Token economy-schizophrenia

Question 1

what are token economies?

Answer 1

• based on operant conditioning, a token is given immediately after an individual carries out a desired behaviour, this acts as positive reinforcement
• Works on negative symptoms, especially avolition
• tokens are later exchanged for good or privileges
• desired behaviour = brushing hair, making bed, being social

Question 2

Research evidence into token economies-

• It was found that token economies were successful in female schizophrenic patients who had been hospitalised for an average __ years
• The number of daily chores increased from _ to __, providing ev that TE encourage more independence and responsibility

Answer 2

• 16
• 5 to 42

Question 3

AO3 token economies - positive

Answer 3

• Their use creates a safer and stable therapeutic environment, less staff and patient injuries, decreased emergency incidence levels
• can be tailored to meet the individual requirements of different patients, therefore it’s flexible and can be applied to variety of settings
• long time in hospitals can lead to institutionalisation where patients lack motivation and become apathetic which makes the nurses have contempt for them –> TE allows patients to be more independent and active which increases the regard of the nurses which motivates the patients

Question 4

AO3 token economies- negative

Answer 4

• some clinicians disagree with them as they’re humiliating and the positive effect that they have can’t be generalised to real life situations
• desirable behaviour may become dependent upon reinforcement , this doesn’t happen when released back to community so high re-admittance rates