Nathan H. Azrin

Nathan H. Azrin (1930 - ) was an American behaviour therapist who applied behavioural analysis principles to the problems presented in clinical psychology.

Background
He was born in Boston Massachusetts.

Education
In 1951 he revieved his BA from Boston University and a year later his MA from the same institution. He then went onto Harvard University tocomplete his PhD in 1956.

Token economy
In the early 19th century, long before there was any knowledge about operant learning, there were some precursors of token economies in schools and prisons. In those systems points could be earned and exchanged for many different items and privileges. Only in the 1960s the first real token economies arose in psychiatric hospitals. Teodoro Ayllon, Nathan Azrin and Leonard Krasner were important pioneers in these early years. The very first token economy bearing that name was founded by Ayllon and Azrin in 1961 at Anna State Hospital in Illinois. In the 1970s the token economies came to a peak and became widespread. In 1977 a major study (a randomized controlled trial), still considered a landmark, was published. This study showed the superiority of a token economy compared to standard treatment and specialized milieu therapy. Despite this success token economies declined from the 1980s on. It became fairly quiet on that front due to a variety of problems and criticism.

==Couples therapy In early 1970s he published his concept of mutual reinforcement and reciprocity Azrin stated that And he explored the implementation of these principles in couples therapy
 * (1) human behavior is maintained by reinforcement on the person who performed the behavior
 * (2) people have a tendency to treat others as they are treated and
 * (3) mutual reinforcement accounts at least partially for concepts like friendships, joy, and love.

Toilet training
His book "Toilet Training in Less than a Day" has been used by many mothers.

Working with families with alcohol abuse
Community reinforcement and family training is a model first developed by Nathan H. Azrin and Hunt. The model focuses on the use of functional behavioral assessment to reduce drinking behavior.

Honors
He has served as President of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies