Padriag
Posts: 2633
Joined: 3/30/2005 Status: offline
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I think they're both fundamentally flawed. Both presume something about the person in the absence of evidence. One assumes a person is essentially good, the other essentially bad... without first examining the nature of the person. That's flawed thinking. I also don't care for the terms which are at odds with those used in behavioral psychology, but that's a minor point. My view is this... a bit of both is more effective. That is you use positive reinforcement to encourage good behavior (i.e. praise), as well as negative reinforcement (i.e. excusing the individual from some unpleasant activity). You use positive punishment (i.e. writing sentences, spanking, etc.) when the individual does something undesired, or you can use negative punishment (i.e the removal of privileges). There is also the process of extinction which requires understanding what motivated the undesired behavior, removing whatever is reinforcing that behavior so that the behavior eventually ceases. The combination of these techniques, I've personally found, is very effective in altering behavior in just about anything... from my cats to people. Again, what I see wrong with both is even bringing the question of whether the student is "bad" or "good" as a person into it... that is not healthy. One gives them a negative self image, and the other gives them a false positive. Instead I'd recommend simply dealing with the individual behaviors. That is, rather than telling them they are a bad or good person in general, deal with the specific behavior as being "good, desirable, correct" or "bad, wrong, incorrect". When correcting / disciplining / punishing ALWAYS make clear what they should have done and reinforce that they can do better. Just punishing someone won't necessarily achieve anything if you don't also make clear what the expected behavior is. For example, say I have a submissive who makes me dinner, but its badly cooked. Screaming at her in anger is not going to help, that's just anger, that's not punishment. Making her recook the meal would be punishment. But if I don't also point out what was wrong with it, what about her behavior was incorrect, she won't know what to change and will likely repeat the mistake. When someone knows what they did was wrong / incorrect, but doesn't know what is expected, they get frustrated and give up... and you lose them at that point. One last flaw about this "positive / negative discipline" system I'll point out. People already have a self image of themselves, and this applies whether dealing with submissives or students or employees. If you have someone who already has a negative self image, telling them they are a "good" person will not only be ineffective, it may create additional stress. People who believe they are bad will continue to believe that until they feel they have done something to earn a better self image. Likewise, just telling a person with a positive self image they are bad will likely simply be dismissed, because that self believe tends to be stronger. Nathaniel Brandon wrote this in The Six Pillars of Self Esteem quote:
If self-esteem entails a basic experience of competence (or efficacy), what is the relationship of that competence to narrower, more localized areas of competence in particular areas? We build our sense of fundamental efficacy through the mastery of particular forms of efficacy related to the attainment of particular tasks. Fundamental efficacy cannot be generated in a vacuum, it must be created and expressed through some specific tasks successfully mastered. It is not that achievements "prove" our worth but rather that the process of achieving is the means by which we develop our effectiveness, our competence at living. I cannot be efficacious in the abstract without being efficacious about anything in particular. So, productive work has the potential of being a powerful self-esteem building activity. In short, none of us is inherently "good" or "bad", we have the potential for both. What we become, whether we are more one or the other, is demonstrated by our actions. By what we do, and what we do is our own choice. The individual has the choice to be "bad" or "good", to do "bad" or to do "good."
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Padriag A stern discipline pervades all nature, which is a little cruel so that it may be very kind - Edmund Spencer
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