Token economy programs

Token economy programs have been set up in some hospitals, usually in psychiatric wards, to reward socially acceptable behavior in people who have stopped looking after themselves properly. Every time the person produces an appropriate behavior, hospital staff immediately gives the person a token. Tokens are given for making the bed, brushing teeth, and so on and can be used to ‘pay for’ activities like watching a favorite TV program.
Evaluation:

·         They have been criticized; critics argue that they make the patients focus on the reward rather than on wanting their own behavior to improve. Even when the behaviors in hospitals improve, this change might not last in the outside world.

·         If the reward is not immediate then the association between the reward and the action is lost. This means that the behavior is not being reinforced.

·         Ethical issues are involved if patients are not able to watch a favorite TV program because they have not got enough tokens.

There are many people who don’t agree that behavior should be manipulated or changed using systems like this that rely on tokens. Some have suggested that, when we learn to produce good behavior only because we receive a ‘token/reward’, we will not become social or kind humans. They have said that we need to learn to reward ourselves by feeling good when we do good things. We should not need other people to give us a reward all the time.