John Buchard - The Modification of Delinquent Behavior Trought Operant Conditioning

8/9/2019 John Buchard - The Modification of Delinquent Behavior Trought Operant Conditioning

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246

JO~NBUR~H~D and VERNONTYLER

JR.

A psychiatric report written shortly after Donny was committed to the institution set

the pattern of his treatment for the next two years. The report stated that Donny would be

a perfect candidate for regressive therapy; that he should be regressed to the point of taking

a bottle from his therapist, that he should have as much physical contact as possible, even

if only to sit on the therapists lap for an hour and suck candy, and that if he could be brought

to smearing faeces it would surely be good for him. The report continued that the only

alternative would appear to be to lock Donny up for the remainder of his life and that the

worst outcome of the recommended procedure would be that he would remain at an early

level of development and then be suitable for a mental hospital.

After this two year period of regressive therapy, other methods of treatment were

undertaken including a more behaviourally oriented approach, but they were all ineffective

in controlling Donnys behaviour and were therefore abandoned. In conjunction with the

various psychotherapeutic endeavours, Donny was also receiving various types and dosages

of tranquilizers, none of which seemed to have a consistent or enduring effect.

During the year prior to this study, Donnys behaviour led to his confinement in an

individual isolation room* on more than 40 occasions where he spent a total of 200 days.

His most serious offences included : smearing paint over the walls and curtains of his room,

breaking and entering, glue-sniffing, damage to property, attempted escape, and inflicting

injuries on himself and others.

Approximately three months prior to the beginning of the study, it was the staff

consensus that Donny could not be controlled in a cottage setting.? Therefore he was placed

in an isolation room on a continuous basis and it was recommended that he be transferred

to an institution where greater external controls were available.

PROCEDURE

Analysis of Donnys behaviour with its consequences strongly suggested that his anti-

social behaviour was controlled by various contingencies that existed within the institution.

Observation of the interaction between Donny and the institutional staff indicated that much

of his antisocial behaviour was followed by rewards rather than punishment. The events

which were acting as reinforcers and thereby increasing the probability of this behaviour

seemed to be the following:

1. Increased staff attention as a consequence of his disruptive or antisocial behaviour.

Whenever Donny was placed in a cottage for the first time e.g. after transfer from isolation),

he would gradually become more difficult to control. Associated with this behaviour was

a temporal sequence of staff reactions which appeared to be reinforcing; efforts to ignore the

behaviour as long as possible, attempts at supportive persuasion to desist, frustration,

ambivalence, expression of anger, the administration of punishment placement in isolation),

and then guilt reactions with sympathy and visits to isolation. Although the time Donny

* The isolation room was one of several rooms 8 x 10 ft, in a security unit and contained a stationary

meta bed and toilet. The isolation unit was on a separate floor from the cottage and was checked hourly by a

security man.

t The cottage consisted mainly of a large dormitory and dayroom containing a ping-pong table, TV,

pool table. Although the total population varied, there were usually 20 to 22 boys residing in the cottage.

The cottage and the institution provide an open setting inasmuch as there are no physical barriers to

prevent unauthorised leave. The staff assigned to the cottage consisted of a cottage supervisor and five

cottage parents all of whom had at least a high school education. On all occasions there was one staff-

member in the cottage, although during the day shift on weekdays, the regular stat? were frequently assisted

by the cottage supervisor.


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THE MODIFICATION OF DELINQUENT BEHAVIOUR THROUGH OPERANT CONDITIONING 247

spent in the isolation unit far exceeded that of any other boy in the institution, it was

apparent that he was also receiving far more individual attention than anyone else.

2. Snacks which were given to Donny by the staff while he was in his isolation room.

3. Peer attention, praise and sympathy as well as considerable gratification from

inciting the boys in the cottage to the point where they became emotionally upset, vocal and

assaultive. Also, because the isolation rooms were in close proximity to each other, Donny

was able to communicate verbally with other boys in the security unit and actually obtained

these same types of rewards while in isolation.

Associated with the administration of these reinforcers were other factors which could

explain why there was such a high operant level of antisocial behaviour. The immediate

reinforcement of staff and peer attention appeared to be considerably more potent than the

delayed punishment isolation). In addition, the competing, socially-acceptable, good

behaviour, which in Donnys case mainly consisted of apathetically watching TV and

suppressing unacceptable behaviour, was not sufficient to evoke much reinforcement from

others. In a cottage setting where one staff-member is responsible for 15 to 25 boys,

considerable attention must be focused on problems which develop within the cottage and

in many instances there is little time to direct attention toward the boy who is not acting

out. In general, the contingencies described above indicate that the staff were actually

shaping and maintaining Donnys antisocial behaviour.

