Token economies

• Token economies (Operant Conditioning)

  Patients are given reward tokens when they engage in positive, adaptive behaviours. These tokens can be exchanged for rewards. Through positive reinforcement, the patient learns to repeat these positive, adaptive behaviours.
• Token economies (Classical Conditioning)

  Patients associate the token with the reward through classical conditioning. At first, the token is a neutral stimulus, through the repeated association with the reward, the token becomes a conditioned stimulus. The patient develops a conditioned response to the token.
• Dickerson et al

  Reviewed 13 studies involving token economies being used to encourage adaptive, positive behaviours in SZ people. 11/13 studies found an improvement in patient behaviour.

  Also found that they were especially effective when they were paired with other treatments like antipsychotic medication.
• Dickerson et al - AO3

  Limitation) In many studies, token economies were used on all SZ patients at the same time. So, there was no control group, which decreased the validity of the experiment.

  Without a control group, we cannot be sure that there is a cause-and-effect relationship between token economies and improvements in behaviour.
• Dickerson et al - AO3

  Limitation) May not be useful outside a hospital setting because outside of the hospital, its harder to monitor patient behaviour and provide an immediate reward for positive behaviour. Without the immediate reward, the patient may not create an association between the token and positive behaviour.

  
  

  Limitation) Could be considered unethical because it could make patients feel humiliated and stressed because they are being treated like children. Also, they could become overdependent on the reward which could have negative effects once they leave hospital.