Achievement Place: token reinforcement procedures in a home-style rehabilitation setting for "pre-delinquent" boys.
A simple point system tied to everyday privileges can cut aggression and boost homework in group-home boys.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Phillips (1968) set up a home-style group home called Achievement Place. The boys earned points for clean rooms, on-time meals, and finished homework. They spent points on TV time, bike rides, and weekend home visits.
What they found
Points made good behavior go up and problem behavior go down. Aggressive talk dropped. Homework got done. Rooms stayed tidy. The system worked without expensive prizes.
How this fits with other research
Burgess et al. (1971) ran stricter ABAB reversals in the same house and got the same lift in chores and punctuality. That tighter design proves the points, not luck, drove the change.
Varghese et al. (2025) later moved the idea to Indian orphanages. Fifty children showed the same drop in behavior problems after ten weeks of tokens. The method travels.
Hangen et al. (2023) warns tokens can lose power if backup prizes are weak. They saw smaller effects in a lab test. The fix: check that kids actually want what points buy.
Why it matters
You can run a token economy anywhere kids live or learn. Pick three target behaviors. Link points to daily perks you already give. Watch the count go up and the trouble go down.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Token reinforcement procedures were designed to modify the behavior of "pre-delinquent" boys residing in a community-based, home-style rehabilitation setting. Points (the tokens) were redeemable for various privileges such as visiting their families, watching TV, and riding bicycles. Points were given by the house-parents contingent upon specified appropriate behavior and taken away for specified inappropriate behavior. The frequencies of aggressive statements and poor grammar decreased while tidiness, punctuality, and amount of homework completed increased. It was concluded that a token reinforcement procedure, entirely dependent upon back-up reinforcers naturally available in a home-style treatment setting, could contribute to an effective and economical rehabilitation program for pre-delinquents.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1968 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1968.1-213