心理学Essay举例：Should Parents use Physical Punishment as a Form of Discipline

本文是心理学专业的Essay范例，题目是“Should Parents use Physical Punishment as a Form of Discipline（父母应该把体罚作为一种管教吗）”，对大多数父母来说，管理孩子的行为是最大的挑战之一。体罚是一种让孩子经历痛苦的惩罚方法，以控制或纠正他或她的不可接受的行为。在体罚中，父母通常用手或物体打孩子，如手杖、皮带、鞭子、鞋等(Harper, Horno, Lansdown, Martin, Newell， & Nilsson, 2005)。根据《全球消除所有体罚儿童倡议》(GIEACPC, 2009)，全球197个国家和地区中，只有25个国家承诺禁止在家中体罚儿童。无论人们在这个世界上走到哪里，决策者、政治家和父母总是告诉他们，孩子应该得到最好的，因为他们是社会的未来。此外，世界上大多数国家(194个国家中的192个)已经签署了一项国际协议，承诺采取一切适当的立法、行政、社会和教育措施，保护儿童免受一切形式的身体暴力(Harper等人，2005年)。然而，根据《联合国儿童权利公约》，它们侵犯了每个儿童最基本的人权，因为只有12.7%的国家没有对儿童实施家庭暴力(GIEACPC, 2009年)。

It is one of the biggest challenges for most parents to manage their children’s behaviour. Physical punishment is a discipline method used to cause a child to experience pain to control or correct his or her unacceptable behaviour. In physical punishment, parents usually hit a child with hands or objects such as a cane, belt, whip, shoe and so on (Harper, Horno, Lansdown, Martin, Newell, & Nilsson, 2005). According to Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children (GIEACPC, 2009), among 197 countries and regions in the world, only 25 countries have commitment to the prohibition of physical punishment in the home. Wherever people travel in this world, policy-makers, politicians, and parents always tell them that children deserve the best because they are the future of a society. Furthermore, most countries (192 out of 194) in the world have signed an international agreement to be committed to take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical violence (Harper et al., 2005). However, they are violating the most fundamental human rights of every child, based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child because only 12.7 percent of countries are free of physical violence against children at home (GIEACPC, 2009). 

Should parents use physical punishment when disciplining their children? This question must be answered by politicians, parents, educators, and social workers because physical punishment has profoundly affected children, parents and a society (Durrant, Sigvaldason, & Bednar, 2008). However, it’s difficult for everyone to agree upon an answer to this question because of the different perspectives people have on this issue. What are some of the different arguments that advocates and opponents of physical punishment use?

父母管教孩子时应该体罚吗?这个问题必须由政治家、家长、教育工作者和社会工作者来回答，因为体罚对儿童、家长和社会有着深刻的影响(Durrant, Sigvaldason， & Bednar, 2008)。然而，每个人都很难对这个问题的答案达成一致，因为人们对这个问题的观点不同。支持和反对体罚的人有哪些不同的论点?

Parents, who support the use of physical punishment for disciplining children, claim there a many benefits of this parenting tool. First, they feel that at a certain age, 2-6 years of age, children cannot easily understand logic and reasoning; physical punishment is the only language children can understand instantaneously. Physical punishment can be effective on a short-term basis in getting children to change any negative behaviour. Therefore, it is better not to waste time on teaching them how to behave. Instead, show them the fear of doing something wrong and children will obey and behave absolutely right when they are afraid of punishment.

支持用体罚来管教孩子的父母声称，这种管教方式有很多好处。首先，他们觉得在一定的年龄，2-6岁，孩子不容易理解逻辑和推理;体罚是孩子们能立即理解的唯一语言。体罚可以在短期内有效地让孩子改变任何不良行为。因此，最好不要浪费时间教他们如何表现。相反，告诉他们害怕做错事的恐惧，当他们害怕惩罚时，他们就会服从并做出绝对正确的行为。

A second argument used to support physical punishment of children is that some adults point to the physical discipline they received as a contributing factor to their success. Not only did they not suffer harm from their parent hitting; they learned valuable lessons that benefited them into their adult lives. Many of today’s parents received spankings from their own parents when they misbehaved as children. They grew up healthily and productively as members of society. They thus feel that this is a proper form of discipline for their own children. They are not violent and do not hit their children.

A third argument for physical punishment is its deterrent effect. In a large family, if one child is physically punished in front of other children, not only that child learns to behave, others also learn a lesson to behave.

