Contingency Contracting

Contingency Contracting is a type of intervention that is used to increase desirable behaviors or or decrease undesirable ones. A contingency contract may be entered into by a teacher and student, a parent and child, or a therapist and client. It specifies the target behavior, the conditions under which the behavior will occur, and the benefits or consequences that come with meeting or failing to meet the target.

For example, a parent and child enter into a contingency contract to get the child to finish his homework before dinner time, after which, he earns some TV time. Every time he satisfactorily finishes his homework before dinner time, he gets to watch an hour of TV after dinner. If he fails to finish his homework satisfactorily, then instead of enjoying some TV time, he has to use that time to finish his homework.