Punishment and behavior

4.9 of 5.0 (160 reviews)

Contains
489 words

Category
Other

The above thumbnails are of reduced quality. To view the work in full quality, click download.

Punishment and behavior

Punishment and Behavior

The amount of crime in America has been constantly increasing over the years. At the same time, in order to deter this crime punishment enforced by the government has also increased. This is what compels me to argue against the notion that if a society wishes to change its citizens' behavior, a system based on punishments will be much more effective than a reward based system.

First of all, there seems to be a very strong relationship between punishment and violence. The main source of this data is 3300 kids and 6000 couples who took part in the National Family Violence Survey (Straus 134). In this study physical punishment is defined as " a legally permissible physical attack on children" (Straus 134). This study reported that in this 1975 National Family Violence survey, it was found that children who were physically punished that year were three times more likely to " severely and repeatedly" assault one of their siblings three or more times over the rest of the year (Straus 136). This same survey also showed that both men and women who had more physical punishment as a child were more likely to assault their spouse during that year (Straus 142). This study also found a rise in street crime with increasing amounts of physical punishment. A 1972 study of 385 college students which were punished as children were more likely to be involved in violent and property crime (Straus 145). A final interesting statistic showed that for 1980 schools that used a greater amount of physical punishment also had a greater homicide rate (Straus 146).

According to Gault et. Al increasing the intensity of punishment has been found to better suppress or change a person's behavior (159). They also found that complete suppression is only achieved by extreme, almost inhumane punishment (Gualt, Gridley, et al 159). They also found that no matter how intense the punishment given, once it is stopped, the undesirable behavior has been found to return in most cases (Gault, Gridley, et al 159).

According to a recent study by Strassberg, Dodge, Pettit and Bates (1994) the occurrence of parental spanking, regardless of frequency, or whether the punishment was given by the father or the mother, increased the child's aggression (Gualt, Gridley, et al 160). Another interesting statistic given by the American Psychological Association is that about seventy percent of men who came through the criminal justice system were abused or neglected children (Gualt, Gridley, et al 161). Finally, Penelope Leach, who is a "well known writer on child development", has also found punishing children leads to higher levels of aggression (Gualt, Gridley, et al 160).

Just as there are apparent links between punishment and violent or undesirable behavior in American society, Ihanus has found similar links between punishment and behavior in Russian society. According to this article "hard discipline with violent punishments" has been a part of Russian life for some time now (Ihanus 260). ...

You are currently seeing 50% of this paper.

You're seeing 489 words of 977.

Read the full essay

Keywords: incentives punishment and behavior, punishment and aversive behavior, negative punishment and behaviorism, reinforcement punishment and behavior, punishment behavior analysis, punishment behavior example, punishment behavior in animals, punishment behavior charts

Similar essays

Whale

weighs as much as 20 elephants but lives beneath the sea. The blue whale is Earth's largest animal. Larger than the largest of ancient dinosaurs, blue whales can grow to be more than 100 feet (30 meters) long and weigh nearly 150 tons. Not all whales are so large. The much smaller pilot whale grows to about 28 feet (8.5 meters) in length. And...

70 reviews

Download

MAQUILADORAS AND THE NAFTA?S I

MAQUILADORAS AND THE NAFTA'S I Introduction In this paper I will discuss the history and practices of the Maquiladora industry. I will discuss its background, its problems, the benefits it offers to United States companies, and the impact the NAFTA has and will have on the industry. In addition, I will make a suggestion on a possible strateg...

138 reviews

Download

Subliminial messages

"People are exposed to some subliminal stimuli at all times throughout life" (Koponen, 97). A subliminal message is an insufficiently intense message used to produce a discrete sensation by influencing one's mental process or behavior. "Subliminal stimuli range from those just below threshold to those that are infinitely weak" (Koponen, 97...

64 reviews

Download

Array

Aristotle was born in 384 BC and lived until 322 BC. He was a Greek philosopher and scientist, who shares with Plato being considered the most famous of ancient philosophers. He was born at Stagira, in Macedonia, the son of a physician to the royal court. When he was 17, he went to Athens to study at Plato's Academy. He stayed for about 20 years, a...

43 reviews

Download

Descriptive essay two girls at

It was a busy Saturday afternoon at the Galleria at Tyler, many different people walking in and out of the large department stores and inside the interior of the mall. However, the vast majority of people walking among the mall were groups of young teenage girls. The mall has become the major hangout for teenagers, where both males and female...

130 reviews

Download