Behavior modification in a state mental hospital: a participant-observer's critique

Token economy behavior modification has become a popular and voluminously reported strategy for altering the behavior of patients in mental hospital back wards. This paper provides a qualitative, process view of one such token economy program. It reports subject perspectives, as well as interactions among experimenters, hospital staff, and patients. Questions are raised in regard to the overall effectiveness of such programs in alleviating the problems of mental patients.