Corporal Punishment And Its Psychological Outcomes

Introduction

For many years the use of corporal punishment was considered okay and right, but recent affairs show that there is a misunderstanding of corporal punishment and actual abuse and humiliation. There has been a perspective shift with regards to corporal punishment. This study aims to differentiate between physical/corporal punishment and abuse; it aims to create an awareness of the psychological outcomes and rebellion formed by physical punishment. It aims to find out more if corporal punishment can be the cause of a number of students academic performance to be lesser then before. This research suggests that corporal punishment is both ineffective and harmful to discipline children.

Literature Review

Corporal punishment aimed to seek a respectful foundation between generations and highly maintain discipline. There is a felt need for an elaboration of the possible outcomes of this sort of punishment. The South Africans Constitution protects human rights and is against corporal punishment, Section 12(1) of the South African Constitution, everyone is has a right to freedom and security, including the right: to be free from all forms of violence, not to be tortured, treated or punished in a cruel, inhuman or degrading way. Section 10(1) provide no person may administrate corporal punishment at a school against a learner, a person who goes against this is guilty of a criminal offence, and, if convicted can receive a sentence for assault. The Abolition of corporal punishment Act banned it. These rights are to protect humans but little corporal punishment exposed as a useful tool. Little evidence supports it.

Discipline, Protection or Abuse

Is corporal punishment Discipline, Protection or Abuse? In answering such a question there is a need to understand the terminologies, Discipline is about guiding a child so that they understand what is right and wrong, so they do not conform to the norms of society. Protection being a way of restricting a child from knowing or doing something, to prevent them from experiencing the consequences, overall it’s for their own good, Abuse is addressing in an insulting way. Force is not always corporal punishment.

Force can be a way of protection, it depending on the situations, for instance, males form township areas such as Imbali, Pietermaritzburg are highly exposed to a lot of illegal dealing that gives them fast cash. Parents cannot cage their children and prevent them from those kind of exposures but they can simply inflict force such as preventing them from going to extra activity events or loafing around the area. Some may look at this as a depriving the child of their childhood not understanding that being as a parent they were once exposed to that and know the exact consequences of that and do not wish for the next generation to interact with such thing. But then again force can be discipline; many black parents argue that “whipping” is distinctly a black tradition. The close association of corporal punishment and abuse is sometimes misunderstood. Like mentioned before corporal punishment cannot be measured. It said that frequent punishment has to do with the parents frustrations rather than the child’s misbehaviour, that is when the administration of physical punishment can be associated with abuse.

Defining Corporal Punishment

It is vital to have a clear understanding of why physical or corporal punishment is. It is reinforcement for approvable behaviour. A slight “smack” or “spank” inflicts mild pain or discomfort that results in a lesser chance of repetition of behaviour. These slight pain inflictions could also be a way of encouragement, a way of giving an extra push to a student who is seen to have potential but chooses not to use that potential and lack in their academic performance. Teachers and parents use several instruments to inflict this pain. Teacher use tools from sticks, pipes to uncomfortable stands “air stool”, parents on the other hand, well certain parents, use what they see in front of them first, from shoes, sticks to a wipe or even a belt. This is where we begin to mistaken corporal punishment with abuse. Physical punishment is set to be a way of administrating disciple, creating a firm foundation of a respectable relationship.

Others define corporal punishment as a violation of children’s fundamental rights to human dignity. The lack of measuring the right amount of punishment leads to the caregiver/parent to increase the harshness. The inability to measure leads to the confusion of corporal punishment and child abuse. The belief that many people have is if physical punishment is administrated right it could be seen as fair and right. In township areas where young ones are exposed to a lot of illegal dealing which provide them with fast cash, the administration of physical punishment is right and fair. But the question is how But how does one see that this is the correct physical punishment? How does one measure the right amount of punishment or the appropriate situation that needs corporal punishment? Punishment is not like temperature that has a tool that can measure it. The evidence to support corporal punishment is far too little.

Psychological Outcomes

Parents have a vital roles to play in a child’s psychological development. At some stage in a child’s life they are likely to feel as if their parents do not express parental affection just because things do not go the way they expect them to go. They feel as if the whole world is against them. The effect of physical punishment is a great cause of that. The child feels as if the caregiver is rejecting them and does not have their best interests at heart. Psychologically the brain is trained to take inflictions of pain as a form of rejection not a way of expressing affection.

Physical punishment can be a result of the suppression of cognitive development. The over use of physical punishment can confuse the child into not knowing what to do and what not to do. It suppresses the child’s emotional and mental needs in fear of being reprimanded and this may be a cause of under-diagnosis of childhood mental disorder. The constant use of physical punishment teaches the child the use of aggression is an acceptable thing.

Researchers have identified that corporal punishment is strongly associated with aggression, delinquency, lower level of mental health (Such as Depression) and increasing abuse to the same child. Gershoff also concludes that’s adults who were constantly corporally punished as children they are more likely to experience depression in adulthood and engage in criminal activities. They become aggressive and violent towards their sexual partners and are most likely to also corporally punish their own children. Research states that corporal punishment has a negative effect on a child’s outcome, especially if it is hard regardless of culture. With all the research done on the topic on corporal punishment has information that is contradictory. Corporal punishment is said to not so negatively effective if administrated under culture, yet it is said that it has negative incomes psychologically.

Academics and Corporal Punishment

The younger generation is taken to be our future. They are the people who will change and break the social norms that have become acceptable even though they are virtually unacceptable. Schools are the fundamental basic foundation for the implementation of these changes. They are groomed to think independently and not rely fully on traditions or beliefs just because they were done within the family. Corporal punishment in a couple of cultures like the African culture it is taken to be the best way to administer discipline. If there is a way of encouraging a student to do will academically, corporal punishment would be the answer, while failing to understand that academic settings are the best place for a child to learn, self-express and develop.

Some, well many restrict these with the use of corporal punishment. Research shows that physical punishment given by teachers to student s in academic settings are one of the threatening factors which affect students psychological, social and the long term of their academic performance. Corporal punishment causes a student’s mental activity to reduce resulting to the student finding difficulty in cooperating in academic activities. This leads to a lack of confidence and the complete rejection of academics.

In areas such as African township areas students drop out of school not only because of the lack of basic needs at home and they need to go out and hustle so they can assist at home, no in most instants it’s because they experience an excessive amounts of corporal punishment, well which can be looked at as abuse. Teachers are also a cause of the student population dropping out.

Conclusion

The purpose of this literature review was to create a clear understanding as to corporal punishment being the cause of psychological outcomes and the rebellion of social norms. It differentiates whether corporal punishment is some sort of protection, discipline or abuse. It gives of the different perspectives to understanding corporal punishment.

References

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4. Horn, L. J. (2004). Nonabusive physical punishment and child behaviour amongst African American Children.
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