| Abstract: | Compared the effectiveness of an aversive stimulus, withholding of resources, withdrawal of love, and reasoning, when used alone and when combined with praise, in a standard laboratory punishment paradigm using 120 1st- and 2nd-grade boys and girls as Ss. Resistance to deviation and stability of resistance to deviation were used as the measures of punishment effectiveness. Sex of child, use of praise, and type of punisher were combined in a 2 * 2 * 5 factorial design, with a female as the punitive agent. An aversive stimulus appeared to produce more suppression of deviant behavior, but the effect was not significant for all response measures. The stability of the deviant response pattern varied for each punisher, but the most stable response pattern resulted from the use of an aversive stimulus. Neither use of praise nor sex of child significantly influenced punisher effectiveness. Results are discussed within the framework of anxiety arousal and information content of the punishers, and the practice of grouping various punishers under the categories of sensitization and induction measures is considered. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
