RE: Psychology Addict # 58 | Punishment – An Overview Through the Lens of Psychology.
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Hello Abi, my sister works as a teacher for young children and I know there are very strict guidelines in terms of punishing students. In fact your not supposed to even say "no" to students. I know when I was going through school (30-40 years ago!) physical punishment was still being dished out for relatively minor infractions. I wonder if we have gone too soft in that time?
Btw nice to see you back posting regularly!
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Terry 😃 !! How wonderful to see you here :)
What an important question this one is! Thank you for raising it here.
I do think that sort of attitude is having gone too far. I find myself repeatedly trying to convey to caregivers, educators and even family members that punishment should be seen as means to inform children that there are consequences to what they do; especially when what they do infringes local norms and rules.
In my opinion, just go on rewarding children for what they have done right and leaving what they didn't do quite right "undealt" with is irresponsible caring. For it doesn't fully prepare them for the reality of life. I have just said to another reader in this very comment session: There is nothing wrong in sitting a boy down after he kicked a friend and calmly tell him: "there are other ways to deal with your frustration. What you did is not the appropriate one, because ... bla, bla, bla ... now, you stay here for 5 mins. and think about your actions, ok?"
If this prevents him from repeating that sort of behavior again.This, in Skinnerian terms, is a form of punishment. An event that reduced or eliminated the frequency of an undesired behavior. Children need to have this sort of guidance and information :) we owe to them!
Now, please allow me to be boring here Terry :)
There are such things as reinforces (positive and negative) and punishment. Reinforcement is something that is done to either give rise to or sustain behaviour. Punishment, on the other hand, aims at reducing or eliminating behaviour.
There is a general confusion between negative reinforcement and punishment. But here is the crucial difference between them:
Negative reinforcement : When a behaviour is encouraged through the removal of something unpleasant. (Note that positive reinforcement refers to the introduction of something to encourage a given action). For example, your daughters make sure they return home before midnight (behaviour) to prevent dad getting all frustrated and grumpy (unpleasant outcome).
Well, this comment of yours inspired me with the idea of what to write for my next post Terry. I think it would be interesting to discuss this topic here in the community: is it right to avoid saying no and get rid of punishment altogether?
Thanks for the idea! And again, it's lovely to see you.
I trust everything is fine with you, the girls & the family in general.
All the best to you all :)
Look forward to the next article abi...have we gone too soft? Definitely, there's definitely been a large shift in cultural norms in my 50+ years. Just watch any 1970's television and you will see what I mean! Is the world a better place for, its hard to say but IMO probably.
Thanks for asking about girls and family :) Things are starting to get back to something like normality and we are all doing well.