Learning theories in behaviour modification

• token economics

  what am I working for, desirable behaviours are rewarded with a symbolic reinforcer (a token)
• primary reinforcers

  food, water, primary resources
• secondary reinforcers

  money, praise, attention, approval
• evaluation (token economics)

  tokens don't loose reinforcing value as quickly as primary reinforcers
• use (token economics)

  used with children and troubled, misbehaved people
• limitation (token economics)

  once moved out of the controlled environment (facility) tokens have to be replaced
• systematic desensitisation

  a therapy used to reduce a phobia
• phobia

  an intense, irrational fear or aversion to an object, situation or thing, which persists over time
• systematic desensitisation process

  Involves slowly exposing a person to the phobia-causing stimulus in a series of gradual steps, under relaxed conditions
• systematic desensitisation assumes that if you can relax when facing a fear-provoking stimulus, then you can gradually eliminate your fear over a number of repeated exposures to the stimulus in the relaxed state
• systematic desensitisation steps

  1. The person is taught a relaxation technique such as deep breathing, or counting to 10
  2. The person is taught to write a list, called a hierarchy of fears beginning with the least feared and increasing up to the most fearful situation
  3. While in the state of relaxation, the person attempts the first item on their hierarchy, either actually or by visualising it
• after systematic desensitisation step 3

  • When this has been done, they attempt the next step on the hierarchy 
  • They continue systematically up the hierarchy until the fear has become desensitised