During the five months of this study, Donny was taken off all medication, placed in a

regular cottage setting and routine and removed from all the conventional forms of

psychotherapy. The contingencies of his behaviour were systematically modified to produce

the following programme of concurrent punishment of antisocial behaviour and the

differential reinforcement of all other behaviour.

1. In order to avoid the reinforcement of antisocial behaviour, Donny was immediately

and perfunctorily placed into his isolation room upon displaying any unacceptable

behaviour. He was to remain there for a period of three hours unless he was sent in the late

evening in which case he remained there until 7.00 a.m. All staff-members who were in

contact with Donny were given the following instructions:

Whenever Donny displays any unacceptable behaviour, he is to be immediately placed in

isolation. Unacceptable behaviour is defined as any behaviour which would normally

require a sanction, verbal or otherwise.

If you dont feel the behaviour should warrant

isolation, then the behaviour should be ignored. However, if any action is taken to

modify or eliminate the behaviour, it should be isolation. The use of isolation should be

on an all-or-none basis; that is he should never be threatened with the possibility of being

sent to isolation. He should be sent to isolation in a matter-of-fact manner. He should

be told in simple terms why he is being sent and any further verbal interaction with Donny

should be held to a minimum. It is important that you do not become too emotionally

involved with Donny. Anyone who feels guilty or for some reason does not send Donny

to isolation when his behaviour warrants it is not participating in the treatment plan. As

long as Donny is fouling up,

the more he is sent to isolation, the more effective the

treatment programme will be.

2. In order to remove possible positive reinforcement from the punishing situtation,

while Donny was in isolation a radio immediately above his room was played at moderate

volume between the hours of 7.00 a.m. and 10.00 p.m. The purpose of the radio was to


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JO~NBURCH ~D and VERNON TYLER

JR

prevent communication between Donny and any other boys who might be in the isolation

unit or any unnecessary communication with staff who might be in the area.

Aside from a metal bed without any mattress and a toilet, there were no objects within

Donnys isolation room. If Donny had to remain in isolation overnight, he was given a

mattress and blankets at 10.00 p.m.

All staff were instructed not to pay unnecessary attention to Donny while he was in

isolation.

Whenever Donny acted out while he was in isolation, his length of stay in

isolation was extended by an hour.

3. For each hour that Donny remained out of isolation between the hours of 7.00 a.m.

and 10.00 p.m., he was given a token poker chip).

If Donny remained in the cottage for the

entire overnight period between 10.00 p.m. and 7.00 a.m., he was given three tokens at

7.00 a.m.)

4. With his tokens, Donny was permitted to buy such things as cigarettes, soda pop,

trips to town, recreational activities, attendance at movies, and so on. These privileges were

only available to Donny when he was able to pay for them with the appropriate number of

tokens. At irregular intervals, approximately three times a week, he was given an oppor-

tunity to spend his tokens in the institution canteen. The opportunity to purchase non-

material rewards i.e. recreational activities) usually occurred on a daily basis.

After twp months of this procedure, the following changes were made in his programme:

1. Donny was required to stay out of isolation for two hours rather than one hour in

order to receive one token. Whenever Donny remained out of isolation for a period of 24

hours, he received a bonus of seven tokens. These changes represented an attempt to shape

longer periods ot acceptable behaviour by increasing the time interval between reinforce-

ments and by increasing the reinforcement for a long interval 24 hours) of other

behaviour.

2. Trips to the canteen were made at regular, predetermined intervals, three times a

week. After two months of the study, it was evident that the intermittent schedule for

primary reinforcement trips to the canteen) created anger and frustration for Donny.

Therefore that schedule was changed.

3. Time in isolation was changed from three to two hours. It was feIt that two hours

was sufficient time-out and this gave Don an opportunity to spend more time in the

cottage.

RESULTS

The results show a gradual but consistent decline in the frequency of unacceptable

behaviour. Donny was placed in isolation 18 times during the first month and 12 times

during the fifth month, a decline of 33 per cent.

The significance of these results was

enhanced by a subjective analysis which indicated that as the study progressed, the serious-

ness of the offences decreased. Donnys most serious offences during the first one-month

period included glue-sniffing on two occasions, attempting to sniff purex which he pilfered

from the storeroom, stealing fish while visiting a fish hatchery, stealing from the staff,

and fighting with peers. During the last month, Donnys most serious offences were:

fighting, running in the cottage, disrupting his ciassroom at school, insolence to cottage

staff and general disruptive behaviour in the cottage. It should also be mentioned that it

was the opinion of some of the staff that as the study progressed they had raised their

criterion for unacceptable

behaviour to include behaviours which were previously

unpunished e.g. running in the cottage). Several comments made by the staff during the


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THE MODIFIC TION OF DELINQUENT BEH VIOUR THROUGH OPEK NT CONDlTlONlNG

249

study indicated that Donny was much easier to control and that, for the most part, his

attempt verbally to manipulate staff cajoling and begging) decreased.