Some parents do not think that physical punishment such as spanking is physical abuse. By contrast, they do not like to hit their children. They just want their children to be well-behaved and well-educated as adults prepared to make contribution to a society. They use physical punishment to deal with immediate problems. Larzelere (1994) also argued that it shouldn’t be assumed that all physical punishment should be considered abusive. So it is necessary to clarify the distinctions between abusive and beneficial forms of physical punishment. Further, parental spanking is generally beneficial to children at 2 to 6 years old when spanking is limited to a maximum of two slaps, used to supplement positive parenting, and used primarily to back up less aversive discipline responses (Larzelere, 1994). In addition, the public survey held in 2004 in Canada showed that of 636 written statements, 473 (74%) expressed positive views of physical punishment spanking improves behaviour (Durrant et al., 2008).

一些家长不认为体罚，如打屁股是身体虐待。相比之下，他们不喜欢打孩子。他们只是希望他们的孩子在长大成人后表现良好，接受良好的教育，准备为社会做出贡献。他们用体罚来解决眼前的问题。Larzelere(1994)也认为，不应该假定所有的体罚都应该被认为是虐待。因此，有必要明确虐待和有益体罚形式之间的区别。此外，父母打屁股通常对2 - 6岁的孩子有益，因为打屁股最多只能打两巴掌，可以作为正面教育的补充，主要用来支持不那么厌恶的管教反应(Larzelere, 1994)。此外，2004年在加拿大进行的公众调查显示，在636份书面声明中，473份(74%)表达了对体罚打屁股改善行为的积极看法(Durrant et al.， 2008)。

Regarding the claims that antisocial violence and criminal activities is associated with physical punishment, there is no clear evidence to confirm that the strong relationships between those negative consequences and using physical punishment, in particular, the nonabusive physical punishment. For example, Larzelere, Cox, & Smith (2010) tried to find the difference of antisocial behaviours between nonphysical and physical punishments, but their research results did not show spanking to be causally linked to subsequent antisocial behaviour. Therefore, parents can choose appropriate nonabusive disciplines when they are necessary.

对于反社会暴力和犯罪活动与体罚有关的说法，没有明确的证据证实这些负面后果与使用体罚，特别是非虐待性体罚之间的密切关系。例如，Larzelere, Cox， & Smith(2010)试图找出非身体惩罚和身体惩罚之间反社会行为的差异，但他们的研究结果并没有显示打屁股与随后的反社会行为有因果联系。因此，父母可以在必要时选择适当的非虐待的纪律。

Nevertheless, most parents love their children and want them to be successful in their future life. As responsible parents, they are committed to make their children well-educated and behave properly. Nonabusive physical punishment is the last option when the reasoning is not effective. Similarly, a research result showed that African-American children had beneficial or neutral outcomes when applied a non-abusive physical punishment (Horn, Joseph, & Cheng, 2004). Therefore, parental right to retain spanking as one disciplinary option should be also guaranteed (Larzelere et al., 2010).

然而，大多数父母都爱他们的孩子，希望他们在未来的生活中取得成功。作为负责任的父母，他们致力于让自己的孩子受到良好的教育，行为举止得体。当推理无效时，非虐待性体罚是最后的选择。同样，一项研究结果表明，非裔美国儿童在使用非虐待性体罚时，结果是有益的或中性的(Horn, Joseph， & Cheng, 2004)。因此，父母保留打屁股作为一种惩戒选择的权利也应得到保障(Larzelere等人，2010年)。

Critics of physical punishment can point to a number of studies, which concluded that the more parents use physical punishment, the more disobedient and aggressive their children will be (Gershoff, 2002; 2008). Through a statistical analysis, Gershoff (2002) found that physical punishment was associated with less moral internalization of norms for appropriate behaviour and long-term compliance. This study also showed that parental physical punishment was associated with the higher levels of temporary compliance, aggression, and mental health. In other words, the more children get physical punishment, the more disobedient they are and the less they understand others.

对体罚持批评态度的人可以指出一些研究，这些研究的结论是，父母使用体罚的次数越多，他们的孩子就会越不听话，越有攻击性(Gershoff, 2002;2008）. 通过统计分析，Gershoff(2002)发现体罚与适当行为规范的道德内化程度较低和长期服从相关。这项研究还表明，父母的体罚与较高水平的临时服从、攻击性和心理健康有关。换句话说，孩子受到的体罚越多，他们就越不听话，也就越不理解别人。

Additionally, some experts claim that physical punishment is equivalent to abuse (Durrant et al., 2008). Canadian public opinion was collected based on a total of 636 statements reflecting public conceptualizations of physical punishment when the Supreme Court of Canada supported physical punishment under limited conditions in 2004. Of course, the survey results included positive and negative opinions on physical punishment. For the opponents of physical punishment, 28 percent of them think that physical punishment is a form of physical abuse. Physical punishment can be escalated gradually from minor spanking to more extreme actions that can cause serious injury to a child. From the survey of Canadian attitudes, 19 % of them believed that physical punishment could be distinguished from abuse and 21 % thought that children who were not spanked are more likely to be poorly socialized. Over time, it may take more and more force to have the same effect. Using physical punishment does not protect the family’s right to freely raise their children, but rather to freely abuse their children (Durrant et al., 2008).

