Corporal Punishment

Corporal Punishment: Questions On Its Effectiveness

Deciding a punishment for a child can oftentimes be a difficult task to accomplish. Standard Pavlonian conditioning dictates, when considering reinforcement and avoidance learning, that a certain stimulus, followed by a negative punishment/stimulus has the effect of creating an "avoidance behavior" in the receiver of the punishment. The avoidance behavior will dictate the way in which that person avoids the punishment. Therefore, the person would have to first avoid the initial stimulus in order to avoid the punishment. When this concept is utilized in conjunction with punishing children for negative behavior, it is seen that after presenting the avoidance learning paradigm to any specific case, the child would learn to avoid the initial negative behavior in order to avoid the punishment. In other words, the child learns a lesson. However, it is very often difficult to decide what form of punishment is most efficient in eliciting avoidance behaviors. Recent research has disproved a certain form of punishment, a form that is both barbaric and very outdated, not to mention ineffective...corporal punishment.

It has always been a common misconception that corporal punishment is the most effective form of punishment; simply "beating" a child would achieve the desired results. However, recent evidence proves otherwise. It has been found that lower forms of aversive stimuli (i.e., not physical punishment) are overall more effective in eliciting avoidance behaviors. Since the form of the punishment determines the form of the avoidance behavior and degree of retention (De Houwer, Crombez, Baeyens 2005), and since non-physical punishments produce higher anxiety levels (Vyas, Chattarji, 2004), they are definitely more efficient than corporal punishment, and yet are not as psychologically damaging as corporal punishment. A study conducted by Straus and Kantor in 1994 evaluated the possible effects of corporal punishment. As per their results, they found that children experiencing corporal punishment are more likely to be subject to depression, suicide, alcohol abuse, physical abuse of their own children, and physical assault on wives. The theory set forth in this paper denotes the extent to which corporal punishment is psychologically punishing on the psyche of a child. It has both long term and short term negative impacts, all for the use of a punishment that is inefficient.

The study conducted by Straus and Kantor in 1994 was only one of a multitude of articles that helped to denote the inefficiency of corporal punishment itself. A more recent paper described the concept of "learned helplessness". Learned helplessness is the process by which a person, when put into a situation wherein they can do nothing to improve their situation, they would attribute that feeling of helplessness to all future predicaments they encounter (Overmier 2002). An abusive relationship, suffering from a form of corporal punishment, is an example of the previously mentioned "situations" that would produce this feeling of helplessness in an individual. Overall, corporal punishment is ineffective and highly damaging to an individual's mind.

Prior to the research that presented this theory in its various forms, the common misconception of corporal punishment's effectiveness was generally accepted by everyone. Therein, children were subjected to this form of punishment on a regular basis. This spawned a whole chain of abusive relationships throughout each individual's life, as corporal punishment is a risk factor of the individual beating their own children and contemplating spousal abuse as well (Straus, Kantor 1994). However, since the appearance of this myriad of research denoting the negatives of corporal punishment, the frequency of such punishment has been reduced dramatically. Even in schools, the frequency has been reduced to almost half of what it has been. From 1990 to 2003, the frequency of children hit decreased from 1.5% (613,760) in 1990 to 0.6% (301,016) in 2003. Apparently, both parents and teachers are realizing the ineffectiveness of corporal punishment.

Of course, the theories of older days still abound even