Michael,
There is much wrong with your reasoning about punishment in your last 3
posts. Here is just a couple of comments.
1) The opinions of some random members of other cultural groups (who probably
volunteered their thoughts) do not make appropriate material for comparison
with scientific study. I can think of some "third variables" too, like a
generally stronger orientation to family and collectivistic values that may
keep some anti-social behaviors in check in other cultures. It simply
requires less thought to pin it all our current woes on a lack of corporal
punishment.
2) You are the second person to bring up that "autistic child" study. It is
not appropriate to generalize to non-autistic children based on this study.
You offer only weak arguments. And please don't counter with the
non-eurocentric angle, because I am a product of a fully eurocentric
household that thought that slapping, spanking and yelling were just A-OK.
And it wasn't.
Nancy Melucci
El Camino College
Torrance, CA
