The school of psychological thought that B.F. Skinner is most well known for is that of behaviorism. Behaviorism is the psychological theory that individuals are born as blank slates, and that all actions are essentially learned responses to environmental stimuli. Before Skinner, behaviorism had its roots in scientists and psychologists such as John Watson, Ivan Pavlov, and Edward Thorndike. Their theories and experiments of conditioning responses to external stimuli based on other stimuli were very convincing to Skinner, who began developing the school of behaviorism into an applicable ideology. In order to understand Skinner’s theory, one must first understand the theory of classical conditioning. Classical conditioning, most notably theorized …show more content…
But is spanking an effective form of punishment? That is, does it actually stop the “bad behavior,” or does it simply make things worse? One study conducted by Murray A. Straus, David B. Sugarman, and Jean Giles-Sims seems to suggest that child spanking has a negative effect on the child’s behavior as he or she matures. In their 1997 study “Spanking by Parents and Subsequent Antisocial Behavior of Children,” they sampled 807 mothers of children aged six to nine years old to determine if a causal relationship existed between corporal punishment as a child and antisocial behavior later in life. The results were very clear: Forty-four percent of the mothers reported spanking their children during the week prior to the study and they spanked them an average of 2.1 times that week. The more spanking at the start of the period, the higher the level of ASB 2 years later. The change is unlikely to be owing to the child 's tendency toward ASB or to confounding with demographic characteristics or with parental deficiency in other key aspects of socialization because those variables were statistically controlled (Straus, Sugarman, Giles-Sims, …show more content…
Brigitte Vittrup and George W. Holden surveyed 108 children aged six to ten years old after they watched videos of children being disciplined by either spanking, reasoning, withdrawing privileges, or time-out. The results show most children rating reasoning as the fairest form of punishment, and spanking as the least fair. This research illustrates that when parents spank their children, they are doing so in a manner that the children think is unfair, and therefore unnecessarily antagonize the child as opposed to disciplining him or her in a way that is
Swat! The entire store tries not to stare at the overwhelmed mother spanking her three-year-old whaling son. As if the screaming tantrum wasn't enough of a side show at the supermarket. This method, or technique perhaps, has been around for decades, even centuries. Generations have sat on grandpa’s lap and listened to the stories of picking their own switch or getting the belt after pulling off a devilish trick. So why then has it become a major controversy in the past few decades? The newest claim is that spanking and other forms of physical punishment can lead to increased aggression, antisocial behavior, physical injury and mental health problems for children. Brendan L. Smith uses many case studies and psychologists findings in his article “The Case Against Spanking” to suggest that parents refrain from physically punishing their children due to lasting harmful effects.
The question of whether to spank or not has been the most controversial child-rearing issue of the past three decades. Though no end in sight, after analyzing my research of the extremes of spanking, I conclude in the gray area. John Rosemond proved the most logical approach to spanking. He has studied both sides of the issues and points out the inconsistencies of each side. Rosemond supports his point of view with grounds of disagreement and agreement and fills gaps the gap of the gray area connecting the opposing sides.
The use of spanking is one of the most controversial parenting practices and also one of the oldest, spanning throughout many generations. Spanking is a discipline method in which a supervising adult deliberately inflicts pain upon a child in response to a child’s unacceptable behaviour. Although spanking exists in nearly every country and family, its expression is heterogeneous. First of all the act of administering a spanking varies between families and cultures. As Gershoff (2002) pointed out, some parents plan when a spanking would be the most effective discipline whereas some parents spank impulsively (Holden, 2002). Parents also differ in their moods when delivering this controversial punishment, some parents are livid and others try and be loving and reason with the child. Another source of variation is the fact that spanking is often paired with other parenting behaviours such as, scolding, yelling, or perhaps raging and subsequently reasoning. A third source of variation concerns parental characteristics. Darling and Steinberg (1993) distinguished between the content of parental acts and the style in which it was administered (Holden, 2002). With all this variation researchers cannot definitively isolate the singular effects of spanking.
In this article, the author expresses the effects that spanking your child as a form of punishment at the age earlier ages of toddlerhood such as to the effects it has on the child when he or she becomes older. Spanking is a very common form of punishment at this age and used frequently across the United States as well as other countries. Many parents do not understand the effects that spanking has on their children now and what effect it has on their future and that there are other forms of punishment that can leave the same impact but cause less emotional and physical damage.
The history of spanking from generation to generation has changed tremendously over the decades. There was a point in time where spanking was considered an integral part of discipline and it was not considered to be abusive in nature. My dad used to tell me stories of when he was a child and was always spanked for misbehaving - then even I grew up in a home where spanking was the normal reprimand for disobedience. For now, we won’t focus so much on my life experience with spanking but rather to point out both the good and the bad - the “pros and cons”, would you, of spanking in the form of discipline. The point that I am attempting to show in this paper is that the use of spanking in...
I have read several articles recently on the negative effects of discipline, particularly spanking. Refraining from spanking children has become the new "normal" for many households. In the past three years of working in childcare, I have seen many different children from many types of homes. Interestingly enough, after spending about fifteen minutes with a child one is able to tell whether or not they were spanked. In my own experience, children who have been "spared the rod" tend to have more
Spanking has several effects on the children which build many opinions among the people. Researchers have shown many positive and negative sides of physical punishment. There are several people that agree with spanking their children and there are others who are against punishing the children. Many of the parents who spank their children believe that spanking is sometimes okay because they think it will make a positive effect on their behavior. Spanking is used to correct children’s behavior, but, many people think that instead of bettering the child’s behavior it makes it worse. Spanking has been a huge issue in the past decades. Many children have been physically abused and many others have never experienced any physical harm. However, several people have been fighting so that spanking becomes against the law and so that the children have more rights and security. On the other hand, there are other parents that want spanking to be legal because they believe spanking has helped them correcting the child's behavior.
