Comparing Child Outcomes of Physical Punishment and Alternative Disciplinary Tactics: A Meta-Analysis

This meta-analysis investigates differences between the effect sizes of physical punishment and alternative disciplinary tactics for child outcomes in 26 qualifying studies. Analyzing differences in effect sizes reduces systematic biases and emphasizes direct comparisons between the disciplinary tactics that parents have to select among. The results indicated that effect sizes significantly favored conditional spanking over 10 of 13 alternative disciplinary tactics for reducing child noncompliance or antisocial behavior. Customary physical punishment yielded effect sizes equal to alternative tactics, except for one large study favoring physical punishment. Only overly severe or predominant use of physical punishment compared unfavorably with alternative disciplinary tactics. The discussion highlights the need for better discriminations between effective and counterproductive use of disciplinary punishment in general.     

Punishment-specific effects of pentobarbital: dependency on the type of punisher.

Pigeons were trained to peck a key under a multiple random-interval 1-minute, random-interval 6-minute schedule of food presentation. Subsequently, over three phases, additions were made during the random-interval 1-minute component as follows: pecks during the component occasionally were punished by timeout presentation (Phase 1), timeouts were presented independently of responding during the component (Phase 2), pecks during the component occasionally were punished by electric-shock presentation (Phase 3). In Phases 1 and 3, response-dependent timeout and shock suppressed responding and established equivalent rates in both components of the multiple schedule. Intermediate doses of pentobarbital increased responding suppressed by electric-shock punishment but had little or no effect on responding suppressed by timeout punishment. Response-independent presentation of timeouts did not result in suppression of responding (thus showing that response-dependent timeout acted as a punisher), and pentobarbital did not reliably increase unpunished responding. Pentobarbital's selective "punishment-attenuating" properties depend on the nature of the punisher.     

FUNCTIONAL CONSIDERATIONS IN THE USE OF PROCEDURAL TIMEOUT AND AN EFFECTIVE ALTERNATIVE1

Two single-subject experiments were conducted with students in special preschool classes. In Experiment I, the subject's disruptive, appropriate, and inappropriate play behaviors were measured as a function of three independent variables: reinforcement, a typical timeout procedure, and regularly paced teacher instructions. In an ABA reversal within a multiple baseline across two teachers, all three independent variables comprised the A conditions and procedural timeout was omitted in B. Experiment II examined a second subject's appropriate and inappropriate eating as a function of the same three variables. Two teachers conducted baseline and paced instruction-plus-reinforcement conditions in multiple baseline across teachers. Subsequently, one teacher performed a series of reversals and replications with various combinations of a typical timeout procedure and reinforcement mixed with paced instructions. The results of both experiments suggest that timeout did not produce response decrement in a punishment paradigm, but rather produced response increment in a negative reinforcement paradigm. These results prevailed, even though a reinforcer was operating in the environment before introducing timeout. Paced instructions (delivering instructions to the child at a set pace regardless of the child's behavior) appears to be an alternative when timeout is not effective and, in conjunction with reinforcement, was demonstrated to reduce inappropriate behavior to near zero.     

AN ANALYSIS OF MULTIPLE MISPLACED PARENTAL SOCIAL CONTINGENCIES1

This study analyzed the training of a mother to modify five subclasses of her attention to her young child's noncompliance with instructions, and also displayed the changes in her child's behavior correlated with these events. Training in four subclasses consisted of teaching the mother to withhold various forms of social attention to her daughter's undesired behavior; training in the fifth subclass involved introduction of a brief room-timeout procedure for noncompliance. The effectiveness of the parent-training procedure, consisting of initial instructions and daily feedback, was demonstrated through a multiple-baseline design across the five subclasses of parent behavior. Sequential decreases in the first three subclasses of the mother's social attention to undesired child behavior resulted in incomplete improvements in some child responses; however, a decrease in the fourth subclass resulted in a significant increase in undesired child behavior. Complete remediation of all child behaviors was achieved following the training of a timeout procedure for noncompliance. Postchecks conducted up to 16 weeks later showed that these effects were durable.     

