www.psychologyofsmoking.com

presents

THE TOKEN ECONOMY METHOD

of smoking cessation

www.psychologyofsmoking.com 1

CONTENTS

Reinforcement and Punishment 3

Hyperbolic Discounting 4

Addiction 5

Nicotine Withdrawal 6

The “Cold Turkey” Method 7

The Token Economy Method: The First Days 8

The Token Economy Method: Days 3 – 48 11

www.psychologyofsmoking.com 2

REINFORCEMENT AND PUNISHMENT

The psychological term "reinforcement" has a similar meaning to "reward". It refers to the increase in rate or probability of a behaviour when that behaviour is followed by a pleasant stimulus.

The classic example is that of a rat in a psychology lab. If the rat is put in a box that has a lever connected to a food dispenser, so that when the rat presses the button a food pellet appears, the rat's action of pressing the lever will be reinforced by the stimulus of getting the food.

This basically means "if it feels good, do it again".

Punishment is the opposite of reinforcement. It is when a behaviour becomes less likely owing to the introduction of an unplesant stimulus. An example is the child who burns his hand by touching an electric bar heater. This common experience teaches the child to avoid glowing red hot things.

The twin principles of reinforcement and punishment underpin all of human learning.

So what does this have to do with smoking cigarettes?

For a first-time smoker, having a cigarette is often a highly rewarding experience (although, for some fortunate people, it isn't). The unfortunate truth is that the first smoke is often accompanied by feelings of reduced anxiety and an exhilarating headrush. If this feels good to the smoker, they do it again. And again and again and again...

...then, like the rat in the laboratory, they are hooked.

Luckily, the same principles that get them addicted can get them unhooked. Read on to discover more!

www.psychologyofsmoking.com 3

HYPERBOLIC DISCOUNTING

Why does a person smoke when he is intellectually aware that tobacco gives him pleasure out of all proportion to the misery that it creates later in his life? To understand this behaviour we need to understand a concept called hyperbolic discounting. This is a core concept in addiction and one of the psychological phenomena that make it so difficult to stop smoking.

If you offer a person two similar rewards, they will choose the one that is granted sooner over the one that is granted later. Offer to give a person a hundred dollars now or in a year's time, and they will inevitably want it now.

The "discounting" element of hyperbolic discounting refers to the fact that people discount the value of rewards the further away they are.

For example, if you offer someone ninety dollars now or a hundred dollars in a year's time, many (if not most) will choose the ninety dollars now. It's instant gratification. In a year's time they might find themselves struck with regret. Some people would rather have ten dollars now then wait a year for a hundred. A few might even take one dollar.

With regard to cigarette smoking, there is an equivalent choice. Feel good now, or feel better at some vague point down the track. How good you will feel in later

life is hard to put a dollar value on, so it's easy to discount it.

Would a fifty-year old dying of lung cancer feel regret at the choices made by his twenty-year old self who started smoking cigarettes? Undoubtedly. But when presented with the choice of feeling good now and feeling regret a long, long time away, people often take the immediate pleasure.

Read on to understand how this concept relates to addiction.

www.psychologyofsmoking.com 4

ADDICTION

Addiction, otherwise known as tobacco dependence, is a familiar phenomenon to cigarette smokers, and it is probably the reason why you are reading this book.

To understand addiction you have to understand the reality of the situation. Smoking feels good. If it felt bad, no-one would ever become addicted. Your actions get reinforced, and fast: you feel the effects of smoking nicotine within ten to twenty seconds.

If you've read the section on hyperbolic discounting, you might have realised that the speed with which smoking a cigarette becomes reinforced might make the behaviour harder to give up. And you'd be correct.

Your choice is essentially this: feel good instantly, or feel bad years or decades away.

If you didn't feel the effects of smoking a cigarette until ten minutes or an hour had passed, cigarette addiction would be easier to beat. This is why fast-acting drugs are more addictive than slow-acting ones.

