What is the effect of physical punishment on personality?

Question

I asked this before, but I typed too fast and made a mistake that totally changed the sense, so here it is again: I read that many people here SAY it was good for them that that they were spanked as kids, they get along fine with their lives, they love their parents very much, they do this with their kids as well...
But I think it can never be good for anyone and I think that people who are raised by such strict parents who use force if they don't obey and never rebel against their parents who hurt them can't develop a good sense of critic thought and don't learn to question authorities, which is something important, as authorities are often wrong. It seems to me that these are the same people that e.g. are willing to believe everything from their priests or politicians without questioning.
I would like to hear your opinions on this matter.

Answer 1

You aren't going to find your answer here. Developmental psychologists spend their lives searching for the answer to this question and they are still in debate about it. It depends on the child. It depends on the parent. It depends on additional discipline that is used. It depends on lifestyle. It depends on the cultural and societal norms. It depends on so many factors ... more than most people can even fathom. Personally, I don't believe in it, and there is never a time that I will find it necessary to phsycially punish. A lot of children react horribly to it. A lot of children don't. Like I said, there are many, MANY factors. And you're right, those qualities you described are often, and repeatedly seen in children raised by such tactics.

I do know one thing though ... NO one, in the history of the world has reacted badly to positive reinforcement, negotiation, and reasoning.

Answer 2

There are so many degrees of physical punishment, I think that it is hard to generalize into two groups - force and no force.

Personally, I was raised in an environment where the rod was not spared. When I became a parent, because of the way that I was raised, I swung all the way over to the other side of the spectrum and conciously chose not to use physical punishment to discipline my child. I would say that is the one major residual of childhood spankings in my life. I do get along just fine and do love my parents but I also think for myself and do not blindly follow authority (govt, religion, etc.) without question.

Short answer is that there are too many variables that mold a person's personality to make a blanket argument of whether or not to spank.

Answer 3

I was spanked as a child. my parents were not strict, but we did get punished when we didn't do what we were told. if we abided by their rules then we didn't have problems. we had a great childhood and were very happy. that is not to say that we never questioned authority. we were taught right from wrong, we were taught that you can't believe everyone. what you have written is totally a stereotypical notion that we are screwed up for having been disiplined as a child. we learned humilty through humiliation, we learned shelflessness through comunity service, we learned pride by actually doing a job (and we learned that if we didn't do the job right, or did it the way we wanted to do it, then we didn't get the pleasure of hearing "job well done!") I am 28 now, and I see and hear kids all over the place that are totoally lost. no one cares enough to teach them about life. my daughter has a child in her class that terrorizes the room (kindergarden) he's already been in detention! he's mom claims that he's shy and scared, yet he acts like the devil and disrupts the class. licks the bottom of his shoes, spits, eats other kids lunches, cusses, etc. he's a menace and he'll continue to be one if no one will correct him. i don't beat my child, but all of her punishments are equal to her "crime" if she colors on the wall she gets all of her colors taken away for a week, the next time-she gets a spanken and colors taken away. my child is very well behaved at home and in public. she smart and balanced, mannered, etc. I can see how a well spanken works, and i can see what time out does. I choose spankens. if you want to continue the trend by letting kids think that there are no consiqunces to bad actions, or that they don't have to do a job well to get a "job well done" then by all means do so, that way when your child has no idea who they are or how to do something with their life, you can support them for the rest of yours. or better yet visit them in prison as the statistics will painly show.

Answer 4

Sounds to me like you believe spanking is never appropriate. I would have to disagree with you on that one. I don't believe that a child should be spanked every time he/she steps out of line -- depends on the child and what the child did/didn't do -- but there are some instances when children need to be spanked. For example, children under the age of six really don't have the capacity for reason. They want what they want and will often throw tantrums if they don't get it. Those children need to learn that screaming and carrying on is not acceptable, and you can't explain it to them because they don't understand reason, so spanking is appropriate in such an instance. Ditto that any time a child defies a parent by saying "no," refusing to do the parent's bidding. Children need to learn that parents are in charge, and it's because there are so many parents who can't be bothered to parent their children that we have so many unruly brats who are allowed to throw tantrums and are so disobedient of every authority figure; not just parents.

There's nothing wrong with children developing their own minds and their own methods of critical thought. On the other hand, many children are allowed to take it too far and they simply defy all authority for the sake of rebellion alone. Yes, it's never a good idea to simply take the word of priests or politicians without question, but at the same time children need to learn that no one lives in a vacuum. Everything we do has the potential to affect others, and that's why we have the body of law that we do -- to protect individual freedom and to restrict one's ability to harm another, whether said harm is accidental or deliberate. And there's a big difference between questioning someone's authority and being disrespectful. For example, it's one thing to disagree with the war in Iraq but quite another to engage in "Bush-bashing" because of it. Just because one disagrees with the war in Iraq doesn't make the President an idiot. See the difference?

Answer 5

i don't believe that people should "beat" their kid. there's a difference between beating and spanking. some people don't know the difference. i think some people abuse the concept of spanking. only using spanking as a source of discipline is not productive. however there are times when a small smack might be needed. i've been smacked once in my entire life. my older sister got the same amount as i did. my younger sister never got spanked. when my parents spoke, we knew that we should listen. there was no question about that. i think disipline starts when the child is young. if we broke a rule or disobeyed my parents, we knew there were consequence for our actions! they were consistent with their discipline. if you talk to your children, explain what they've done wrong when the incident occurs and hand out the punishment (in accordance to the wrong doing), i think spanking isn't even necessary. but it should be known to the child that a smack is not off the offer table. me and my sisters knew that. but we weren't threatened with it every time we did something wrong.

Answer 6

If you are talking about a mere pop on the bottom, that is one thing and it probably will not have that much effect.

However, if you are talking about severe beatings and humiliation, then other things pop up.

I was beaten for 22 years. At first it was belts and switches, then it grew into beating with the fist. The earliest real abuse that I can remember is at five when my father, for no reason, sat me down in the bathroom next to the sink and forced me to smoke two packs of cigaretes and if I did not inhale, he pushed my head into the water until I had to.

The beatings, far more severe than earlier in my life, got worse and worse as the years progressed. This type of behavior on the part of a parent, with whom you are to feel safe, causes a plethora of problems. Those would include all forms of anxiety disorders, depression, Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Borderline Personality, Post traumatic stress disorder, or all of them combined

In addition to that, maltreatment by a parent will probably result in you using maltreatment on your children.

Did I rebel against my father who was the culprit in this. Well, yes. I beat him to the point of death, and would have killed him except two brothers pulled me off. I wish to this day that I would have killed him.

I have not, however, beaten my children and neither have my siblings. I am not a parent who insist on recognition of my authority, I am a parent who listens and discusses problems with my children. That behavior resulted from the fact that my grandfather, who was the best father role that I had, did that.

Answer 7

well for me it broke my spirit

and then I do it to my children now

if there is a better way with positive results...

all I learned was violence works to achieve desired benefit

pain was a good teacher

Answer 8

See some scientific articles on this subject in
http://ccr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/40/3/306
http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/bul1284590.pdf#search=%22effect%20of%20physical%20punishment%20on%20personality%22
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/35384/preserving_childhood_the_detrimental.html