Punishment In Education: Is It Useful?

Punishment is common in our society. From taking a child’s toys when they misbehave to punishing adults for wrongdoing, punishment is everywhere. We see punishment as a way to combat negative or disapproved behavior. But is punishment in education also useful? What consequences does it have?

Education is a very important issue that cannot be reduced to concrete experiences or individual opinions. Educational habits should be based on scientific criteria.

To examine the usefulness and consequences of punishment in parenting, we will turn to empirical data. This is because scientific data provides us with very useful information about punishment and its educational implications.

Rewards and Punishment in Education

Before discussing the usefulness and consequences of punishment in parenting, it is essential to understand the principle underlying it. Why can we combat certain behavior by giving punishment?

The answer to this question lies in BF Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning. Skinner was one of the fathers of behaviorism and was a major contributor to learning psychology.

Operant conditioning roughly states that when behavior is reinforced, it is likely to be repeated. In other words, when something positive happens as a result of a certain action, we tend to continue acting like that in the future.

The opposite happens with punishment. When behavior is punished, the likelihood of it being repeated decreases. Operant conditioning has been proven a lot. In addition, the theory has been extensively demonstrated in both animals and humans.

However, the learning process is very complex. An important aspect of understanding the effects of rewards and punishments in parenting is their instrumental nature. When we reward or punish, we modify a person’s behavior because he or she expects that prize or punishment. That is, the person acts as a result of extrinsic motivation.

From this perspective, we can infer that the new behavior will only persist as long as the punishment or reward is maintained. It is important to understand that operant conditioning is associative learning. The individuals will not understand why the behavior is right or wrong. They will simply understand that certain consequences are the result of certain behaviors.

Consequences and problems with punishment in parenting

Now that we know the principles underlying operant conditioning, let’s discuss the usefulness and consequences of punishment in parenting.

The pitfalls of punishment

Punishment, while it can help shape behavior, is a pretty bad method to use in parenting because:

• Behavioral changes are conditioned: As we mentioned above, the behavior will only continue as long as the punishment exists. When the punishment disappears, the negative behavior reappears. This shows us that the person is not learning what is right or wrong. Instead, only simple associative learning takes place.
• Learned helplessness may occur: if the punishment is not accompanied by an alternative way of behaving, the person cannot identify the behavior itself and may become paralyzed in their actions.

• Violent parenting creates violent people: violent punishments (physical or psychological) can have serious consequences. People learn through imitation, so their social context is extremely important. If we see violence, we will learn to react in the same way to things that happen to us.
• Associating punishment with a person and not with behavior: Often when a person does not understand why his or her behavior is wrong, this person will associate the punishment with the one who is administering the punishment. He or she thinks that whoever is handing out the punishment is just being mean. Therefore, the person can simply avoid the person who gave the punishment instead of changing his or her behavior.

Use punishment with caution

As we can see, education is a complex matter. Punishment is an easy solution that can also be extremely superficial and dangerous. While negative behavior should not go unpunished, learning values ​​is a little more complicated.

A democratic parenting style based on discussion is synonymous with a good parenting. When a child exhibits negative behavior, discuss why the behavior is wrong, what alternatives there are, and how the child can solve the problems it has caused.