此外，一些专家认为体罚等同于虐待(Durrant et al.， 2008)。在2004年加拿大最高法院支持在有限条件下实施体罚时，收集了总共636份反映公众对体罚概念化的陈述。当然，调查结果包括对体罚的正面和负面意见。对于反对体罚的人来说，28%的人认为体罚是一种身体虐待。体罚可以逐渐升级，从轻微的打屁股到更极端的行为，可能导致严重伤害的孩子。根据加拿大人的态度调查，19%的人认为体罚可以与虐待区分开来，21%的人认为没有挨过体罚的孩子更有可能缺乏社交能力。随着时间的推移，可能需要越来越多的力量才能达到同样的效果。体罚并不能保护家庭自由抚养孩子的权利，而是可以自由地虐待孩子(Durrant et al.， 2008)。

The research from social sciences has confirmed that physical punishment puts children at risk for a range of unintended negative consequences (Gershoff, 2008). Because physical punishment can result in adult aggression and antisocial behaviour, people affected by those negative consequences are absolutely unsuccessful in their life. Straus and Mouradian (1998) found that the more physical punishment experienced by the child, the greater the tendency for the child to engage in antisocial behaviour and to act impulsively. For example, the more physical punishment people experienced as children, the greater the percentage who, only a few years later in life, hit their spouses (Straus, 1994). Similarly, the more physical punishment experienced in the teen years, the higher the percentage people have a drinking problem, depressive symptoms, and thought about killing themselves.

Opponents of physical punishment think that hitting children is unacceptable in today’s democratic societies; and assert that it violates those human rights of children. The trend in the world is that more and more countries have passed bills to protect children from the practice of physical abuse as a disciplinary measure both at home and in school settings (Trocme, & Durrant, 2003).

反对体罚的人认为在今天的民主社会里打孩子是不可接受的;并声称这侵犯了儿童的人权。世界上的趋势是，越来越多的国家通过法案，保护儿童免受身体虐待的做法，作为一种惩戒措施，在家庭和学校设置(Trocme， & Durrant, 2003)。

In conclusion, physical punishment is a controversial topic. It is hard to answer whether parents should use physical punishment of their children or not when disciplining them. In fact, a large number of parents still use some form of punishment that involves inflicting physical pain when disciplining their children. They think that disciplining children is their rights and responsibility. Some parents’ success today results from their parents’ physical punishment disciplines. Also, those parents think that parents think that physical punishment is a highly efficient and immediately effective disciplinary option for correcting misbehaviour. Not only does one child behave properly, but all other children in a family follow as well. On the contrary, the supporters of physical punishment ban advocate that physical punishment is a kind of physical abuse and violate the human rights children. In addition, research studies discussed above, demonstrate that physical punishment can lead to emotional and behavioural problems, such as depression, antisocial behaviours, family violence, and other criminal activities. If children are physically punished by their parents, they learn that when they are angry and upset in the future, hitting is appropriate behaviour for relief. Therefore, physical punishment opponents think that disciplining children by means of hitting them is not harmonious with today’s modern societies. Research and expert opinion strongly suggests that due to the negative outcomes associated with regular physical punishment, it is recommended that parents primarily use non-physical methods of discipline such as reasoning and time outs with the cautious use non-abusive physical punishment such as spanking.

总之，体罚是一个有争议的话题。很难回答父母在管教孩子时是否应该体罚他们。事实上，很多父母在管教孩子的时候仍然会使用某种形式的惩罚，包括施加身体上的疼痛。他们认为管教孩子是他们的权利和责任。今天一些父母的成功来自于他们父母的体罚纪律。此外，这些家长认为，家长认为体罚是一种非常有效的、能立即纠正不良行为的惩戒选择。不仅一个孩子举止得体，家里所有的孩子也都如此。相反，禁止体罚的支持者认为体罚是一种身体虐待，侵犯了儿童的人权。此外，上述研究表明体罚会导致情绪和行为问题，如抑郁、反社会行为、家庭暴力和其他犯罪活动。如果孩子被父母体罚，他们就会知道，将来当他们生气或心烦意乱的时候，打人是一种缓解情绪的恰当行为。因此，反对体罚的人认为通过打来管教孩子是与现代社会不和谐的。研究和专家意见强烈建议，由于定期体罚会带来负面后果，因此建议家长主要使用非体罚方法，如推理和暂停，同时谨慎使用非虐待性体罚，如打屁股。

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