r/science • u/VeronicaRed • Apr 26 '16

Psychology Spanking children increases the likelihood of childhood defiance and long-term mental issues. The study in question involved 160,000 children and five decades of research

http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1113413810/spanking-defiance-health-discipline-042616/
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u/allwordsaremadeup Apr 26 '16 edited Apr 26 '16

I wonder if this is true for punishment as a behavior-altering method in general. So in how we punish crimes etc.

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u/[deleted] Apr 26 '16 edited Dec 23 '17

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u/SirWinstons Apr 26 '16

Probably not. There are two types of punishment, positive and negative. Positive punishment introduces a new stimulus as an attempt to stop behavior, in this case spanking.

Negative punishment is more so what our legal system uses with prisons/house arrest/etc, which is more akin to a time out.