What is a Token Economy?

1. Within an educational setting, a token economy is a system for

providing positive reinforcement to a child or children by giving them tokens
for completing tasks or behaving in desired ways.

5 2. Token economies are used as a method of strengthening a behaviour, or

increasing its frequency, because the tokens are a way of “paying” children
for completing tasks and the children can then use these tokens to buy
desired activities or items (Miltenberger, 2008).

How does a Token Economy work?

A Token Economy is Conditioned Reinforcement
1. The token economy is a form of “conditioned reinforcement” or “secondary
reinforcement” (Malott & Trojan-Suarez, 2006). This is because the tokens are
not naturally occurring reinforcers. Naturally occurring reinforcers like food
or water would be classed as “unconditioned reinforcers” or “primary
reinforcers” because they do not need to be paired with anything.

2. The money you earn by going to work is a form of conditioned

reinforcement because the money itself is not naturally reinforcing. It is the
fact that you can use this money to get desired items and activities like a
house, food, cars or holidays.
Conditioned versus "Generalised" Conditioned
1. In the example about trading tokens for a day off work, if the tokens could
only be traded for a day off then these tokens would be termed “conditioned
reinforcers”. If the tokens could be traded for various different desired items
and not just one specific thing then they would be termed “generalised
conditioned reinforcers”.
 REBT

In both the ABC Model and the ABCDE Model, this is what a typical series of thoughts might look like

(with the only difference being that the ABCDE Model is explicit about “D” and “E”:

A: Activating Event (something happens to or around someone)

B: Belief (the event causes someone to have a belief, either rational or irrational)

C: Consequence (the belief has led to a consequence, with rational beliefs leading to healthy

consequences and irrational beliefs leading to unhealthy consequences)

D: Disputation (if one has held an irrational belief which has caused unhealthy consequences,

they must dispute that belief and turn it into a rational belief)

E: New Effect (the disputation has turned the irrational belief into a rational belief, and the

person now has healthier consequences of their belief as a result)

ABCDE Model explored
A – The activating event or adversity that causes the stress, worry or change in emotion. This could

be from something trivial to something significant. Recognition is the first step on many change

processes and the same in this process. Example: a person presenting in public

B – The belief system which is the cognitive component in the person’s reaction to the events.

Often they are limiting beliefs or negative “self talk”. The capacity to recognise the activating

event and therefore change the mental “self talk” becomes a crucial part of the change. Example:

The mental self talk of the person is “I am really bad at presenting, this presentation will go really

badly”

C – The consequences from an emotional perspective is often repetitive and can create self-

fulfilling prophecies. Example: the presenters nervousness in the presentation creates a poor flow

and rapport with the public which makes the presenter even more nervous.

D – Disputation or challenge the irrational or limiting beliefs is required for mental change to take

place. Reviewing, challenging and eschewing the current beliefs sets the person up for future

success.

When looking at the D section there are three key kinds of disputes that can be used:

1. Empirical / Scientific dispute – Where is the proof or basis for the belief / feelings /
thought pattern

2. Functional dispute – Is the belief supporting some other, potentially unconscious goals?

3. Logical dispute – Does the belief system make common sense? Is there any generalisation
or other thought pattern influencing these beliefs?
Example: The presenter recognises the thought pattern and changes and sees they are not based on

truth or logic and adapts over the time to a view of believing that they can do a decent

presentation.

E – Effect of challenging the self-defeating belief system. Psychologists often this cognitive

restructuring, as new mental patterns and habits are created. Example: Presenter gains more

confidence as presentations become more fluid and gets more positive feedback, this in turn

improves their self belief and creates a positive cycle of change.

1. Psychological testing — also called psychological assessment — is the

foundation of how psychologists better understand a person and their

behavior.

2. determine the core components of a person’s psychological or mental

health problems, personality, IQ, or some other component.

3. It is also a process that helps identifies not just weaknesses of a

person, but also their strengths.

4. Psychologists talk about a person’s “present functioning” in terms of

their test data. Therefore, psychological tests can’t predict future or

innate potential.

Psychological testing is divided into four primary types:

1. Clinical Interview

Some people know the clinical interview as an “intake interview”,

“admission interview” or “diagnostic interview”.

Clinical interviews typically last from 1 to 2 hours in length, and occur

most often in a clinician’s office.

Many types of mental health professionals can conduct a clinical

interview — psychologists, psychiatrists, clinical social workers,
psychiatric nurses, amongst others.

The clinical interview is an opportunity for the professional to gather

important background and family data about the person.

You may have to recall or review a lot of your life and personal history
with the professional, who will often ask specific questions about various
stages in your life.

2. Assessment of Intellectual Functioning (IQ)

Your IQ — intellectual quotient — is a theoretical construct of a measure
of general intelligence

It’s important to note that IQ tests do not measure actual intelligence —

they measure what we believe might be important components of
intelligence.

There are two primary measures used to test a person’s intellectual

functions — intelligence tests and neuropsychological assessment.
Intelligence tests are the more common type administered and include
the Stanford-Binet and the Wechsler scales. Neuropsychological
assessment — which can take up to 2 days to administer — is a far more
extensive form of assessment

Neuropsychological assessment is most usually done with people who

have suffered some sort of brain damage, dysfunction or some kind of
organic brain problem, just as having a brain hemorrhage.

The most commonly administered IQ test is called the Wechsler Adult

Intelligence Scale—Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV)

Children can be administered an IQ test especially designed for them

called the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – Fourth Edition, or the
WISC-IV.

he WAIS-IV is divided into four major scales to arrive at what’s called a

“full scale IQ.” Each scale is further divided into a number of mandatory
and optional (also called supplemental) subtests. The mandatory subtests
are necessary to arrive at a person’s full scale IQ. The supplemental
subtests provide additional, valuable information about a person’s
cognitive abilities.

Verbal Comprehension Scale

Similarities

Vocabulary

Information

Supplemental Subtest: Comprehension

Perceptual Reasoning Scale

Block Design

Matrix Reasoning

Visual Puzzles

Supplemental Subtests: Picture Completion; Figure Weights (16-69) only

Working Memory Scale

Digit Span

Arithmetic

Supplemental Subtest: Letter-Number Sequencing (16-69 only)

Processing Speed Scale

Symbol Search

Coding

Supplemental Subtest: Cancellation (16-69 only)

3. Personality Assessment

4. Behavioral Assessment
MMPI

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is a psychological test that assesses personality
traits and psychopathology.

It is primarily intended to test people who are suspected of having mental health or other clinical issues.

the MMPI-2, which has 567 true/false questions, and the newer MMPI-2-RF, published in 2008 and
containing only 338 true/false items.

MMPI-2-RF is a newer measure and takes about half the time to complete (usually about 40 to 50
minutes)

Another version of the test — the MMPI-A — is designed exclusively for teenagers.

The 10 Clinical Subscales of the MMPI-2

HYPOCHONDRIASIS (Hs)

DEPRESSION (D)

HYSTERIA (Hy)

PSYCHOPATHIC DEVIATE (Pd)

MASCULINITY/FEMININITY (Mf)

PARANOIA (Pa)

PSYCH ASTHENIA (Pt)

SCHIZOPHRENIA (Sc)

HYPOMANIA (Ma)

SOCIAL INTROVERSION (Si)

The 4 Validity Scales of the MMPI

Lie (L) 15 items

The F scale Frequency scale 60 items

The Back F (Fb)(Back F scale) 40 items

The K scale(psychopathology) 30 items