Corporal Punishment Is Not An Effective Means Of Controlling Behavior Don Marquis is definitely correct when he stated, "Many a man spanks his children for the things his own father should have spanked out of him"(Spanoudis). Today, spanking as a form of punishment is a very controversial issue that does not need to be examined lightly. On one side of the argument, there are parents who believe that spanking is an acceptable means of punishment, while on the other side of the argument, there are parents who believe that children should never be spanked(Ramsburg). The reason parents would spank their child is to control their child's behavior. However, spanking may only suppress and not eliminate the punished response, and spanking can have many non-obvious and unintended effects(Mynatt 139). Spanking is not an effective means of controlling behavior because it does not always eliminate the undesired behavior and can have many negative side effects.
English: Lazy room maid was spanked by her superio...
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English: Male buttocks reddened from spanking Deut...The first reason that spanking is not an effective means of controlling behavior is because it does not always permanently remove the unwanted behavior. Spanking may temporarily end the behavior but will not permanently correct the behavior(Mynatt 139). According to Dawn Ramsburg, spanking may stop the behavior shortly and relive the parents frustration, but researchers report that spanking is the least effective disciplinary method. In an experiment conducted by the American Academy of Pediatrics, researchers surveyed parents testing the hypothesis that if spanking worked, children who were spanked would learn to behave better over time and would need spankings less often. Quite surprisingly, the results showed that families who spanked their children before they were one year old were just as likely to spank their four year old children as often as families who did not start spanking their children until later(Rumsburg). As you can see from...