Sunday, June 28, 2015

Negative and Positive Punishment

Having 2 sons, it hard to determine which way a parent wants to raise his children. Like. most children my boys love their electronics. My oldest enjoys programming, video games, and taking my old computers apart and trying to put them back together. If he is to do something bad; i.e. lie, not listen, etc.. are my wife and I to use negative punishment and take his computer privileges away when they are truly a learning experience for him or do we take something else away like just his video games so he has to only focus on school related computer activities. Then perhaps he begins to dislike computers because he doesn't get to have fun with computers only learn about them. Either response has its pros and cons, but which will be more effective? I can only speak from personal experience in that a balance has worked for my wife and I. So far we seemed to have 2 well adjusted kids that respond well to which ever corrective measures we use.

5 comments:

  1. I think that you cannot pick the correct punishment unless you know the child. This is because not every punishment works for every child! I agree that every punishment has pros and cons.

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  2. I agree that negative punishment is a difficult subject, so hard to decide whats right from wrong when talking about raising a child. One is not suppose to use negative punishment but how do you correct without it. Possibly a time-out so the child can think about just what they did? But at what age does the child just not care, and sit there to sit there...?? I also agree with Janine in that "correct" punishment is dependent upon the child and their needs.

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  3. I agree with Janine, in choosing the correct type of punishment the subject's reactions need to be highly considered. I work with dogs on a regular basis, some dogs respond well to negative punishment. Other dogs need only positive reinforcement to learn properly, these dogs are too soft for harsh corrections and the removal of the reward. Instead of benefiting the behavior we want, the animal shuts down and refuses to participate - this sounds what you are worried will happen to your son as well!

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  4. I agree with Janine, in choosing the correct type of punishment the subject's reactions need to be highly considered. I work with dogs on a regular basis, some dogs respond well to negative punishment. Other dogs need only positive reinforcement to learn properly, these dogs are too soft for harsh corrections and the removal of the reward. Instead of benefiting the behavior we want, the animal shuts down and refuses to participate - this sounds what you are worried will happen to your son as well!

    ReplyDelete