Question

Do you believe punishment is an effective form of learning (discipline)? What type of punishment and level of severity is appropriate for specific behaviors when dealing with a toddler/adolescent/adult?

Provide an example from your childhood where punishment was not effective and talk about how you feel the discipline could have been dealt with differently.

Answer 1

• Parents choose the climate which the child will grow up in. One way parents dictate the development of their child is through discipline. The methods of disciplining a child can impact their life socially, behaviorally, and even intellectually.
• Parenting in authoritarian style can be effective at times, but comes with many dangers for the child’s future as many children become unhappy and unfriendly due to their parent’s lack of understanding of their needs. It encourages strong discipline among children but regular use of punishment in the form of beating can traumatize the child emotionally and physically.
• The severity of the punishment could lead to classical conditioning wherein the child could start associating beating for any bad behaviour which could have major negative influence on the child leading to disobedience rather than being disciplined.Such a strong negative relationship between parent and child results in very unhealthy relationships for the child in the future with peers, other authority figures, and eventually their own children.
• The problem can be with mild forms of punishment as well,when the parents are not using it consistently,leading to indisciplined children and adolescents.

  If discouragement of certain behaviors is not firmly consistent, meaning that sometimes there is a positive outcome, then the child will continue the bad behavior in hopes of hitting this positive outcome again. This type of behavior can evolve into adulthood as other addictive behaviors such as gambling. A combination of reward and punishment are beneficial as long as they remain constant for the child over the long term.

• In my childhood,I used to be fond of eating junk food and ice-creams,and I was punished one day by my parents by locking me in the bathroom which obviously is wrong since a continuous usage of this form of punishment could lead to mentally traumatizing me. Instead of using punishment,rewarding could be used wherein if i didnt eat an icecream I would be praised for it or given some new stationary as a prize which could have a positive effect thus leading to making me more obedient and understanding that too much of junk food is bad for health. Severe punishments in the long run could lead to unhealthy relationships between parent and child and therefore should not be used,wherein mild punshiments for certain small bad behaviours could be used to teach discipline but consistency is important otherwise it could lead to disobedience. Therefore,the mix of punishment and rewards always works for teaching discipline.