... and is mainly used on problem children, juvenile delinquents and people suffering from schizophrenia. c) Research has been carried out to show the effectiveness of token economy. Alloyon and Azron (1968) carried out a study on female long stay patients with schizophrenia in a psychiatric hospital, reinforcing behaviours such as neat appearance and constantly cleaning. Results showed a marked improvement in behaviour but also an additional benefit was an increase in staff morale. However this study also showed negative points. One problem was due to token economy the staff focused more on rewarding good behaviour and ignored inappropriate behaviour. In conclusion this programme does lead to a marked improvement of the behaviour, but does not claim to the condition. The token economy is very successful in many settings but best in institutions where they are carefully controlled over the reinforcement programme. However there are some problems in this programme. Some of ...

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