Token economy

what is token economy?

a form of therapy where desriable behaviours are encouraged by the use of selective reinforcements

what do tokens act as?

secondary reinforcers

what can tokens be exchanged for?

primary reinforcers like privileges

what is token economy used for?

usually used to improve negative symptoms such as socila withdrawal, avolition. alogia and flattened affect

what are primary reinforcers?

innate value and provide pleasure

what are secondary reinforcers?

don’t initally have value but they can be motivating to the individual

what is the basic token economy cycle?

1. tokens are paired with rewarding stimuli and so become secondary reinforcers

2. patient engages in target behaviours

3. patient is given tokens fo rengaging in these target behaviours

4. patient trades these tokens for access to desirable items or others privileges

how does the token become valued?

by being repeatedly presented alongside the reinforcing stimulus immediately to have an effect

whats a generalised reinforcer?

when a token can be exchanged for different rewards

what is the trade?

the exchange of tokens for back up rewards chosen by the clinician like food, sweets or any privileges

what does the trade lead to?

frequent echange periods mean that patient can be quickly reinforced and target behaviours can then increase frequency

when will effectiveness of token economy decrease?

if more time passes between presentation of the token and exchange for the backup reinforcers

what are the two types of positive reinforcers?

1. primary reinforcer

2. secondary reinforcer

who provided research support for token economy?

Dickerson

what did Dickerson do?

reviewed 13 studies of the use of token econmy systems in the treatment of Sz

what were the findings of Dickerson’s study?

11/13 studies reported beneficial effects. through the use of token economies

what did Dickerson conclude?

overall these studies provide evidence of the token economy’s effectiveness in increasing the adaptive behaviour of patients with Sz

what was the significance of dickersons study?

that many studies reviewed had significant methodological shortcomings that limited their impact in the overall assessment of token economies

what did Comer suggest?

that a major problem is assessing the effectiveness of token economies is that studies of their use tend to be uncontrolled

why are token economies uncontrolled?

typically all patients are brought into the programmme rather than having an experimental group that goes through the token economy system and a control group which doesn’t

what are the results of uncontrolled measures?

comparision may be misleading as other factors could be causing patients improvement rather than the token economy

what did corrigan argue?

that there are problems administrating the token economy method with outpatients who live in the community

what did Corrigan find?

inpatients receive 24 hour care and so there is better control for staff to monitor adn reward patients appropriately whereas outpatients living in the community only recieved treatment for a few hours a day so token method could only be used for part of the day

what was the conclusion from corrigan?

even if token economy did produce results within the ward setting, these results may not be maintained beyond that environment

what are the ethical concerns for token economy?

all human beings have a certain basic rights to food,privacy, privileges that can’t be violated regardless of the posiitve consequences that might be achieved by manipulating them within a token economy programme