Michael Sylvester wrote at 9:00 AM >>>
**...And inevitably,my students tend to agree that psychology's
**negative and unfavorable attitude towards punishment,
**spanking and rigid discipline of children may be one of the
**reasons that some of our youth have grown problematical in **behavior and social
civility.
Based on what evidence?
Michael, as any cursory glance through an introductory
learning text would make plain, the effectiveness of
punishment is a very complicated problem.
First of all, not all punishment is physical punishment.
Second, strong physical punishment can be very effective
in eliminating/reducing unwanted behaviors (under some
conditions), but it also may have substantial side effects:
- it may impair a child's ability to understand any explanation
that accompanies the punishment
- it may condition fear and avoidance to the punisher and/or
the context in which punishment was delivered (e.g., school)
- violent behavior may be subsequently modeled by the
child in other contexts
(For details on the studies from which these conclusions were
drawn, you may see Lieberman's "Learning: Behavior and
Cognition" text, for example).
With respect to Skinner, his early work suggested that
punishment of rats had little lasting effect on behavior.
Subsequent work, however, indicated that strong physical
punishment could have long-lasting effects. But see
potential side effects above.
**It would seem that a behavioral history of non-spanking could
**be setting the stage for future inappropriate behaviors to be **viewed as not
producing any serious consequence, and this
**seems to be particularly so for juveniles who have been **conditioned to think that
they could get away with it.
Michael, I'd re-iterate that there are MANY ways to punish
behaviors (or enforce discipline) aside from physical violence.
Best,
Mike
*****************************************************
Michael J. Kane
Psychology Department
Georgia State University
University Plaza
Atlanta, GA 30303-3083
phone: 404-651-0704
fax: 404-651-0753
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"It is morally as bad not to care whether a thing
is true or not, so long as it makes you feel good,
as it is not to care how you got your money as
long as you have it."
-- E.W. Teale
