PUNISHMENT
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Punishment is the imposition of a penalty as vengeance for a fault. The act of grounding a child for an offense is an example of punishment. There are two types of punishment: positive punishment, which involves giving an aversive stimulus after a behavior has occurred. Positive punishment is also known as punishment by the application. An example of positive punishment is when a person talks in turn in the middle of a meeting, the person addressing the meeting may scold him/her. There is also negative punishment, which involves taking away necessary incentives after a behavior has occurred. Negative punishment is also known as punishment by removal. Moreover, there are different forms of punishment, including incapacitation, which seeks to curb impending offense by actually moving offenders away from society. The other form of punishment is deterrence, retribution, a restoration, which involves learning more about criminal punishment, rehabilitation, and fine and community service.
The appropriate time to use punishment
Whatever a child’s age, it’s important to be unfailing when it comes to discipline. If parents don’t stick to the consequences and rules they set up; their children are not likely to.
Ages 0 to 2
From ages 0 to 2, these are naturally nosy toddlers. Items such as equipment, cutlery, jewelry, and electronics should be kept away from the reach of babies. Timeout is operative for toddlers. For example, a child who has been throwing food should be told why the behavior is wrong and taken to the kitchen for a minute or two. A child should not be hit or slapped since they are unlikely to make any connection between physical punishment and their behavior.
Age 3 to 5
The child grows and begins to make punishment connections between their behavior and the consequences; therefore, parents should ensure they start communicating rules for their homes. Clarify to kids what you expect of them before punishing them for their behavior. While parents clarify what behaviors to be punished, they should not forget to recompense good behaviors. If a child continues to behave in unacceptable behavior, try giving them light punishments. At this age, timeouts are also effective. Experts argue that one minute for each year of age is a good rule of thumb. Parents should tell kids what the right thing is and tell them what the wrong thing is.
Ages 6 to8
Consequences and timeouts are effective discipline approaches. Consistency is critical; therefore, parents should make good of any promise of good behavior or risk their authority as parents. Parents should give light punishments for indiscipline at this age since huge punishments take away their powers as parents.
Ages 9 to 12
Kids can be disciplined with ordinary penalties as they are mature and request more independence and accountability; therefore, teaching them how to deal with penalties of their behavior is more effective.
Ages 13 and up
By now, the child knows what is expected and means what you say by consequences of bad behavior( Fehr,2016). Parents, teachers, or guardians should set up rules regarding things like chores, curfew homework, and remember to control things.
Things that would make use of punishment more effective
While a punishment one can think of some cases when penalties do not work effectively to reduce bad behaviors, therefore the one should consider the following factors to make a punishment more effective:
- Punishments should not be connected to positive implementation because if punishment is associated with positive implementation, the bad behavior will increase instead of decrease. People punish their children, and immediately after the penalty for their bad behavior tells the child that they love them to feel at ease; therefore, there is no sense in the punishment.
- A punishment should lead to the prevention of bad behavior because once one Is punished for their bad behavior, it works effectively since he/she may not fall back in the same behavior and may also set a good example to the others.
- Punishment should be given constantly since if it is not given constantly, it does not work; in fact, when punishment is not followed, the members are negatively enforced.
- There should not be too much time between the offense and the crime. Punishment should be given quickly for the offender to feel that it is related since even if he/she knows that the penalty is related, the brain may not make the connection with their offense.
- The penalty has to be relatively intense so that the offender may feel that it is a penalty for their wrongdoing.
Side effects and reactions generated by the use of punishments
Punishments have notable drawbacks and side effects if not effectively done, mostly through negative enforcement.
- Higher rates of client hostility. The possibility that the penalty procedure could act as a model for the offender’s appropriate behavior is a possibility of the punishment effects creating negative enforcement.
- Penalties always increase a behavioral negative punishment will increase the offender’s behavior while a positive punishment decreases a bad behavior due to the addition of an undesirable stimulus.
- Punishments lead to passive-aggressiveness by the offender.
- Punishments often lead to modeling . Some parents say don’t hit while hitting a child may be due to consequences of a past punishment, yet the child is in the wrong.
- Punishment may not offer any information about desired behaviors. When offenders learn what they should not do, they may not really be learning what they should do.
- Physical penalties such as spanking children of age 9 and younger lead to antisocial behavior and delinquency.
- Some punishments create enmity between the offenders and the person or people who discipline them, especially when there is negative punishment. The enmity created may also lead to a poorer child-parent relationship.
- Punishments lead to mental health problems for the person that has committed a crime, such as depression, especially if the discipline was negatively enforced.
In conclusion, punishment should be effectively and consistently applied mostly through positive enforcement.
REFERENCE
Boyd, R., Gintis, H., Bowles, S., & Richerson, P. J. (2018). The evolution of altruistic punishment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 100(6), 3531-3535.
Fehr, E., & Gächter, S. (2016). Altruistic punishment in humans. Nature, 415(6868), 137-140.