Why Punishment Doesn't Work.

Punishment is a negative consequence of a behavior which leads to a decrease in the frequency of the behavior that produced it.

There are two types of punishments that are used to reduce undesirable behaviour.

Positive Punishment

This type of punishment helps in reducing an undesirable behaviour by pairing it with an aversive consequence.

For example - A person eating spoilt food (behavior) and getting a bad taste his mouth (Aversive consequence).

Negative Punishment

This type of punishment works by removing the reinforcing stimulus of an undesirable behaviour in order to reduce that behavior.

Example: Siblings fighting with each other (behaviour) and their favorite toy is taken away (removal of reinforcing stimulus) .

Punishment can be a useful and ethical way of reducing undesirable behaviour, if it is used appropriately. However, use of physical punishment has a lot of ethical issues and the serious dangers of this form of punishment, outweigh the benefits.

Dangers of Punishment

• Punishment reinforces the punisher. For example,if a parent hits the child for their temper tantrums and this stops the child's temper tantrum, the parent is reinforced. This means that the parent is likely to increase the frequency and intensity of the spanking, in order to inhibit the child's inappropriate behavior.This can cause the child serious pain and may also lead to child abuse.

• The punishment may have a generalized inhibiting effect. If an individual is being punished for exhibiting an inappropriate behavior, the punishment is likely to inhibit all other behaviours. For example, if the parent punishes the child by using physical punishment for talking back, this may lead to the child never talking to the parent all together.

• A common way individuals react to punishment is by disliking the person who inflicts the pain on them. Most individuals react aggressively towards the person.Therefore, instead of reducing one undesirable behaviour, punishment will only lead to another worse kind of behavior known as aggression.

• Even if the punishment is effective in reducing the undesirable behaviour , it fails to teach the individual appropriate behavior. Therefore, punishment may suppress one's behavior, only to be replaced by another behavior.

• Criticism Trap -Many adults think that, a logical way of reducing negative behavior is by criticizing it. However, in young children, criticism only increases the behavior that has been criticized.In other words, criticism reinforces the behavior rather than punishing it. For example, if a teacher criticizes the child's inappropriate behavior, the child's behavior may be reinforced by the attention they receive from being criticized.