The Advantage of Democratic Peer Punishment in Sustaining Cooperation within Groups

In social dilemma situations, individuals benefit from uncooperative behavior while exploiting resources of the collective. One prominent solution to prevent uncooperative behavior and to increase cooperation is to establish a system of costly peer punishment, that is, the possibility for every individual involved in the dilemma to impose costly punishment on interaction partners. However, recent research revealed that, in contrast to a situation without punishment, peer punishment is inefficient and maladaptive in the sense that the total payoff is reduced and punishment of cooperative individuals (i.e., antisocial punishment) is possible. In the present work, we propose that a system of democratic peer punishment, that is, direct and equal participation of each individual in the punishment decision‐making process with punishment only executed when a majority has voted for its execution, can address the shortcomings of a peer punishment system. Using iterated public goods games, we show higher cooperation levels, higher total payoffs, and reduced executed punishment in the democratic compared with a peer punishment system. Moreover, we document that fairness perceptions, satisfaction, and interpersonal trust are increased in the democratic punishment system. Implications for how cooperation and democratic punishment systems may evolve are discussed. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

“仁者”还是“智者”：第三方惩罚对惩罚者声誉的影响

第三方惩罚会对惩罚者的声誉产生显著影响, 然而就影响的方向而言, 现有文献给出了不同答案。上述问题的一个潜在原因是先前研究未能区分声誉的不同维度以及惩罚的不同动机与形式。通过将温暖-能力双维度结构引入惩罚者的声誉, 实验结果显示, 第三方惩罚从总体上降低了人们对惩罚者在温暖维度上的评价而提高了对其在能力维度上的评价。调节效应分析表明, 动机被归因为集体聚焦的惩罚进一步提升了其对能力的正面作用而减缓了对温暖的负面作用, 并且惩罚者的合作水平越高, 其动机被归因为集体聚焦的程度也越高。针对不同惩罚形式的进一步分析显示, 当惩罚动机被归因为个体聚焦时, 经济惩罚对温暖的负面作用显著高于社会惩罚, 而在集体聚焦的归因下经济惩罚对能力的正面作用显著低于社会惩罚。     

Children’s competitive peer aggression during reward and punishment

Behavior‐disordered children (N = 65) competed with a presumed unknown peer on consecutive administrations of an analogue aggression task of instrumental aggression (blocking the opponent’s game) and hostile aggression (sending the opponent a noise). The first administration as a reward‐only, nonpunishment condition. The second administration contained both reward and punishment conditions. Results indicated clear differences on aggressive responding during conditions of reward and punishment. Significant correlations were found between instrumental aggression during reward across the two administrations, whereas correlations between aggression during reward and aggression during punishment were nonsignificant. Teacher ratings of Covert‐Proactive Aggression correlated with analogue task instrumental aggression but not with hostile aggression on both administrations. Aggression during punishment was significantly correlated with Continuous Performance Test inattention and impulsivity scores, suggesting that impulsivity and inattention may play an important role in children’s ability to inhibit aggression during cues for punishment. These data indicate the utility of a laboratory analogue procedure to assess conditions associated with childhood aggression and to further our understanding of childhood aggression subtypes. Aggr. Behav. 27:1–13, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN EXTINCTION AND PUNISHMENT EFFECTS OF RESPONSE BLOCKING: A REPLICATION

Lerman and Iwata (1996) described a method for distinguishing between sensory extinction and punishment effects of response blocking on self-injurious behavior maintained independent of social contingencies. Results of their study suggested that blocking decreased the self-injurious hand mouthing of their participant via punishment. The current replication of these procedures with the self-injurious eye poking of a woman with developmental disabilities produced patterns of responding indicating that, for this participant, blocking functioned as an extinction procedure.     

Child Outcomes of Nonabusive and Customary Physical Punishment by Parents: An Updated Literature Review

This article updates the only previous systematic literature review of child outcomes of nonabusive and customary physical punishment by parents. The outcomes differ by methodologic, child, and subcultural factors as well as by how the physical punishment was used. All six studies that used clinical samples (including four randomized clinical studies) and all three sequential-analysis studies found beneficial outcomes, such as reduced noncompliance and fighting, primarily when nonabusive spanking was used to back up milder disciplinary tactics in 2- to 6-year olds. Five of eight longitudinal studies that controlled for initial child misbehavior found predominantly detrimental outcomes of spanking. However, those detrimental outcomes were primarily due to overly frequent use of physical punishment. Furthermore, apparently detrimental outcomes have been found for every alternative disciplinary tactic when investigated with similar analyses. Such detrimental associations of frequent use of any disciplinary tactic may be due to residual confounding from initial child misbehavior. Specific findings suggest discriminations between effective and counterproductive physical punishment with young children. More research is needed to clarify the role of spanking and alternative disciplinary tactics in control system aspects of parental discipline.     

Social isolation as a punishment procedure: a controlled study

Contingent social isolation was investigated as a punishment procedure for the disruptive behavior of emotionally disturbed children in a classroom setting. The methodological limitations of previous studies were outlined, and alternatives adopted. Within a reversal and multiple baseline design, contingent social isolation was found to be an effective and relatively specific punisher. By introducing a new observation procedure, “pseudo-timeout”, it was determined that the punishing effect of social isolation was not attributable to observation artifact. A means for resolving the terminological confusion in the present use of timeout and social isolation was recommended.     

