What does punishment do to behavior?

Question

What are the drawbacks of punishment? Should punishment be used to control behavior?

Answer 1

Punishment is a negative action, & perpetuates the negative.
In some, (perhaps most), people, punishment evokes rebellion & motivates further "misbehaviour." There are many alternatives to "punishment." Especially with children; reinforcement of "good" behaviour is one choice. (On which I won't digress here.) Regarding [deb p], "punishment" will never change the behaviour; these people need to be removed from society, but I would not call that "punishment," as punishment has no meaning to pedaphiles or murderers.
Your excellent answer was from [Behavior]

Answer 2

Punishment is negative reinforcement for an action. I remember a study stating that punishment is not effective unless it is administered within 3 seconds of the action.

Drawbacks, in the case of children, if the only attention the child receives from a parent is negative, they will only repeat the behavior. Also, punishment should not be unduly harsh as this can be traumatic for the receipient.

Yes punishment should be used to control behavior - time outs for children, a swat with a newspaper for a dog or time in jail for a thief. Imagine a world without consequences for negative actions - scary!

Answer 3

EXCELLENT QUESTION!!!

Read the book Coercion and Its Fallout by Dr. Murray Sidman. I visited with him last week- what a wonderful man. What a life-changing books. You can find it on www.behavior.org, but you have to dig around to find their store on the site. It's worth it, though.

The book describes all the kinds of fallout from punishment and coercive responses to behaviors. And there is a lot of it. Dr. Sidman studied punishment throughout his career and it taught him to be a very gentle and caring man.

Technically speaking punishment is a process through which a behavior is followed by an event called a punisher and as a result the rate of the behavior diminishes in the future. This is why punishment is so often used- it gets rid of unwanted behavior in the moment.

What it doesn't do, however, is teach the learner what to do instead, which is why people who are punished with spankings or jail time or whatever so often repeat the same offenses over and over.

But worse, what happens is that when you punish behavior you build avoidance and escape behaviors. The reason teenagers avoid their parents is not because of hormones- it's because they are avoiding punishment. When they lash out at their parents it's a process called countercontrol. This begins to happen when they are strong enough to fight back.

I could go on and on about this. I am a behavior analyst. Read books about behavior analysis. You'd be amazed that there is a science that demonstrates so clearly that life works better when you're kind.

Answer 4

Punishment is a way to control behavior. So is reinforcement. It's a teaching tool.

I don't see any real drawbacks as long as punishment is used with control and for a desired purpose. It can come in many forms, should not be the only teaching tool that is used, but it should never be used in excess or as a physical or mental form of abuse

Answer 5

My opinion on the issue of punishment and whether or not it is useful in controlling behavior depends on the circumstances. If you're talking about children I prefer to use consequences and make them specific to the misbehavior. I'm a love and logic person and believe consequences delivered with compassion are more effective than punishment. Punishment can even reinforce behavior because the perpetrator can refocus their anger on the punisher rather than accepting responsibility.

Answer 6

I'm a fan of Behavorist (I think s/he was my fan first) and I agree with that answer most. However, the problem is there is a fine line between punishment and consequences. When we impose consequences for negative behavior, is that punishment? I once read of a British reform school that allowed troubled children to deal with natural consequences. For example, if a child broke a window in a fit of rage, no punishment was imposed. However, the window remained unrepaired until the child could and would "earn" its replacement cost. If it was the dead of winter, ah well. If pneumonia ensured, ah well.

Another constraint we deal with is TIME. A parent, for instance, has a lifetime to interact with a child, while those of us who see them in a shorter span of time have limits. Illustrative of this is that as a teacher I must decide on punishment or consequence. I have found that consequence works best, but sometimes I cannot choose. Punishments are built into the district policies for certain offenses. Also, I am to focus on academics, I must! Therefore, punishment works best sometimes, "Stop that or you won't have recess! Don't hit or you'll be sent to detention! Or suspended! Or expelled!" Society demands punishment at times.
I am going to put the book Behaviorist cited on my summer reading list. I can always use insights, but I am only cautiously optimistic that this will enlighten me to a level that I can take far beyond theory in my everyday life. Still I am hopeful.

A final thought is what is the impact on behavior when consequence is chosen for one child, while punishment is chosen for another? I wanted to raise my child without spanking. I had behavior modification methods that worked quite well for us. Spanking is prevalent in my culture. I finally had to deal with the undermining of my discipline methods because my child often heard, "He needs his a** beat for that." When he was a toddler it was easy. I just removed us from that environment and didn't return. Later I had to deal with conflicts with relatives who wanted to defy me and spank my child so he would learn. They made dire predictions of prison and him growning up to strike me, etc. Even later still, his friends traded stories of punishment that made him feel his consequences meant I wasn't disciplining him. It was very difficult. Does the book also address that I wonder.
Turns out my son never struck me. Grew up to be a fine young man and we remain close. However, we did struggle with these issues because of outside interference.

Answer 7

As a parent, I learned that, sometimes, punishment is necessary. Now, the type of punishment is dependent on the person in question. I found that grounding my preteen from using hairspray, her favorite hair things, etc was a very effective tool to get her attention about inappropriate behaviour. Sometimes, a kid needs a swat on the behind, and, by the way, pedaphiles and murderers need to be punished, don't you think?

Answer 8

It reinforces the behavior. It makes the punish-ee fear the punishment, and fear the person administering it, rather than fearing the consequences for their own behavior. When you take 'the enforcer' away, the bad behavior comes back.

Examples: You spank you kid for trying to touch a hot stove. He keeps trying to touch it when your not looking.

A convict gets out of jail, and immediately goes back and starts commiting the same crimes over and over again.

let 'em touch the stove, just a little!

Answer 9

what tha? People are saying no!?

Punishment isn't always physical and i think thats where people are getting confused here

So what about people in jail, they shouldn't be sent to jail because being in jail is punishment.

Sending a kid to time out, taking away their extra toys (tv, game box's etc) is punishment, but a good form of punishment.

Nagging your kids ears off, is punishment (worse than physical abuse i think heheh - more annoying anyways)

There's are not going to affect the kids in the long term - it will only help them.

Answer 10

Rewards are better functional, because someone who's punished is better in all probability to develop into discouraged and forestall attempting to make advancements. it ought to count upon the fellow and the habit that desires substitute, though. nonetheless, too a lot unfavorable feed lower back is risky in any situation. Any unfavorable reaction desires to be interior limits and not too extreme.