| What is a token economy? | Token given following desirable behaviour in custody eg: avoiding conflict, following rules. |
| What are the reinforcers in a token economy? | Token - secondary reinforcers
Exchanged for something desirable, like a phone call home which is a primary reinforcer |
| What are the 4 parst of a behaviour modification programme? | -Desirable behaviour is identifed
-Broken down to small steps
-Baseline measurments to establish a objective method to idenitfy it
-Prison staff reinforce desribale behaviour by giving out rewards |
| What is the first 3 steps of a token economy ? | 1. Target behaviour are selected, desirable and undesirable
2. The type of token is selected, eg: poker chips
3. The reinforcers are chosen, what the token is exchanged fir, eg: activities and material items |
| What are the last 4 steps of a token economy? | 4. Reinforcement schedule: initally continuouse in the reward, but less as the time passes
5. Echange criteion, the exchange price
6. The time and place for exchange
7. Response cost: a penalty or fine where tokens are tokens are taken away for engaging undesirable behaviour |
| A strength of behaviour modification in custody? | -Relatively straightforward to set up in custory
-Eg: there is no need for specialist professional to be involved like there would be for other forms of treatment such as anger management
-Significant because token economies can be designed and implemented by virtually anyone in any instituoin
-Suggests that behaviour modification techniques can be established in most prisons and assessed by most prisoners. |
| Another strength of behavioural modification? | -Supporting evidence for the effectivness
-Hobbs and Holt used it with a group of young offenders acorss 3 behavioural units (4th acted as a control). Observed significant difference in positive behaviour compared to the non-token economy group
-Significant as the fidings usggest that a token economy is an effective technique for positive behaviour to be increased by inamtes which would be desirable upon their release.
-Suggests that token economies may be a successful way of contributing rehabilitation criminals. |
| A weakness of behaviour modification? | -Might not be effective
-Blackburn argued that any positive changes in behaviour whilst an offedner is in prison may be fake
-Offedners tempted to behave wlel for the token economy to get rewards, means that the economies are doing little to help
-Other treatments such as CBT may be more effective as they require the offender to understand the cuase of their offending and take responsibility for themselves
-Therefore, suggests that behaviour modification techniques may not be effective in rehabilitating offenders |
| A weakness of token economies? | -Depneds on a consistent approach from prison staff
-Basset and Blanchard found any benefits of token economies were lost if staff aplied the techniques inconsistently
-This is due to the high rates of turn over, which can be seen in the UK, meaning that there are large amounts of new staff, causing inconsistencies and lack of standardisation in the rewarding of behaviour
-Suggests that behaviour modification schemes must ensure full consistent staff participation if they are to work. |
