Contingency Management to Increase Grade Point Average Among Fraternity Members: A Feasibility Study

Contingency management is an incentive-based intervention strategy that has been demonstrated to be effective for inducing behavior change among a variety of populations and for a variety of behaviors. The current study examined whether contingency management techniques can help students change beha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of college student development 2015-03, Vol.56 (2), p.176-180
Main Authors: Van Patten, Ryan A, Irons, Jessica G, Apple, Kevin J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic achievement
Achievement Gains
Behavior Change
College Students
Colleges & universities
Contingency Management
Control Groups
Elementary education
Fraternities
Grade Point Average
Incentives
Intervention
Learning Theories
Program Effectiveness
School dropouts
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Summary:Contingency management is an incentive-based intervention strategy that has been demonstrated to be effective for inducing behavior change among a variety of populations and for a variety of behaviors. The current study examined whether contingency management techniques can help students change behaviors in an effort to raise their grade point averages. Members of a social fraternity participated in the study. We randomly assigned students to either a contingency management condition or a control condition. Throughout the entire semester, the contingency management students earned pulls from the fishbowl for reaching a grade criterion. For the first half of the semester, the control students were yoked to the contingency management group such that they earned pulls based on the other condition's performance. For the second half of the semester, the control students began to experience the regular contingency management regimen. As hypothesized, the contingency management students' GPA did increase during the semester and gains were maintained over time. Students in the control group did not show the same increase in grades. Contingency management appears to be effective in helping students raise their grades.
ISSN:0897-5264
1543-3382
1543-3382
DOI:10.1353/csd.2015.0020