Spanking Child Psychology

For this assignment the class was assigned to interview two people on their personal views on spanking for behavior shaping. One person had to be in the psychology field, the other person could be whoever else. The psychological expert I interviewed was Nicole Olivas, the non-psychological expert that I choose to interview was my fiancé, Casey, mostly because I was very curious about his views on the matter, and if they aligned with my personal views.
Nicole mostly talked about the results of the research that had been done on the matter of spanking children. She talked about the difference between abuse and spanking a child, the difference is that it is abuse if it leaves even the slightest mark. She talked about how a lot of factors determine …show more content…
His background is in software engineering, but he did take a Psych 100 course his freshmen year of college, he is currently a sophomore at University of Northern Colorado. He said that while he was not familiar with the research, he personally felt that it did more harm than good, and was not something that a parent should resort to often. He did not know the difference between abuse and discipline, so after the interview this was explained. I explained the concept of a safety spank, where a child is spanked because the child is partaking in a dangerous activity that you need it to immediately stop and never do again, and then the parent explains why the child was spanked to the child. He said he felt that it was ok to use safety spanks, only if it was necessary to get the point across immediately. He did not believe that spanking a child occasionally caused any psychological harm, but if it was used often it would cause the child to fear the parents. He felt that positive and negative reinforcement was a better method of shaping a child’s behavior into favorable behavior. He did state that he felt it could teach children to fear their parents, and that it could possibly cause aggression. He did admit to being spanked rather often as a child, and that he did fear his parents and think about running away quite often. When questioned about mental disorders, he did admit to …show more content…
While Casey was unaware of the research, his personal experiences do match the research presented by Nicole fairly often. He cites negative impacts on parent-child bonds, where he felt afraid of his parents, he did not report feeling indifferent towards his parents or punishment. While he might not know it, his mental disorder could be correlated with his childhood discipline, according to research presented by Nicole. Of course, correlation does not equal causation, but it is still interesting to note. Casey and Nicole both had very similar views on what would be a better method to get the desired behavioral results, which was positive reinforcement. Casey feels that the reinforcement ideas of B.F Skinners operant conditioning would be the best way to shape behavior, while Nicole said positive reinforcement and classical conditioning. Casey did not believe that spanking a child occasionally would cause any harm, when Nicole stated that every time ran a risk for damaging parent-child bonds. In terms of where they vary in views, Nicole reported that researched revealed a correlation between aggression and spanking a child, Casey reported being spanked as a child fairly often, and reported that he was mostly passive. In the end, Casey stated that he felt “safety spanks” were ok, Nicole said she would be uncomfortable with any of them. Both agree that there is no single solution for child behavior