What's wrong with punishment?

• Defining Punishment
• My History

Defining Punishment
I've recently learned there are three major parts to the function definition of punishment.  (1) A certain behavior first takes place, (2)  immediately a consequence takes place and (3) because of that particular consequence for that particular behavior, the behavior in the future has a great chance of not reoccurring in the future.  People usually would confuse what the term "Punishment" means anyways.  For one thing, our society out of the world of behavior analysis, see punishment as a way to "hurt" someone who had done something "bad".  For example, society would "punish" an individual who stole a car by placing them in jail.

But you are using the punishment term in BA always remember to break it down into the three parts above.  Because you have to understand the "function".

My History
Wow...my history with punishment.  Punishment was highly used in my household as a child and in many generations before me.  It was seen and still is in my culture as the most important thing in raising a child.  If you don't hit your child your immediately for something they have done wrong you are looked at like you are not "doing your job" as a parent.  However, what about some children, they get hit so often?  And they are known as the "bad boy with a steal butt"?  Did punishment work? No!  Why?   Because the child is still engaging in the inappropriate behaviors.  So obviously it isn't quite effective.  This boy is my son.  And because of this...I steer away from this type of behavior modification majority of the time.  Because, as easy as it may seem to implement (such as time out), the consequences of it are very complex.