You say positive reinforcements worked better than negative reinforcement for your Canadian scholar Bill? Didn't B.F. say something to that effect also?
Joan [email protected] > 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]) > > --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
