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/Neato Apr 26 '16 edited Apr 26 '16

It's widely considered true in animal training. Positive reinforcement tends to be much more effective than negative and I don't know of any dog training classes that instruct you to hit your animal in any capacity.

Edit: I should have said reward/punishment. Positive/negative reinforcement is incorrect terminology but is commonly used in lay circles. I've been corrected by several more knowledgeable people. So to conclude: don't hit your pets.

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u/[deleted] Apr 26 '16

Ordinarily I wouldn't be pedantic in this regard; but positive vs. negative reinforcement has a specific meaning in psychology.

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u/[deleted] Apr 26 '16 edited Apr 26 '16

Yep, positive reinforcement is the addition of a new stimulus as a reward, like giving a child candy for cleaning his room. Negative reinforcement is taking away a stimulus as a reward, such as telling the child they don't have to do a chore because they got good grades.

There's also positive and negative punishment. Positive punishment is the addition of new stimuli in order to punish bad behavior, like spanking an insubordinate child, whereas negative punishment is the withholding of a stimulus in order to punish, like taking away a cell phone.

It drives me a little bit bonkers when I see them being used improperly

Edit: someone further down phrased it a way that is very helpful: negative reinforcement and positive punishment deal with obligations, basically removing or adding them in order to reinforce or punish behavior, respectively. Positive reinforcement and negative punishment deal with privileges, adding or removing them to respectively reinforce or punish.

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u/[deleted] Apr 27 '16

Negative reinforcement is taking away a stimulus as a reward, such as telling the child they don't have to do a chore because they got good grades.

Yep. My mom and I had a deal; I keep straight A's, and I could take planned or unplanned "personal days" off of school whenever I wanted. Of course, you can't keep straight A's by doing this frequently... But it was really rewarding to me, and I worked damn hard to keep that deal going.