 | I have just done a full psychology course including the part that Skinner introduced about "operant conditioning".
It basically says that to teach someone to do something you reward him after each successful attempt. The behaviour is strengthened the best in this way, but it has to be constant.
Negative reinforcement is about having to complete the task before a painful or negative influence is removed. Behaviour is strengthened this way too, but not as well.
Punishment means what it says, something pleasurable is removed from the situation when the task is not achieved. Behaviour is weakened in this way.
All of this is great, but it was tested under clinical conditions and not the real world.
It would be great to never have to punish a child, but to use positive reinforcement, it means that when a child is being quite and getting on with something you must praise constantly. How many of us forget to do this and instead only tell our children off when they are playing up?
I smack my 3 year old, not alot, but sometimes talking and reasoning with him just doesn't work. Having said that I always do it when I am calm and try not to do it in the middle of my anger. I also sit my son down and try to explain why he was smacked and reinforce the fact that I still love him and always will.
It is a tough decision "to smack or not to smack". But, I believe that each parent should be able to determine this rule for themselves - assuming that smacking isn't taken to far into the arena of child abuse.
I certainly think that the originator of this discussion is way out of line in her views and should appologise to the site for he agressive and childish post. |
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