Punishment and Discipline

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The definition of punishment is “a penalty inflicted for an offense, fault, etc.”. However, there are many forms of punishment. One type of punishment is “logical consequences, this technique is similar to natural consequences but involves describing to your child what the consequences will be for unacceptable behavior. The consequence is directly linked to the behavior. For example, you tell your child that if he doesn't pick up his toys, then those toys will be removed for a week” (Benaroch), taking away privileges, time outs, and corporal punishment or spanking. My theory was Psychoanalytic Perspective. Freud believed that “young children form a superego, by identifying with the same-sex parent, whose moral standards they adopt” (Berk, 1993). Children listen to their conscience or superego to avoid the guilt they feel when they are tempted to or actually do misbehave. This moral development was believed to have formed completely by five to six years of age (Berk, 1993). However, today researchers believe that the fear of punishment and loss of parental love is actually what motivates children not to misbehave or follow the directions of their parents (Berk, 1993). Although, children who have parents who frequently use threats, commands, or physical force to punish or convince their children to follow the rules tend to break the rules more so then children who come from a household of parental warmth. These children feel less guilt about breaking the rules, and therefore are more likely to break them. Also, parents who will not speak to their children after they have misbehaved tend to have high levels of self-blame, as well as, self-esteem issues later in life. The children tend to say things, such as; “I’m no good” or “Nobody loves me” (Berk, 1993). Childhood punishment can definitely explain Psychoanalytic Perspective, extreme punishment such as love withdrawal

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