The researchers find that frequent use of corporal punishment on three-year-olds (spanking more than twice over the course of a month) was associated with increased aggressive behavior at five years of age…even "minor" forms of corporal punishment, including spanking, increase children's risk of aggressive behavior
Every parent has differing beliefs in how a child must be disciplined. A child’s undesirable behavior is a cause for a parent to spank them to correct them. Simple mistakes made by children, who have yet to develop cognitive reasoning, are not deserving to experience pain. By definition in the psychological world, corporal punishment is used in like terms with spanking. It is the “use of physical force with the intention of causing a child to experience pain, but not to injury, for the purpose of correction or control of the child’s behavior” (Straus 3). There are countless of studies that has been done by psychologists on the effects
There has been a misconception about how to properly discipline children due to secular views and flawed studies. Many of these so called “studies” have made “many experts believe that corporal punishment will likely lead to increased resistance or aggressive behavior from the child” ("Corporal Punishment." World Book Advanced). One study in particular “suggests that children who experienced harsh spanking (with objects or at a frequency of once a week or more with a hand) had significantly higher levels of mother-reported externalizing behavior at ages 6, 7, and 8 than did children who experienced no spanking or mild spanking at those ages, even controlling for prior externalizing behavior and other possible confounds.” ( Lansford ). However, aggressive behavior should be expected if a parent beats their child out of their own anger instead of a desire to better their child for the future. There are several other “studies” that claim to prove spanking increases negative behavior but they just lump them all together and say that all spanking in every form, regardless of it severity, is the same and creates worse children. “Any form of punishment, physical or otherwise, can have negative consequences if it is abused.”. (Green) If parents don’t discipline their children physically, they will ve...
Historically in most cultures across the world, parents have always been seen as the ones who have the responsibility of disciplining their children and therefore they have the right to spank them when they feel it is appropriate for disciplinary purposes. Spanking is therefore an age old practice that has been used to ensure that children can grow up in an upright manner and in line with the societal expectations and norms. During the early years, it was the norm that rearing a child involved the focus on ensuring they grow up with discipline and that children should not be spoilt by soothing them when they cry for example when they have been disciplined It is however important to note that this view saw significant changes during the 1950s and 60s after a publication by Spock in 1946 which contained arguments against spanking and urged the
As we grow a foundation of rules are applied to us to help guide our behavior in the choices we make as we age. A certain modification is exerted, and we learn what we want by having our consequences corrected due to this behavior. A choice to spank a child, slap, pinch, hit with an object nearby, or make them eat unpleasant substances to curb their behavior are types of physical punishment. Surveys have documented majority of parents whom were physically punished growing up to punished their own children as they were. Research also indicates short-term consequences within a child from being physically punished which may cause the child to begin bullying other children, aggressiveness is shown, behavioral problems, enduring low self-esteem, becoming petrified of their own parents, and believing it is okay to lay a hand on another. The abuse of physical punishment can get a person arrested with a jail sentence, loss of custody, and in extreme cases horrifying injuries cause death to an individual (“Physical Punishment”, 2012). Two-thirds of Americans still approve of spanking their children, even after studies have shown this type of physical punishment can lead to increased aggression, antisocial behavior, physical injury and mental health problems for children (Smith,
Child Outcomes of Nonabusive and Customary Physical Punishment by Parents, (Robert E. Larzelere), focused majorly on the causal effect of punishment on children and aimed to determine if the short-term outcomes of spanking were beneficial. In this report, the emphasis was placed on non-abusive physical punishment, primarily spanking, without completely focusing on the severity of its use or its comparison to other types of physical discipline. A great amount of research was obviously put into the article from various sources such as Psych Lit. The accuracy of this report was evident as it methodically and logically eliminated measures dominated by severity or abusiveness (eliminating 37 more studies) and measures focused on nonspanking tactics. Finally, the average age of the child when spanked had to be younger than 13 years (eliminating 42 otherwise eligible studies). Overall, the 38 q...
Some people believe spanking a child is child abuse, and that it causes the child to grow up aggressive and violent. This would mean that every child that is spanked during their developmental stages will grow up to be an example of bad behavior. However, there is no actual data or information that can confirm that spanking a child will cause a child to grow up to be violent or too aggressive. Children have been trained to obey rules or a set code of behavior for centuries. It is the best way to mold a child to be a respectable adult, and they can pass on the behavior to their future children. It may not always happen, but its pretty effective.
The common view of most psychologists is that parents should not spank their children. The American Psychological Association (APA) opposes the use of corporal punishment in schools, juvenile facilities, child care nurseries and all other institutions, public or private, where children are cared for or educated. This includes the institution of the family. Spanking can escalate toward physical abuse, potentially injuring the child, and can contribute to later emotional and behavior problems, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. It’s also less effective than alternative disciplinary tactics, and it’s a hard habit to break, the organization also says. During the last decade, studies have shown that children who get spanked are more likely than their peers to display behavior and emotional problems later in life. The more frequently they’re spanked, the more harmful the consequences tend to be. As far back as 1950, psychologists began experimenting with the idea that physical force used against a child taught the child to be aggressive. In other words, spanking taught the child to hit others. The more children are spanked,...