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A Comparison Of Positive And Negative Reinforcement Of Fingernail Biting, Naomi Lee Chandler

Graduate Theses

While nail-biting is not considered an important psychiatric symptom in the literature, it is an irritating and disfiguring behavior which calls for innovative intervention in its control. The subject in the present study was a 54-year-old female who spent an appreciable amount of time with facial make-up and hair grooming, but who often tried to hide her hands because of the disfigured appearance of her nails. In a ten-week study comparing the effects of positive and negative reinforcement, the subject was first rewarded for increasing her nail-biting behavior with tokens to be spent for "something to make her pretty". Then, …