
Hal Leitenberg who was given that authority by
Jim Dinsmoor who was given that authority by
Nate Schoenfeld and Fred Keller,
I ask you now to respect the best of that tradition, to help repair its flaws, and to carry forward what is good inside it to others as I declare you recipient of the Behavioralis Junkus Degree (B.J.D.) with all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities that obtain thereto.
Let us all congratulate xx as (she/he) learns the secret behavioral handshake.