Punishment

“Nature, if not God, has created man in such a way that he can be controlled punitively…. The need for punishment seems to have the support of history, and alternative practices threaten the cherished valued of freedom and dignity.”

Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1971 p. 75)

Description of the Strategy

In colloquial terms, punishment has moral overtones: an unpleasant thing done to people who “deserve” to be punished due to violations of laws or social norms. From a behavioral perspective, punishment has a neutral and operational definition that is not necessarily linked to the hedonic value of the stimuli involved or the intent of the punishment. Punishment is defined as an operation or environmental change that, ...

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