Behaviour Modification Flashcards
What’s behaviour modification?
The idea is to replace undesirable behaviours with more desirable ones through selective use of positive and/ or negative reinforcement.
How does behaviour modification relate to the behaviourist approach?
-all behaviour is learned from experience, humans ‘tabula rasa’ and learning occurs through classical and operant conditioning.
-only interested in studying behaviour that can be observed and measured.
-uses lab experiments to try and gain more control and objectivity in their research
-the basic processes that govern learning are the same in all species- humans can be replaced by animals for testing purposes.
What do token economies relate to?
Application of behaviourist approach to treatments such as management of offenders in prison/ secure institution
-based on principles of operant conditioning.
How do token economies work?
-all of the behaviours and rewards must be made clear to prisoners for programme to be implemented.
-also emphasise non-compliance will result in punishment.
-desirable behaviour identified
-behaviour broken down into small steps called increments
-baseline measure established
-alll staff in contact with offender must fall on same regime selective reinforcement.
What are token economies?
-managed by prison staff to modify the behaviour of inmates. It’s based on operant conditioning.
-desirable inmate behaviours are rewarded with tokens.
-tokens are secondary reinforcers - derive value from association with reward
-tokens can be exchanged for something desirable (primary reinforcer)
-behaviours and rewards are made clear to prisoners in advance. As removal of tokens in the event of disobedience. Form of punishment
Behaviour modification programmes.
-should be possible to encourage the unlearning of behaviour by applying the same principles that brought learning through behaviour about in first place.
-aim to reinforce obedient behaviour in offenders whilst punishing disobedience in the hope that disobedience becomes extinct.
-behaviour change achieved through use of token economy system manages and coordinated by prison staff.
Hobbs and Holt
-introduced token economy with groups of young delinquents across three behavioural units (4th as control)
-they observed a significant different in positive behaviour compared to the non-token economy group: Before the tokens were introduced, the percentage of desired behaviours in the three institutions was 66%, 47%, 73%. After the token economy policy had been introduced the percentage of desired behaviour was 91%,81% and 94%.
-a similar effect was found with offenders in an adult prison in a study by Allyon et al. (1979)