Regarding the procedural changes made at the close of the second month, there was

no noticeable change in the number of trips to isolation to suggest that the procedure

for the succeeding three months was any more or less effective than the procedure for the

preceding two months.

DJSCUSSION

In general, it is felt that many of the initial objectives of this study were accomplished.

As an exploration into the use of operant techniques in modifying the antisocial behaviour

of delinquents, useful information was obtained, especially with regards to methodology.

Because there were many relatively untrained institutional staff members who were

responsible for applying the contingencies and recording the data, it was impossible to

obtain laboratory precision and therefore, it was impossible to ascertain which aspects of

the procedure were responsible for the behavioural changes which occurred. Nevertheless,

this study does provide evidence which strongly suggests that Donnys antisocial behaviour

was shaped and maintained by the natural contingencies within the institution and that the

overall modification of those contingencies was responsible for the obvious decline of

that behaviour. After five months on this programme, the ,g~~sly unmanageable aspects

of Donnys behaviour were eliminated so that he could be controlled in an open cottage

setting.

One factor that contributes to the lag in applying operant techniques to the treatment

of delinquents is the delinquents ability to conceal his pathology Cleckley, 1955).

Most delinquents possess considerable control over their behaviour and can adapt to

significant alterations in their environment. Unlike the neurotic whose anxiety attacks are

consistent and stimulus-bound, or the psychotic who frequently displays grossly atypical

behaviour, the delinquent may function quite adequately in certain situations for relatively

long periods of time, especially if his environment possesses considerable structure and

control. Therefore it is difTicult to study the effects of operant techniques on any one

particular type of antisocial response e.g. stealing), because of its extremely low operant

level in most situations where such techniques could be applied.

In order to avoid this problem a subject was chosen for this study who displayed a wide

variety of antisocial behaviour within the institution and the dependent variable was

defined in terms of an extremely broad class of behaviour unacceptable behaviour) pro-

viding an operant level of sufficient magnitude for study. At the present time. however,

the investigators are evaluating two other ways of resolving this prnhlem. The tir\t conbists

of systematically removing considerable structure and control from the institutional

environment so that the delinquent is given progressively greater responsibility and freedom.

It is felt that under such conditions an individual will be more apt to display the type of

behaviour that led to his institutionalization. It is also apparent that this would serve to

increase the similarity between the institutional and home environments thereby facilitating

any generalization that might take place.

A second way in which antisocial behavil-z,

inight be made more susceptible to this

type of investigation would be to create situations which simulate certain simulus charac-

teristics of the environment which are associated with the expression of antisocial behaviour.

For example, under moderately controlled conditions the experimenter could build into

the institutional environment a certain amount of deprivation or frustration in order to


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250 JOHNBURCH RD nd VERNONTYLER R.

precipitate antisocial behaviour which could then be followed by certain prearranged

consequences. Because this woul provide the experimenter with some control over the

occurrence of antisocial behaviour there would be a corresponding increase in the control

and precision associated with the administration of contingencies and the collection of data.

With regard to the effect of operant techniques on the behaviour of the delinquent,

it is probable that more information could have been obtained if a more specific and readily

definable behaviour had been selected. While further work will be done in this area, the

objective of the present study was to develop a set of operant techniques which would

modify the antisocial. behaviour of a delinquent.

Acknowledgments--The authors are indebted to E. G. LINDQUIST, uperintendent, and ROBERTKOSCHNICK,

Assistant Superinten~nt of the Fort Worden Treatment Center, Port Townsend, Washington, for their

co-operation and en~uragement throughout the course of this study. Also MONTROSEWOLF and TODD

RISLEY

of the University of Wash~gton deserve credit for their valuable counsel concerning certain problems

which arose during the study.

We wish to express special appreciation to the cottage staff members who worked closely with Donny,

JOE PETERS VAL WIDNER JAMES LINDLEY, BYRON RUBY, LARRY WILLIAMSON, ACK GALLAGER nd to

GORDON

ALLIEand his security staff, without whose co-operation this study could not have been satisfactorily

conducted.

This paper was presented at the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles, California, 1964.

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AYLLONT. 1963) Intensive treatment of psychotic behaviour by stimulus satiation and food reinforcement.

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Behav. 5, 343-352.

BANDURAA.. 1961) Psy~hothempy as a learning process. Psychal. l3ui I . 58, 144-159.

CLECKLEYH. 1955)

The Mask af Sanity

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EYSENCK

H. J. 1960) Be~av~a~r Therapy and the Neuroses. Pergamon Press, Oxford.

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John Buchard - The Modification of Delinquent Behavior Trought Operant Conditioning