Behaviour Modification Flashcards
What is behaviour modification
It provides rehabilitation for prisoners
It’s a behaviourist theory based on operant conditioning
Aims to extinguished undesirable behaviour and promote desirable behaviour.
Examples of behaviour modification
Token economy
Restorative justice
Anger management
What is token economy
Based on operant conditioning
In a prison token economy, offenders earn tokens for good behaviour (e.g. following the rules, participating in rehabilitation programs, etc.) and these tokens can be used to buy things (e.g. food and cigarettes). This positively reinforces good behaviour. Token economies may also work by negatively reinforcing bad behaviour. For example, prison guards may take tokens away for bad behaviour.
Miltenberger
Suggested 7 components to behaviour modification, what are they?
- Target behaviours are identified
- Types of tokens are decided
- Primary reinforcers are identified
- Reinforcement schedule is decided
- Exchange criterion i.e. price
- Time/place for exchange is decided
- Penalty/fine for engaging in undesirable behaviours
Evaluation of token economy
✅Hobbs and Holt - Observed significant improvement in positive behaviour as a result of the introduction of the token economy
✅- doesn’t require specialist training and easy to implement unlike anger management that requires more time and money.
❌- prisoners may fake desirable behaviour just to get the reward has little rehabilitative value.
❌ Some prisoners may already have money so can just buy the rewards.
2- what is restrorative justice
Aims to get the criminal to empathise with the victim and understand the impacts of their crimes
Voluntary meeting with the victim
Gives the victim a chance to ask questions and get closure and the criminal to accept responsibility and acknowledge the harm they have caused to try and rehabilitate the offender
Evaluation of restorative justice
✅ relatively Cheap and easy to implement
✅85% of victims said it was useful
✅supporting evidence - found reoffending rates were lower when down to 11% from 39%
❌- only work if both victim and offender is willing to participate and motivated to complete programme.
❌have to train mediator
❌inapproatie for sexual abuse or domestic abuse cases as traumatic and can cause psychological harm
3- what is anger management
A programme that uses CBT to reduce recidivism (reoffending rates) by tackling violence.
What are the three stages of anger management
1- Cognitive preparation
2- skill acquisition
3- application practise
What is the cognitive preparation stage
Identifying triggers with therapist that make them feel angry
Thought patterns are challenged - help them recognise that
there response is irrational
What is the skill acquisition stage
Person is taught coping mechanisms that allow them to control anger and deal with the situation rationally.
Eg relaxation techniques and stop and think.
What is application practice
Role-play scenarios to practice new skills to control anger
Done in controlled safe environment
Therapist provokes them to see how they react.
Supporting study
Ireland
Those who completed the CALM programme found 92% felt they had improved and rates themselves lower on anger questionnaire compared to control group. Shows it’s effective
Evaluation of anger management
❌data gathered was self-reported so could be giving socially desirable answers that lack internal validity.
❌expensive and time consuming to train therapist and needs multiple sessions so prisoner has to be committed to it.
❌ Not all crimes are motivated by anger so ineffective for all crimes.
✅helps reduce reoffending
✅helps change the way offender thinks and behaves
