Stephen Black asks: 1) What is the earliest reported use of contingency contracts with dire consequences for non-compliance?
2) What is the earliest specific reference to the possibly apocryphal American Nazi contingency? Stephen Malott, R., Whaley, D., and Malott, M. (1997). Elementary Principles of Behavior, 3rd ed. Prentice-Hall. Garcia, M., Malott, R., and Brethower, D. (1988). A system of thesis and dissertation supervision: helping graduate students succeed. Teaching of Psychology, 15, 186--. ------------------------------------------- It was much earlier than these references. I first used it myself with an english department graduate student client at York University in 1977. He wrote checks out to Readers Digest with a note about keeping up the good work that I was to send if he didn't keep up with his dissertation writing contract. I used this technique because I had already heard of its effectiveness but I can't remember if I read about it or just heard it described at an AABT conference (association for the advancement of behavior therapy, when they used to call it that). By the way, that particular application didn't work. He didn't believe I would actually send the checks and after the first time that I did, he put a stop payment on all the other checks that I had in my possession. He did finish his dissertation, though and is now a prominent scholar at a top-notch Canadian University. Positive reinforcement contingencies seemed to work better for him. Bill Scott --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
