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« on: July 22, 2011, 05:24:30 PM »
I'm here studying for my Psych exam. It amazes me how insane Straight was to think for one second that what they were doing was helping children in any way at all. Here is what I was just reading:
Frequent punishment, however, promotes only momentary compliance. The more harsh threats, angry physical control, and physical punishment children experience, the more likely they are to develop serious and lasting mental health problems. These include weak internalization of moral rules; depression, aggression, anti-social behavior and poor academic performance in childhood and adolescence; and depression, alcohol abuse, criminality and partner and child abuse in adulthood. (Afifi et al., 2006; Bender et al., 2007; Lynch et al., 2006)
Harsh punishment has several undesirable side effects:
> It models aggression
> It induces a chronic sense of being personally threatened, which promotes children to focus on their own distress rather than respond sympathetically to others.
> It causes children to avoid the punishing adult, who as a result has little oppurtunity to teach desirable behaviors.
> By stopping children's misbehavior temporarily, it offers immediate relief to adults, who may then punish more often - a course of action which can spiral into abuse.
> Adults who used corporal punishment are more accepting of it (Deater-Deckard et al., 2003). In this way, physical punishment may transfer from generation to generation.
(**And the real kicker for me is>>>)
Parents with conflict ridden marriages and with their own mental health problems are more likely to be punitive and also to have hard-to-manage children (Erath et al.; Knafo & Plomin, 2006)
This is taken from ::
Berk, Laura E. Exploring Lifespan Development. Boston ; Munich[u.a.: Allyn and Bacon, 2010. Print.
Reading this book makes me really think about how we were treated and all the lasting effects many of us have. I can't help but wonder if they knew what the outcome would be or IF we really were one of the experiments. It really makes me angry that we may never get any answers. But apparently many psychologists knew what the outcome would be to the kind of abuses we suffered, all along. I just can't ever wrap my mind around how it happened so easily right here in good ole FREE America. Sigh.
Anyhow, just venting it before I try to concentrate on this exam