© University of Kent - Contact | Feedback | Legal | Cookies
The University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NZ, T +44 (0)1227 764000
Dr Mecca Chiesa
Lecturer
Tizard
- M.E.Chiesa@kent.ac.uk
- 01227 823955
Mecca Chiesa is a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst who has published widely on philosophical and experimental issues in the science of behaviour. She received her Ph.D from the University of Wales Cardiff in 1990. Her thesis was subsequently revised and published as Radical Behaviorism: The Philosophy and the Science (1994, Boston: Authors Cooperative), and is now in its second printing. She was on the editorial board of The Behavior Analyst from 1995 to 2001 and is currently on the editorial boards of the European Journal of Behavior Analysis and Behavioral Technology Today.
Before joining the Tizard Centre in September 2003, Mecca spent several years setting up early intervention programmes for young autistic children and ran a research programme on the effects of fluency building (a Precision Teaching procedure) for children struggling with the mainstream maths curriculum. Mecca is a founding member of the ABA Lecturers Cooperative who, in collaboration with the Treehouse Trust, established the first course in the UK to be approved by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB) as meeting the educational and experience requirements for their Associate-level exam. The first cohort to complete the course are now accredited behaviour analysts. Her research interests currently are concerned with integrating fluency building into early intervention programmes for autistic children and skills-development programmes for learning disabled clients more generally.
back to top
Also view these in the Kent Academic Repository
Articles
Chiesa, M. and Hobbs, S. (2008)
Making sense of social research: How useful is the Hawthorne Effect?
European Journal of Social Psychology, 38 (1). pp. 67-74. ISSN 0046-2772.
Abstract
'The Hawthorne Effect' is a phrase frequently employed in textbooks and other academic discourse. It appears to have been coined over 50 years ago and alludes to the outcome of research undertaken two decades earlier This paper seeks to elucidate how the term 'Hawthorne Effect' has come to be used. A variety of texts will be presented to demonstrate the many different and often contradictory meanings ascribed to the term. A consideration of Guerin's review of research in social facilitation suggests the complexity of issues that seem to be involved in the use of the term 'Hawthorne Effect' is such that greater precision is required. Ultimately, we conclude, the term has no useful role in the discussion of research findings.
Chiesa, M. (2003)
Errors of omission and commission: the analysis of misrepresentation in secondary sources.
History and Philosophy of Psychology, 5 (1). pp. 46-56.
Chiesa, M. (2003)
On meta-ethics, normative ethics and behaviorism.
Latin American Journal of Psychology, 35 (3). pp. 289-297.
Chiesa, M. (2001)
A voice on autism from Europe: a review of parents' education as autism therapists edited by Mickey Keenan, Ken P Kerr, and Karola Dillenburger.
The Behaviour Analyst, 24 (1). pp. 101-105.
Book Sections
Chiesa, M. (2003)
Implications of determination: Moral responsibility and the value of science.
In: Lattal, K.A. and Chase, P. Behaviour Theory and Philosophy. Kluwer Academic/Plenum, pp. 243-258.
Mecca has many years experience of supervising research and postgraduate students. She welcomes inquiries from graduates interested in Behaviour Analysis generally, and particularly in Precision Teaching, Fluency Building, Autism, and Learning Disabilities. The Centre is recognised for ESRC studentships and for ESRC CASE studentship
back to top