Token economy evaluation Flashcards
Briefly evaluate token economies
✔Evidence for effectiveness - Dickerson
✘Difficulties assessing its success
✘They may not generalise beyond the hospital setting
✘Doesn’t cure schizophrenia
Explain ‘✔Evidence for effectiveness - Dickerson’
Dickerson et al reviewed 13 studies of the use of token economy to treat schizophrenia - 11/13 studies reported to have an increase in adaptive behaviour - showing that token economy can imporve the lives of schizophrenics
Explain ‘✘Difficulties assessing its success’
This is because studies used tend to be uncontrolled, as TE systems are introduced to all the patients meaning results can only be compared to patients previous behaviour which would be misleading as other factors could have caused the improvement
Explain ‘✘They may not generalise beyond the hospital setting’
With outpatients, it is impossible to reward the patient every time they perform a desirable act as they only recieve day treatment for a few hours a day
-This is a weakness as it means token economies may only be useful to change unwanted behaviour of hospitalised patients and be less usefull for patients living in the community
Explain ‘✘Doesn’t cure schizophrenia’
They’re useful in terms of modifying problem behaviours and making it more possible for the patient to live outside of the hospital, along with making thier behaviour more socially acceptable. However they don’t cure schizophrenia meaning that it doesn’t provide a complete treatment.