Using pretreatment and posttreatment assessments to enhance and evaluate existing treatment packages.

Pretreatment assessment data were used to enhance an existing treatment package to reduce aggression and to increase positive social interactions between a young boy and his peers. Based on the results of pretreatment assessments, additional reinforcement (differential reinforcement of alternative behavior with adult attention) and punishment (performing a nonpreferred task during time-out) components were added to an existing nonresetting differential reinforcement of other behavior (access to peers unless aggression occurred) plus time-out procedure. A posttreatment component analysis of the additional treatment components indicated that the reinforcement component facilitated positive social interactions and the punishment component suppressed aggression towards peers.     

Third-party punishment: altruistic and anti-social behaviours in in-group and out-group settings

This study aims at exploring the decision-making process involved in third-party punishment (TPP) within an economic frame, using the TPP game. We investigated altruistic punishment, that is, the behaviour of spending one's own money, with no personal gain, to punish those who violate the norms of cooperation. We analysed this behaviour, in an in-group and out-group game setting, to compare how individuals behave with members of their own group (in-group) and with members of another group (out-group). In particular, groups were defined on a real nationality basis (Chinese or Italian). Our results showed altruistic punishment behaviour in both experimental groups and this tendency emerged as more prominent when faced with unfair play towards a member of one's own group. Furthermore, both groups exhibited a propensity for anti-social punishment behaviour: many participants spent small amounts of money to punish fair behaviour, regardless of national group membership.     

Acceptability of Behavioral Family Therapy among Caregivers in China

In the U.S., helping the noncompliant child and parent child interaction therapy represent behavioral family therapy programs that are empirically supported for treating the conduct problems of 2- to 7-year old children. This study examined how caregivers in China would view behavioral family therapy. Caregivers in Hangzhou, China reported the perceived age of deviance for behavioral family therapy targets (e.g., noncompliance) and rated the acceptability of behavioral treatment components (e.g., timeout). Chinese caregivers agreed with European-American culture on considering noncompliance, aggression, tantrums, and negative talk deviant during the pre-school period. Overall, Chinese caregivers considered all the following nine behavioral family therapy components acceptable: contingent praise, responsive play, ignoring deviant attention seeking, authoritative instruction-giving, warnings, chair timeouts, ignoring tantrums during timeout, room backups for chair timeouts, and immediate timeouts for aggression. However, specific parental reservations were found regarding backup procedures for chair timeouts, particularly room backups. Possible treatment accommodations of behavioral family therapy for Chinese families are discussed.     

Suppression of behavior by timeout punishment when suppression results in loss of positive reinforcement

This investigation, using rats as subjects and punishment by timeout for responses maintained on a ratio schedule, sought to determine whether behavior would be suppressed by timeout punishment when such suppression also reduced reinforcement density or frequency. A series of experiments indicated that timeout punishment suppressed responding, with the degree of suppression increasing as a function of the duration of the timeout period. Suppressive effects were found to decrease as a function of increases in deprivation (body weight) and were eliminated when the punished response also was reinforced. It was concluded that timeout can produce aversive effects even when loss of reinforcement results. An alternative interpretation of the findings, based on the effects of extinction periods and delay of reinforcement on chained behavior, was discussed.     

Parenting and Preschool Child Development: Examination of Three Low-Income U.S. Cultural Groups

We examined the impact of parenting behaviors on preschool children’s social development in low-income families from three cultural groups: European American (n = 286), African American (n = 399), and Hispanic American (n = 164) using Spanish as the primary language in the home. Observed parenting behaviors of stimulation, responsivity, and acceptance of the child in European American and African American families showed positive impacts on children’s social development with notable exceptions discussed. Corporal punishment had a negative impact on children’s social development. With the exception of corporal punishment, none of the parenting behaviors predicted social development outcomes for Hispanic children.     

