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Randy Barrera Discipline Through the Child’s Eyes Practices regarding the discipline of children have gone through some paradigm shifts throughout our lifetime. With all the research that has been done on the effects of children’s cognitive and behavioral outcomes after being disciplined, society has chosen to either implement new ways of thinking or continuing to discipline their children the only way they know how. Usually, parents will raise their children by modeling their own parents' parenting styles. This method can either become advantageous or disadvantageous. Two theories have raised many questions when it comes to the research that has gone into the discipline of children, behaviorism and social learning theory. Behaviorism is a learning theory based on the idea that most behaviors are acquired through conditioning. Conditioning occurs through environmental interaction. Behaviorists believe that human beings are like machines that make associations. For example, when we see a dark cloud we associate the dark cloud with rain, thunder, and lightening. Behaviorists believe that our interaction with environmental stimuli shapes our behavior. There are two basic types of behaviorism: classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning is a learned association between stimuli. A neutral stimulus eventually becomes a conditioned stimulus by it being paired with an unconditioned stimulus. Operant conditioning is learned associations between behaviors and their antecedents and consequences. Such that, behaviors that have a positive consequence are most likely to reoccur, and behaviors that have negative consequences are not. As human beings we tend to gravitate towards actions that will benefit us and make us happy. If something is rewarding we will more than likely carry out that act in order to get the praise or the reward that we know we are going to receive after performing this behavior. For example, praising a child for completing their homework is a form of positive reinforcement. The child is going to internalize that feeling of being praised after completing their homework and will most likely carry out this action in the future. So, when it comes to disciplining children via physical punishment, or spanking, the behaviorists are either for it or against it. Behaviorists share two different views, both pro-spanking and anti-spanking ideologies. Pro-spanking behaviorists believe that spanking is an adverse stimulus that will condition behavior in the long term, for example, a child will not repeat the unwanted behavior because they do not want to receive a spanking. Anti-spanking behaviorists believe that spanking is an operant technique that gains immediate compliance in the short term. For example, if little Johnny starts eating glue and gets spanked by his parents he is immediately going to stop performing that action. However, immediate compliance is only a short-term action. Parents that hit their children will get them to comply for a while, but the parents will be likely to see that misconduct reappear later on. Anti-spanking behaviorists also believe that spanking does not teach a child how to behave. They believe that it may be better to reward the behaviors that are incompatible with the undesired behaviors. The parent doing the punishing can easily become a frightening stimulus to the child through classical conditioning. Social learning theory is based on the idea that we learn through observation and imitation. Behaviorism is focused on humans having direct interactions with stimuli and learning from their successes and failures. Social learning theory says that humans do not have to directly experience things on their own in order to learn from them. We can simply observe someone being punished or rewarded by certain actions and internalize that negative or positive consequence and choose to perform that particular action or not. Social learning theory is goal-oriented and social learning theorists believe that behavior can be self-regulated. Punishment of children via spanking is completely against all social learning theorists. Social learning theorists believe that spanking is a model of aggressive behavior that the child will observe and may imitate. The child can easily learn and use this type of behavior. Spanking can eventually cause long-term behavioral problems for the child. Children that are spanked or witnesses to someone being spanked can utilize aggression to resolve conflicts in their current and future relationships. Social learning theorists believe that it is beneficial for the child to get an explanation on what he/she can do and why, rather than resorting to physical punishment. By giving the child an explanation they then become better at self-regulation. Although both of these theories seem to be polar opposites, they do share certain similarities. Behaviorism and the social learning theory both share the idea that experiences are an important part of learning. The experiences that these children go through will more than likely be what they will model for the rest of their lives. These theories also share the basic question of, "why do humans behave the way they do?" Furthermore, these two theories also agree that feedback is important when promoting learning. Feedback is extremely important when dealing with the disciplinary action of children. Children need to know what they are being punished for so they can learn from their own misconduct. Finally, both theories include concepts of reinforcement and punishment in their explanation of behavior. Reinforcement is important because it manages good and bad behavior. If a parent is consistent with their reinforcement then children will continue good behavior and refrain from bad behavior. These theories may have some similarities, but their differences are greater in number. To behaviorists, all behavior derives from an external stimulus. Behaviorists hold that behavior can be modified through the use of reinforcement or punishment. Punishments are stimuli created to discourage a certain behavior and reinforcements are stimuli designed to encourage a certain behavior to recur. Social learning theory is also focused around the idea of why humans behave the way they do; however, what separates this theory from behaviorism is that learning is derived from observation and imitation. Social learning theory suggests three different practices that are necessary in order to learn: reproduction, motivation, and retention. Reproduction is the act of a child being able to reproduce the behavior they have observed. Motivation is the individuals’ eagerness to want to perform that behavior, and retention is the individuals’ ability to recall the behavior that he or she observed. Social learning theorists believe that behavior is goal-directed and behaviorists disagree with this idea. Behaviorists also do not believe in self-regulation, they believe that we are rewarded through the environment. When it comes to physically punishing a child behaviorists share a pro-spanking view and an antispanking view. A fare share of behaviorists believe it is okay to spank children while the others believe spanking is harmful towards the child and does not really help them learn how to behave. Social learning theorists are one hundred percent against physical punishment towards children. It is this difference between the two theories that produces so many disagreements between theorists. Research shows that the cons of spanking children out weigh the pros. The only things you are achieving by spanking children are immediate compliance and the reinforcement of parental authority. Many parents do find these two things to be extremely important in which case they resolve conflict by physical punishment. Immediate compliance is only effective at that very moment, but the undesired behavior will reappear in the future. With this being said, the social learning theory is a more effective way of thinking when it comes to the discipline of children. Social learning theorists believe in self-regulation, which is the process of taking control of your own learning and behavior. Learning how to behave should be about self-exploration and learning how to figure things out on your own while maintaining some sense of autonomy. Social learning theory focuses on helping children understand what they could do to improve their bad behavior through observation and guidance. Being a good role model for your children could be one of the best things you can do for them in the long run. Children will always have a their parents habits in them, especially how they carry themselves and behave. Future research on this subject needs to focus more on how both behaviorists and social learning theorists can work together to improve the way human beings behave and how the relationship between children and parents impact children's futures.