is a type of treatment used in the mental health or substance abuse fields. Patients are rewarded (or, less often, punished) for their behavior; generally, adherence to or failure to adhere to program rules and regulations or their treatment plan. For children with conduct disorder, token systems are highly successful but do not help the children achieve normal functioning unless combined with a cost response program reinforcing negative punishment
. As an approach to treatment, contingency management emerged from the behavior therapy
and applied behavior analysis
traditions in mental health. By most evaluations, contingency management procedures produce one of the largest effect sizes out of all mental health and educational interventions.
One form of contingency management is the token economy
system.Zlomke, L. (2003). Token Economies. The Behavior Analyst Today
, 4 (2), 177–184 Axelrod, S. (1973) "Comparison of individual and group contingencies in two special classes". Behavior Therapy
, 4, 83–90. Token systems have been shown... Read More