Chaney’s experiment (developmental psychology)

• What was the aim of Chaney‘s experiment?


  • could positive reinforcement improve medical compliance in young asthma parents?
  • the aim was to solve this buy operant conditioning
• Why do only 30-70% of patients not follow their doctors advice?


  • ignorance
  • fear
  • boredom
  • apathy
• What type of experiment was it?

  • field experiment (takes place in real world setting)
  • self-report (to gather results)
• What type of measures were used?

  • repeated measures (used same group of children for all independent variables)
• Independent variable?


  • switching from a breath-o-tech/aerochamber, to a funhaler
• Dependent variable?


  • compliance of children to take medication
• Participants?


  • 32 children from Australia (10 Male, 22 female)
  • 1.5-6 years old (3.2 average)
  • all had asthma for an average of 2.2 years
• What was the first step of the procedure?


  • parents gave consent and filled out a closed questionnaire about their child and their attitude towards using an inhaler
• What was the second step of the procedure?


  • they were given a funhaler, with attachments like a spinning disc and a whistle - this provided positive reinforcements to encourage compliance
• What was the third step of the procedure?


  • after 2 week of use, parents were given the same questionnaire and doctors randomly checked in to assess change in attitude. -(gave the experiment concurrent validity as 2 measures were used)
• What did the results show?

  • positive reinforcement is highly effective at improving medical compliance, as the questionnaire results dramatically improved and hospital admissions for asthma attacks were low
  • thorndike’s operant conditioning is supported -(learning through the consequences of behavioural approaches)
  • the questionnaire results were not affected by socially desirable responses or demand characteristics
• Data collection?

  • qualitative data - structured closed questionnaire
• Ethics?

  • parents gave informed consent
  • had the right to withdraw
• Generalisability?


  • only Australian children - so results may differ internationally
  • could be applied to any children was it was a random sample
• Nature vs nurture?


  • nurture: the parents reactions and attitudes towards their inhaler will affect the children’s responses, genetics has little to do with it
• Reduction vs hollism?

  • reductionism: as a wider concept has been reduced to a single statement of positive reinforcement in improving compliance
• Ethnocentrism?


  • the study is ethnocentric because he only studied Australian children
• What is operant conditioning?


  • learning through the consequences of behavioural approaches
• What is positive reinforcement?


  • rewarding for behaviour - increases the likelihood of a response occurring
• What is negative reinforcement?


  • removing unpleasant consequences for behaviour - (increases the likelihood of a response)
• What is positive punishment?


  • giving an unpleasant punishment - (decreases likelihood of bad behaviour)
• What is negative punishment?


  • removing something desirable as a consequence - (decreases probability of bad behaviour)