BEHAVIOUR MODIFICATION

~Token Economy~

→ Based on operant conditioning

→ When in prison, desirable behaviour may include:

• Avoiding confrontation

• Following prison rules

• Keeping their cell tidy

→ Desirable behaviour is rewarded with a token

→ Each of these behaviours and rewards would be made clear to prisoners before the programme is implemented

→ Disobedience or non-compliance may result in tokens being withheld or removed

→ Tokens are the secondary reinforcers

→ Tokens may be exchanged for a phone call to a loved one, or extra food - all of which would be primary reinforcers

→ Staff must be trained in order to standardise the procedures so that all prison staff are rewarding the same behaviours in the same way

EVALUATION:

Research Support:

→ RESEARCH SUPPORT

• One strength of token economies in prisons is that there is research support.

• Hobbs & Holt (1976) studied 3 behavioural units where a token economy system was introduced, and a 4th institution for young offenders as a control condition.

• The token economy groups showed a significant difference in the amount of positive behaviour.

• This shows that token economies have high ecological validity as they truly do work in prison settings.

Conflicting Evidence:

→ TRAINING REQUIRED

• One limitation of token economies is that all staff members involved must be trained to a high standard.

• Staff must go through extensive training so that the token system can be standardised, in order to not lose the value of the tokens.

• For example, untrained staff may reward one persons behaviour with a token, but not another, even if they performed the same behaviour.

• This defeats the value of the token, and makes the system unusable.

→ LITTLE REHABILITATIVE VALUE

• A further limitation of token economies is that some say it has little rehabilitative value.

• Blackburn (1993) states that token economies have ‘little rehabilitative value’. This is due to positive changes being lost quickly when offenders are released.

• Progress is unlikely to continue upon release as law-abiding behaviour is not rewarded on the outside. Rewards prisoners receive from breaking the law (such as group status) may be more powerful than abiding by the token economy.

• This suggests that once the token economy is discontinued, offenders quickly regress back to their former behaviour.