Conditioning techniques in a community-based operant environment for psychotic men

THE TOKEN ECONOMY: AN EVALUATIVE REVIEW1

“…Although some deviant behaviors remained, the operant procedures carried out by the parent were clearly effective in increasing cooperative behaviors. Other investigators have reported similar success with parents of psychiatric patients (Henderson and Scoles, 1970) and of brain-damaged children (Salzinger, Feldman, and Portnoy, 1970).…”

“…Some programs have attempted to modify social behavior and apathy directly, rather than depend upon generalized effects. A notable attempt in this direction has been the work of Henderson and Scoles (1970;Scoles and Henderson, unpublished;Henderson, unpublished, 1969). They developed a program for psychotic men that focused on vocational habits, countersymptom behavior, and social adjustment.…”

“…Remarkably little research has assessed generalization directly. Generalization is usually inferred from increased discharge and decreased readmission rates (Atthowe and Krasner, 1968;Curran et al, unpublished, Ellsworth and Foster, 1969;Henderson and Scoles, 1970;Martin, 1966, 1969;Steffy et al, 1969). Since discharge and readmission rates depend upon administrative decisions, increases and decreases can be accomplished without concomitant changes in the psychological status of the patients.…”

“…Another way to fade token reinforcement is to have the subjects spend increasingly longer parts of their day out of the program. Henderson and Scoles (1970) employed this technique while training psychotic males in vocational, social, and countersymptom behaviors. To facilitate generalization, individuals participated in social activities in the community where nontoken reinforcers presumably would be operative.…”

Improving Social Interaction in a Chronic Psychotic Using Discriminated Avoidance (“Nagging”): Experimental Analysis and Generalization

“…Attempts have been made to remedy these deficits. A number of token economies have dispensed tokens for behaviors such as smiles, verbal responses to greetings, and "participation" in social events (Greenberg, Scott, Pisa, and Friesen, 1975;Henderson and Scoles, 1970;Schaefer and Martin, 1966). Several studies, focusing exclusively on interpersonal behaviors, have reported increases in behaviors such as verbalizations irrespective of content (Liberman, 1972;Wilson and Walters, 1966); verbalizations with a specified content (Kale, Kaye, Whelan, and Hopkins, 1968;Sabatasso and Jacobson, 1970); attending, asking, and answering questions (Bennett and Maley, 1973); making suggestions to improve ward functioning (O'Brien, Azrin, and Henson, 1969); talking positively about other patients and about avail-377 1976, % 377-386 NUMBER 4 (WINTER) 1976 able "therapeutic" activities (Tracey, Briddell, and Wilson, 1974); and "talking to, working with, or playing with another patient or staff member" (Milby, 1970, p. 150).…”