道德与关系惩罚对初中生公共物品困境中合作行为的影响

本研究模拟公共物品两难困境范式,以初中生为被试,通过两个实验分别考察道德惩罚和关系惩罚对不同性别和社会价值取向个体合作行为的影响。结果发现:(1)两种惩罚条件下初中生的合作水平均显著高于无惩罚条件,但当惩罚撤除后只有关系惩罚条件下的效应还存在;(2)初中女生在两种惩罚条件下的合作水平均显著高于无惩罚条件,而男生只在关系惩罚条件下出现该情况;(3)亲社会取向与亲自我取向初中生在两种惩罚阶段均表现出更高的合作水平,但在惩罚撤除后,只有亲社会取向者保持了高合作水平。这些结果表明,关系惩罚的作用较为持久,且对男生的影响更为突出,不过两种惩罚在亲社会取向者身上均显现出延后效应。     

TREATMENT OF SELF-INJURIOUS BEHAVIOR USING A WATER MIST: INITIAL RESPONSE SUPPRESSION AND GENERALIZATION

This study evaluated the effects of a fine mist of water applied to the face contingent upon self-injurious behavior (SIB) exhibited by profoundly retarded persons. In Experiment 1, results of individual reversal designs showed substantial reductions in a variety of SIB's (mouthing, hand biting, skin tearing, and head banging) for seven participants. In Experiment 2, two participants who frequently bit their hands were each observed in two different settings. Following initial baselines in each setting, a series of manipulations was undertaken to compare the effects of mild verbal punishment (“No”) with those of a combined treatment (“No” plus mist procedure). Results in one setting indicated that “No” suppressed SIB only after it was first paired with the water mist. Data also suggested that, once acquired, the punishing properties of “No” could be extended to a second setting in which the mist was never applied, and that these effects could be generalized across therapists. Results of these experiments indicate that the water mist procedure may be an effective alternative to traditional punishment techniques. Although conclusions regarding generalization are limited due to the brevity of the maintenance conditions, the data suggest that treatment gains may be transferred to more acceptable forms of social punishment and reinforcement.     

Physical punishment and the parenting cycle: a survey of Northern Irish parents

The intergenerational transmission of physical punishment was examined in a questionnaire study of Northern Irish parents (n=371). Participants completed measures of commitment to and use of physical punishment, hostility and a retrospective parenting report on their parents' disciplinary behaviours. The results reveal that 91% of Northern Irish parents report using physical punishment to discipline their children (including 44% who smack only ‘very rarely’). Retrospective reports of working class parents suggest that physical punishment by grandparents at low, medium and high levels corresponds to the levels of reported punishment used by participants with their own children. Middle class parents who reported low or medium levels of parental discipline displayed a similar pattern of intergenerational transmission. However, middle class parents who reported receiving higher levels of punishment were found to use lower rates of punishment with their children. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

EFFECTS OF INTERMITTENT PUNISHMENT ON SELF-INJURIOUS BEHAVIOR: AN EVALUATION OF SCHEDULE THINNING

Although the use of punishment often raises ethical issues, such procedures may be needed when the reinforcers that maintain behavior cannot be identified or controlled, or when competing reinforcers cannot be found. Results of several studies on the effects of intermittent schedules of punishment suggest that therapists must use fairly rich schedules of punishment to suppress problem behavior. However, residential caretakers, teachers, and parents often have difficulty implementing programs that require constant monitoring of the client's behavior. In this study, we examined the feasibility of gradually thinning the delivery of punishment from a continuous schedule to an intermittent schedule during the course of treatment for self-injurious behavior (SIB). Results of functional analyses for 5 individuals who had been diagnosed with profound mental retardation indicated that their SIB was not maintained by social consequences. Treatment with continuous schedules of time-out (for 1 participant) or contingent restraint (for the other 4 participants) produced substantial reductions in SIB. When they were exposed to intermittent schedules of punishment (fixed-interval [FI] 120 s or FI 300 s), SIB for all but 1 of the participants increased to levels similar to those observed during baseline. For these 4 participants, the schedule of punishment was gradually thinned from continuous to FI 120 s or FI 300 s. For 2 participants, SIB remained low across the schedule changes, demonstrating the utility of thinning from continuous to intermittent schedules of punishment. Results for the other 2 participants showed that intermittent punishment was ineffective, despite repeated attempts to thin the schedule.     

金钱惩罚促进Stroop任务中的行为表现

本研究通过Stroop任务和修改版MIDT相结合,目的是考察不同额度金钱惩罚对Stroop任务行为表现的影响。结果发现：（1）无论是中性试次,一致试次还是不一致试次,金钱惩罚不仅减少了被试的行为反应时,而且提高了正确率;（2）非惩罚条件与惩罚条件下的冲突效应以及其他不同额度惩罚条件下的冲突效应差异不显著;（3）金钱惩罚对不一致试次反应时的影响与个体的惩罚敏感性呈显著负相关,而与奖赏敏感性无关。结果表明,金钱惩罚能够促进个体的一般行为表现,但是不会提高冲突抑制能力。同时,金钱惩罚对认知行为的影响与其惩罚敏感性密切相关。