Reversal of Helplessness: Producing Walking Behavior in Nursing Home Wheelchair Residents Using Behavior Modification Procedures

Abstract

Mere residence in an institution for the aged can have deleterious effects, including the unintended encouragement of physical deterioration. It has been suggested that behavior modification procedures can prevent or reverse such effects, and, in support of this thesis, a study was conducted in which two nursing home residents who had been transported by wheelchair for several months were effectively encouraged to walk through environmental programming. The implications of these results for the institutional treatment of the aged are discussed