Major Issues and Obstacles in Ensuring Effective Programs

Abstract

Implementing effective token economies requires more than merely selecting target behaviors, a medium of exchange to serve as the token, back-up events, and providing rules to specify the contingencies. There are many issues and obstacles that need to be addressed which underlie the efficacy of a given program. This chapter discusses major issues which pertain directly to the efficacy of the token economy, namely, training staff or other behavior-change agents to implement the contingencies, altering the contingencies for clients who do not respond to the initial token program, and utilizing economic variables to sustain or augment high levels of performance on the part of the clients.