Cigarette addiction would also be easier to beat if it wasn't for nicotine withdrawal, the subject of the next page.

www.psychologyofsmoking.com 5

NICOTINE WITHDRAWAL

Anyone who has tried giving up smoking has felt the effects of nicotine withdrawal. The craving, the tension, the headaches, the anxiety: all highly unpleasant feelings that make you wonder if continuing to smoke is really that bad.

If you've read the page on reinforcement and punishment, you'll have noticed that giving up smoking is hard for two reasons: smoking feels great, and not smoking feels terrible.

Both of these effects are short-lived, but because of hyperbolic discounting they weigh much heavier than they should.

If you've read all the key concepts so far, you ought to have a pretty good understanding of the psychological phenomena that make it so hard to stop smoking cigarettes.

Now for the good news. These same psychological phenomena can be used to kick the habit. To achieve this, try the token economy method.

www.psychologyofsmoking.com 6

THE COLD TURKEY METHOD

The "Cold Turkey" method of giving up cigarettes is the strategy that most people try first. After all, it was easy to start smoking, so why should it be hard to stop?

The reason why the cold turkey method fails so often is because the reinforcement/punishment balance is heavily weighted in favour of encouraging you to smoke.

Consider what we know about reinforcement and punishment. Not smoking causes nicotine withdrawal, which is a highly unpleasant feeling. Because you have to not smoke to get this feeling, your not smoking is essentially punished, making it less likely. The worst thing is, the longer you resist before giving in, the better that cigarette feels and the stronger a reinforcer for the smoking habit it is.

Trying to quit cold turkey is like digging a deeper hole for yourself, if you can't alter the reinforcement/punishment balance.

Now for the good news: there is a way to alter that balance that doesn't require anything other than your own mind and imagination. It's called the token economy method.

www.psychologyofsmoking.com 7

THE TOKEN ECONOMY METHOD: FIRST DAYS

Introduction

If you've read through the book so far, you'll be thinking "All this is just theory. How do I put it into practice?"

We'd like to show you how to use something called the token economy method to lever the power of reinforcement and punishment to make you stop smoking. It's free and requires no medication, only a willingness to reprogram your subconscious to return you to being a non-smoker.

The first step is to identify something that you're interested in. It could be golf, science fiction books, collecting coins, buying shoes or clothing, music, or anything else you can think of. The only criterion is that you must be able to break this interest down into units.

For example, say that you're interested in golf. Your equipment is getting ratty, and you would dearly like to buy some new weapons. You need some new balls, a putter, a driver and a trundler.

Perfect. Set aside as much money as you think you'll need to buy all this stuff. This might sound expensive, but compared to the cost of smoking cigarettes for decades and dying early it's a solid investment.

www.psychologyofsmoking.com 8

Then take a piece of paper and pens of two different colours. Use whatever colours you like. Draw a table of small boxes on the paper, and number them sequentially, using the second colour for the numbers 8, 16, 32 and 48. The result should look like the figure on the previous page.

Once you've done that, think of four items of differing value that relate to your hobby. If we're sticking to golf, you could maybe use the examples given above: a pack of balls, a putter, a driver and a trundler. Let's assume they increase in price in that order.

Underneath the number 8, write "Balls". Underneath 16 write "Putter", underneath 32 "Driver" and under 48 "Trundler".

Now pin the sheet of paper to your fridge. Look at it and smoke as much as you like. Once it's pinned to your fridge, you cannot buy anything related to golf until you "earn" it. When you wake up tomorrow morning you can begin.

The First MorningLet's say you wake up at 8 a.m. While you're having breakfast you can begin manipulating your subconscious. Imagine going and buying that set of golfballs. Imagine turning them over in your hands, feeling the indentations, the hardness. Imagine them rolling towards the cup and the sound they make when they fall in. You want the golfballs. You want them bad, and you're not going to get them until they're earned.

