@corina, I agree that punishment may be necessary but why do we punish children?
Do we punish to make them feel bad or do we punish to correct them?
Punishment differs from negative reinforcement in that it aims to decrease the likelihood of the response occurring. Punishment is the introduction of an unpleasant stimuli such as a hit or yell, whereas negative reinforcement is taking away the unpleasant stimulus to increase the probability of the response occurring.
Potential punishers are any consequences which might lead to a decrease in the response. Some consequences may be punishers for some people but not others.
Side-effects of punishment include aggression, frustration, avoidance learning, escape learning and learned helplessness. The punishment may not decrease the behaviour at all but teach the child to be aggressive or avoid the punisher. Sometimes the punishment ends up being positive reinforcement or only serves to satisfy the frustration of the punisher.
Effective punishment should address the person's actions and not the person's character. It should be related to the undesirable behaviour and it should consist of penalties or response cost (the removal of a reinforcer) rather than psychological or physical pain.
What is punishment then?
what is punishment to one child may be suffering to the other.
How then do you determine what punishment means to a child?
Thank you for your comment. I think children should learn about consequences rather than punishment. If they break an object they have to fix it, or pay for it to be replaced from their allowance. If they make a mess, clean up. If they hurt their brother, help make them feel better. This way they can see that all actions have consequences, and get involved in repairing their own damage. This is a crucial lesson for the future, since we want our children capable of fixing their problems when they grow up. Punishing, taking away objects, sending them to 'time out' are unrelated to the 'mistake' they made and instead of helping, it makes them upset, angry and more likely to go wrong again. A child who feels 'bad' cannot be 'good'.