ABSTRACT
A cursory review of studies in which social reinforcers are varied as independent variables may lead one to the erroneous conclusion that there is commonality of effects for social reinforcers. The term "generalized reinforcer" (Ferster & Skinner, 1957) has not been defined to imply that the reinforcer has generalized to a cultural group, but that the reinforcement contingency has an effect on particular responses under certain discriminative stimulus situations for certain individuals. Examples often provided of generalized reinforcers include social attention, affection, tokens, money, and school grades. These examples are classes of contingencies that may be applicable as generalized reinforcers for a person's response repertoire, and they may indeed be effective for a large group of individuals.
