Showing Revision 2 created 05/24/2016 by Udacity Robot.

1. Title:
   Behavioral therapies and token economy - Intro to Psychology
2. Description:

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   A key idea to many behavioral therapies is the use of reinforcement to shape
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   and change behavior. However, other techniques are used, such as extinction,
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   and this was used in the study I just talked about with the psychiatric nurse
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   as a behavioral engineer. They used extinction to decrease symptoms of
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   schizophrenia, but let's look at a different type of therapy that uses
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   reinforcement. One successful ABA technique that is used by behavioral
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   therapists, is a token economy. And here desired behaviors are reinforced with
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    a token. That could be something like a sticker, a star on the board or some
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    type of chip. These tokens are accumulated, and can later be exchanged for
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    other items or privileges. For example, a child with ADHD may be put on a token
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    economy. Wherein he gets a token for every homework assignment that he
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    completes on time. After he accumulates 5 stars, he gets 10 extra minutes of
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    recess. Moreover, if he earns 10 stars he gets to go on the field trip with the
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    class. The token economy technique has been found to be especially effective in
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    treating drug addiction. So, let's look at example of that. Steven Higgins and
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    his colleagues conducted a series of studies, where they gave cocaine dependent
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    participants tokens for each drug free urine sample that they provided. In some
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    of the studies, the value of the tokens increased for each consecutive drug
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    free sample. So for example, perhaps the first token was worth $0.25, if they
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    provided a drug free urine on the next day it would be increased to $0.50. On
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    the third day if they provided a drug free sample it would go to $0.75. Now
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    remember these were just tokens, they didn't earn actual money, and part of
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    this was because they wanted to make sure that the tokens could be exchanged
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    for appropriate items. Meaning they didn't want to give these individuals money
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    and perhaps risk them taking that money and going out and buying drugs. So
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    again, if drugs were found in the urine, the value of the token decreased to
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    the original starting value. So again if they had consecutive drug free urines,
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    the token value increased each time. But if drugs were found in the urine, it
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    went back to the original starting value. In these studies the researchers
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    found a significant decrease in drug using. Especially compared to other
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    therapies such as narcotics anonimous. These individuals spent longer time
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    drug-free, than individuals in those other treatments. Given the success of
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    these types of studies, this behavioral approach has been listed by the
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    National Institute of Drug Abuse as the best option for drug addiction, along
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    with medication.