Sc - Token economy and the management of schizophrenia Flashcards
Token economy
A form of therapy where desirable behaviours are encouraged by the use of selective reinforcements.
Rewards (tokens) are given as secondary reinforcers when individuals engage in correct/socially desirable behaviours.
The tokens can then be exchanged for primary reinforcers - food or privileges.
What principles are token economy based on?
Operant conditioning.
What was token economy developed for dealing with?
Dealing with negative symptoms and encouraging more positive behaviours.
What are the 2 types of positive reinforcer?
Primary reinforcers.
Secondary reinforcers.
Primary reinforcers
Primary reinforcers - anything that give pleasure (food/comfort) or remove unpleasant states (alleviate boredom). Do not depend on learning in order to acquire their reinforcing value.
Secondary reinforcers
Secondary reinforcers - initially have no value to the individual, but acquire their reinforcing properties as a result of being paired with primary reinforcers. The tokens given out when a patient engages in a target behaviour (taking care of personal appearance/helping tidy up after a meal) are secondary reinforcers.
What needs to happen for a reinforcer to be maximally effective?
A reinforcer needs to be delivered immediately after the performance of the target behaviour.
What happens if the token does not follow the target behaviour immediately?
Then another behaviour (e.g. arguing with a fellow patient) may have been performed in the intervening period. It would then be this behaviour that is reinforced, not the target behaviour.
Token economy cycle
- Tokens are paired with rewarding stimuli and so become secondary reinforcers.
- Patient engages in ‘target’ (i.e. desirable) behaviours or reduces inappropriate ones.
- Patient is given tokens for engaging in these target behaviours (e.g. dressing themselves).
- Patient trades these tokens for access to desirable items or other privileges.
(In a cycle.)
What form of therapy is token economy?
Behavioural therapy.
What might target behaviours in token economy be?
Might be something as simple as the patient brushing their hair or dressing themselves, or a more socially oriented behaviour such as preservering at a task or helping another patient.
When are tokens rewarded?
Whenever the patient engages in one of the target behaviours.
What can tokens be exchanged for?
Various rewards and privileges.
What is the idea behind token economy?
That the patient will engage more often with desirable behaviours because the behaviours become associated with these rewards and privileges.
Explain what Ayllon and Azrin (1968) found about token economy
- Used token economy of a ward of female schizophrenic patients, many of whom had been hospitalised for many years.
- They were given plastic tokens, each embossed with the words ‘one gift’ for behaviours such as making their bed or carrying out domestic chores.
- These tokens were then exchanged for privileges such as being able to watch a movie.
- The researchers found that the use of token economy with these patients increased dramatically the number of desirable behaviours that the patients performed each day.
