Parenting with style: tips and tricks (3)

Punishment and efficiency in unlearning a bad habit

Punishment is not a very effective strategy when used on a child.

Potential punishers - any consequences which might lead to a decrease in response. Some consequences can be a punisher for some people but not for others.

Side effects: aggression, frustration, avoidance learning, escape learning. The punishment may not decrease the behaviour, but teach the child to be aggressive or to go for an extra mile in order to avoid the punisher. Sometime punishment become even positive reinforcement.

Effective punishment should address to person actions, not to the person character. It should be related to the undesirable behaviour and it should consist of penalties or response cost (removal of reinforcer), rather than psychological or physical pain.

Parenting with style: tips and tricks (1)

As i often find interesting stuff looking for my research, i decided to make small concise posts on my blog and see what others think about. Or maybe even practice a bit.

For today, i will talk about parenting style, secure relations and compassion.

Children in securely attached relations with their parents will show sympathetic behaviour as early as aged three and a half. Abusive parents who resort often to physical violence have less empathetic children.

We got two different parenting styles:
- One is by induction, engaging children in reasoning when they have done harm and prompting them to think about the consequences of their actions and how these actions have harmed others.
- The other is by power assertion, declaring what is good or wrong and resorting to physical punishment and/or strong emotional response of anger.

Children who learn by induction are more adjusted and more likely to help others.

Note: Parents also teach compassion by example.