Explain A Token Economy

Token economy programmes are a form of behaviour modification based on the principles of operant conditioning. They are used in prisons to encourage the reduction of anti-social behaviour and criminal behaviour; they involve awarding tokens to offenders if a desired behaviour is performed. The tokens may then be exchanged for various rewards. The aim is for the desired behaviour to be repeated. As a treatment it involves setting out a range of desirable behaviours and reinforcing the offender whenever the behaviour is displayed. This behaviour would focus upon non-aggressive, these behaviours are expected that the behaviour will become learned and automatic. Positive reinforces come in the shape of tokens—a secondary reinforcement, which can
It is used in prisons, and participants may participate voluntarily or as part of their sentence. This is used identify triggers which may cause there aggression. By preventing aggression, the likelihood of crimes being committed is reduced. The treatment usually takes place in group settings and occurs about twice a week. A trained person runs the group. They are usually asked what factors make them feel angry and thus trigger aggression. Once this trigger has been identified, strategies can be taught which to condole and reduce the anger they experiences. An anger management programme will be based around 3 key stages; cognitive preparation (analysing past aggression and discovering patterns, and the offender also looks at the consequences of aggression), skills acquisition (where they are taught techniques that help them to manage their response to triggers in a more productive way.) and application practice (the offender to test their skills in a range of
However it is limited to institutions like a prison for this token economy to work because they will not get such awards in the ‘real world’ but it is the plan that due to what is shown by operant conditioning these desired behaviours may/can become a habit and thus behaviour is repeated. Anger management can also have a similar problem, it may be easier to control your anger and follow the program while in the group but in the ‘real world’ it may be harder to follow or perform the behaviours that are learnt from the program. Even though this may happen for anger management there is still very effective, the offenders take part voluntarily. This increases the programme’s effectiveness, as offenders who take part voluntarily are usually more committed to the programme’s success. This is in contrast to other treatments, such as token economy, which are often enforced over an entire prison system meaning that it may not be successful in all cases. But not all anger management is voluntary some people have to take part as part of their sentence. This provides an ulterior motive and although the offender may appear to have made progress, this could be false and the issue of anger is not actually being addressed (demand characteristics). This means that anger management like token economy may not be effective for