token economy

• What are negative symptoms of schizophrenia?

  Apathy and social withdrawal.
• What aspects of a normal healthy life do individuals with negative symptoms lack interest in?

  Washing, eating, and maintaining physical appearance.
• What is the goal of research on negative symptoms of schizophrenia?

  Decreasing these symptoms and encouraging positive and adaptive behaviors.
• Where can token economy be especially useful?

  Psychiatric hospitals.
• What are tokens used for in token economy?

  Secondary reinforcers.
• What are tokens usually made of?

  Colored discs.
• What happens when a targeted behavior is shown in token economy?


  The individual receives a token.
• Do tokens have intrinsic value in token economy?


  No
• What can tokens be swapped for in token economy?

  Concrete rewards such as sweets, cigarettes, magazines, or services.
• Why is it important to receive tokens immediately in token economy?

  To prevent 'delay discounting', which is the reduced effect of a delayed reward.
• How many studies have been conducted into token economy?

  3
• What did these three studies into token economy show?

  1 of these showed improvement and none showed useful information about behaviour change.
• What is the issue with studies into token economies?

  Often lack a control group or patients are not randomly allocated
• What can methodological issues into token economy studies lead to?

  False, optimistic conclusions
• What is the cost of token economies?

  Cheap
• Why may the low cost of token economies be irrelevant?

  This is irrelevant if they don't work as this would still lead to wasted money
• How many token economies be abused by staff?

  Staff can choose to reward behaviour that makes their lives easier rather than to benefit the patients
• Why have some psychologists criticised token economies?

  As manipulative, inhumane and treats people like animals.​
• Do token economies treat positive symptoms, negative symptoms or both?


  Negative symptoms
• Why may token economies not be a useful treatment in the real world?

  Learned behaviour may not transfer to the outside world - although we have rewards for good behaviour, these are far less obvious and frequent than tokens.​