At 9 a.m., if you have not yet had a cigarette, take a pen and fill in the box with the "1" in it. Give yourself a pat on the back. The act of filling in a box represents victory in one battle that makes up the wider war of improving your life. As you fill it in, think of a moment from your life when you felt like a champion: your first paycheck, making love to an attractive partner, shooting your first sub 90 score, whatever. Close your eyes and try to recall how you felt in that moment. The accomplishment, the satisfaction. As you fill in the box, tell yourself that you deserve to feel the same way that you felt in your moment of glory. And you do!

If you have had a cigarette, don't worry - the token economy method anticipates the possibility of failure. Remove the sheet from the fridge and tear it into small pieces, preferably in front of a mirror. As you rip it up, think of a moment from your life when you felt like a loser: getting beaten up at school for your lunch money or your first car accident. Don't dwell on it for too long, just long enough to associate unpleasantness with the act of tearing up the paper. Then throw the pieces in the rubbish.

And start again, knowing that you will never buy a set of golfballs until you get to "8".

At 10 a.m., if you still haven't had a cigarette, fill in the second box and recall the feelings of being a champion again. Except now you're a double champion! You have the right to feel like a double champion.

www.psychologyofsmoking.com 9

The Rest of the DayAs each hour passes, fill in the next box. If at any point during the day you find your resolve weakening, come back to the sheet of paper and look at it. Look at the boxes that you've filled in and think to yourself "I did it then, I can do it now!" Remember how you felt when you filled in the previous boxes. Tell yourself that you want that feeling again, and that it's less than an hour away.

And if you do have a cigarette, rip up the paper, throw it away, and start again from zero.

When you get to "8", it's time for action. Get down to the Pro Shop as soon as you can! Fill in the box, get in the car and claim your reward!

Then continue. Your next goal is "16": the putter.

You might hit 16 while you're asleep. That's fine - you don't have to get up in the night to fill in the boxes. But if you sleep for 8 hours, the next morning you can fill in eight boxes. Remember that the goal is to break the addiction to nicotine, and eight hours of abstinence is eight little victories, however you had to do it.

If you wake up the next morning and have gone, say, twenty hours without a cigarette, then have breakfast, fill in the boxes (all the while recalling your feelings of being a champion) and then get down to the Pro Shop immediately. You must claim your reward as soon as you've earned it.

Continue in this manner until you get to 48. Don't worry if you fail once, thrice or forty times. As long as you keep associating the act of filling in the box with positive feelings you will be reprogramming your subconscious to power you to success.

After you've filled in box 48 and earned your reward, you're ready for Part 2.

www.psychologyofsmoking.com 10

THE TOKEN ECONOMY METHOD: DAYS 3 - 48

If you're reading this page, you should have gone 48 hours without a cigarette. If it was as hard for you as it was for me, you should feel a little emotionally drained. It's probably been a battle, but that's alright. You only have to succeed once.

Now it's time for Part Two, which is much like the first. Draw up a second sheet of paper, so that it looks like this:

You can probably guess what's coming. The numbers now refer to days instead of hours, but the principle is the same: fill in one of the boxes at the end of the day, and make sure you claim some sort of reward when you cross out a red number.

Make the reward on day 48 something that you can only just afford, something once in a lifetime even. To continue the golf example, this might be a golfing holiday to New Zealand. That is what you are working towards. That is your reward for giving up cigarettes for good.

Like the 48-hour challenge that you have already passed, make sure the rewards get bigger and bigger. One of them might be a day off work to go golfing. One might be an entire new set of clubs. But the most important thing is that the reward on day 48 is something almost unspeakably massive, the sort of thing that you'll remember forever.

www.psychologyofsmoking.com 11

And if you smoke a cigarette at any point, rip up the sheet and start again from the very beginning, doing the hourly challenge.

If you have earned some of the rewards and then smoked a cigarette, what you have to do is put them away in a cupboard until you have re-earned them. You must get it into your head that you have no right to use, look at, or even talk about these things until you have earned them through abstaining from cigarettes for the appropriate amount of time.

This method was how I stopped smoking and stayed smoke-free.

www.psychologyofsmoking.com 12