Forms of Punishment.

Assalamualaikum. J

How are you readers? May all of us are in a great health and always in His blessing. First of all, I would to apologize for the delay update.  So, here I would like to share with you readers on our last week topics discussed in class. The topic discussed during April 9 was the Instrumental Conditioning. Under this topic, we will deliberate over the effective and ineffective forms of punishment.

Effective Forms of Punishment.

Verbal Reprimands is most effective punishment when it is immediate, brief and unemotional. For example, some students

Restitution and Overcorrection involve in effective form of punishment whereby learners are required to take action by correcting the consequence or effect of their misdeeds. In restitution, a misbehaving person must restore or return the environment to the same situation that it was in before the misbehavior occurred. For example, a child who makes a mess must tidy it up as what the condition was previously.

In restitution overcorrection, the punished individual must make things better than they were before the inappropriate behavior. For instance, a student who creates dirt in the canteen might be asked to clean the entire canteen as well.

The positive-practice overcorrection involves having an individual to repeat an action, but this time around to do it correctly and perhaps in an exaggerated way. For example, a student who runs dangerously to compete with their friends on who is the first to reach the canteen might be summoned to back up and then walk but perhaps at a normal pace or very slowly.





Time-Out involves placing a misbehaving individual in a dull, boring situation. The person required to be in a time-out has no opportunity for social interaction and is restricted to involve in any other activities for certain period of time. The inappropriate behavior must be stop before the person is release from the time-out situation.

In-House Suspension is similar to a time-out situation, but it lasts for one or more days rather than a few minutes. The students are placed in quite, boring room and must do on their classroom assignments and study. It is an effective effort to teach them appropriate behaviors and tutoring their studies when the teacher act as a supportive resources rather than as a punisher.

Response Cost comprises of withdrawal of a previously earned reinforce such as a person received a fine as a result of break the speed limit.

Ineffective Forms of Punishment.

There are several forms of punishment that are not recommended which are physical and psychological punishment, extra classwork, out of school suspension and missing recess.

Some people may think that physical punishment works as a means to punish misconduct. However, the use of this kind of punishment may lead to such undesirable behaviors such as resentment of the teacher, lying and hatred. Physical punishment also provides a model of aggression, thus transferring the message that aggression is acceptable behavior. It is not a good way of punishing and it exhibit bad example.

Psychological punishment includes any consequence that seriously threatens a student’s self-esteem or emotional well-being which is not recommended at all. Some of the example is verbal abuse, insult and criticism. This kind of psychological punishment may affect their expectation for future performance and their motivation to learn and achieve.

Extra classwork is considered as ineffective form of punishment because in a way, the teacher unconsciously conveys the message that school work is unpleasant.

Out of school suspension is not an effective way to change student’s behavior. Most misbehaving students are students that have difficulty with their academic work. Suspending such students will only result in a more serious problem. The students may find that removal from school is negatively reinforcing rather than punishing. They might feel better to be out of school rather than to be in school.

Missing recess is not an effective punishment for students as they can more effectively concentrate on study when they have a break from academics activities. Missing recess is not an appropriate form of punishment.

So, all the above are some of the things that I manage to share with all of you. I would like to apologize if there is any inconsistency, lacking or incorrect information here. Thank you for reading and please feel free to correct me.

p/s: Picture taken from Google images, credit to the owner.