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SELF‐EVALUATION BY ADOLESCENTS IN A PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL SCHOOL TOKEN PROGRAM 1
Author(s) -
Santogrossi David A.,
O'Leary K. Daniel,
Romanczyk Raymond G.,
Kaufman Kenneth F.
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
journal of applied behavior analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1938-3703
pISSN - 0021-8855
DOI - 10.1901/jaba.1973.6-277
Subject(s) - psychology , token economy , psychiatry , clinical psychology , reinforcement , social psychology
Nine adolescent boys with a history of high rates of disruptive classroom behavior were selected from a psychiatric hospital school and placed in a remedial reading class after school in which various factors in a token reinforcement program involving self‐evaluation were investigated. The effects of self‐evaluation, in the form of a rating the students gave themselves about the appropriateness of their classroom behavior, were first assessed. While the students' ratings of their own behavior correlated highly with the teacher's ratings and evaluations made by independent observers, the self‐evaluations did not lead to a reduction in disruptive behavior. A token reinforcement program, in which the teacher rated the students' level of appropriate behavior and in which the students traded earned rating points for prizes, clearly led to a reduction of disruptive behavior. When the students were given the opportunity to evaluate their own behavior and to receive rewards in exchange for the evaluation, they returned to their former rates of disruptive behavior.