It's Not Discipline Is A Teachable Moment

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Psychology Final Term Paper Erica Lighter Vanier College Author Note This paper was written for Psychology 350-303 VA, Section 00002, taught by Karen White. Summary of Articles: The article “It’s Not Discipline, It’s a Teachable Moment” is concerned with discipline, punishment, reinforcement, and parents’ ineffective disciplinary methods. The author, Parker-Pope, provides the opinion of a number of different doctors to demonstrate that punishment is an unsuccessful approach to changing the undesired behaviors of a child, and that the punishments used by parents often end up reinforcing a bad behavior. Parker-Pope emphasizes that defining discipline, teaching, positive…show more content…
Time-outs can be effective, particularly with small children, when they are applied appropriately. However, if time-outs are misused, then they might lead to feelings of abandonment and unworthiness, blind obedience, and a lack of self-control. Moreover, according to the class notes, children are curious and have a drive to learn, and learning is intrinsically rewarding for them. In order to facilitate this learning and avoid punishment, we should try to create conditions that impede unwanted behaviors. It is important to note that if children feel that they are being manipulated or controlled by the rewards, their behavior will likely not change effectively. Indeed, as explained by the over-justification effect, punishments and rewards are not effective if children only behave well in order to get a reward or avoid a punishment. Rather than using rewards and punishments, a more effective method is to use authentic activities; activities that are similar to situations students are likely to experience in the real world. The book suggests that if educators used more authentic activities, students would be more likely to create a productive knowledge base and use that knowledge later on in their…show more content…
‘It’s Not Discipline, It’s a Teachable Moment’ states that many parents and educators use various forms of punishment to discipline. However, in doing so, they tend to inadvertently reinforce inappropriate behaviors. While time-outs can be effective in helping young children control their emotions, many adults misuse the technique, by making it too long or scolding the child during the time-out. As the article points out, parents will often drop whatever they are doing in order to discipline their child in cases where they are acting up, which is exactly what the child wants, thus rewarding them. Moreover, it is much more effective to reward children for their desirable behavior. In cases where a child is behaving well, it would be useful if parents were to stop what they are doing and tell their child they want to spend time with them because they are behaving so well, reinforcing the incompatible
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