The Management of Sz - Token Economies A01 Flashcards
What are TE?
Reward systems used to manage behaviour
Typically used for patients who spend long periods of time in psychiatric hospitals, where maladaptive behavioural patterns form
What are the aims of TE in managing Sz?
Aims to tackle negative symptoms
Typically used for long-term hospitalised patients
History of TE systems
What is the rationale of TE Systems?
Matson (2016) identified 3 categories of institutional behaviour that can be tackled using token economies: personal care, condition-related behaviours and social behaviour
What are the two major benefits that modifying this behaviour can create?
- Improves quality of life - within the hospital setting E.g increased socialisation with other patients
- Normalises behaviour - this makes it easier for people who have spent time in a hospital setting to adapt back into life in the community E.g getting dressed in the morning
What is selective reinforcement?
A type of behaviour modification which seeks to increase the occurrence of certain behaviours by responding to desired behaviours with a pleasurable stimulus, while seeking to extinguish undesirable behaviours by not responding to those
Why must a reward be immediate?
To prevent ‘delay discounting’ = have to wait for a reward and therefore it isn’t as effective in encouraging desirable behaviours in the future
What are the tokens?
Secondary reinforcers
Meaningless on their own, but can be swapped for rewards
