Two newsletters review the principles and application of two behavior modification techniques with mentally retarded persons: overcorrection and punishment. Overcorrection may be either restitutional, in which the client is made to restore the environment to a far better state than before the inappropriate behavior occurred, or positive practice…

Concern for discipline has resulted in an emphasis on school rules and enforcement in many school districts. In order to begin to understand children's perceptions of classroom rules, the teacher and 18 children in one kindergarten class were interviewed about (1) what the rules in their classroom actually were; (2) what the punishments were; and…

Recent research findings reveal that punishment and treatment are two independent, unrelated concepts, but they can occur simultaneously and the same activity may even involve both. These findings point to the inaccuracy of previous studies. (Author)

Considered actions by the North Carolina House and Senate to allow local school boards to outlaw the use of corporal punishment. (Author/RK)

Seven papers from a 1978 conference focus on the use of punishment in special education programs for emotionally disturbed students. In "The Legal Status of the Use of Corporal Punishment and Other Aversive Procedures in Schools," F. Wood and K. Lakin review laws, regulations, and court decisions that bear on the legality of the use of…

This review of recent research offers practical suggestions for maintaining discipline in the classroom. The first half discusses, in outline form, techniques for preventing classroom disruption, action to take when problems arise, and when to use punishment. The second half examines specific ways to deal with student misbehavior. An outline lists…

Using data corrected for victim underreporting, crime supply functions are reestimated in this paper. Underreporting is found in both a mean-variance specification and a conventional crime supply function that includes measures of the offender's gains and losses involved in property crimes that certainty and severity of punishment still deter.…

Whereas threatened punishment proves effective under conditions where the instrumental value of aggressive behavior is quite low, the following techniques of control may work better in situations where the value of aggression is relatively high: (1) the use of restrained, non-aggressive models; (2) empathic arousal among aggressors; or (3)…

This study examined the responses of kindergarten, first, third, and fourth grade girls to examples of good and bad behaviors followed either by good or bad outcomes. The results indicated that good behavior did not affect judgments of outcome but that a good outcome raised judgments of bad behavior. (JMB)

Five experiments investigated the differential effects of shock punishment on nonconsummatory licking (dry licking) and lever pressing. Results support a motivationally based theory of punishment involving the role of incentive stimuli associated with the particular responses studied. (Editor/RK)

No matter what kind of classroom we choose, we have to remember that discipline must not be used interchangeably with corporal punishment. Constructive discipline is a positive means of managing a classroom; corporal punishment is an exceedingly negative one. (Author)

The case against corporal punishment in the schools is made, and alternatives to it are suggested. Readers are asked to respond to a tear-out opinion poll. (JL)

The study examined effects of aversive taste treatment of thumb sucking on untreated habitual hair pulling by two young males (ages 2 and 5). Concomitant with successful treatment of thumb sucking, hair pulling was also eliminated. Results suggest an efficient method for changing behaviors that are difficult to treat directly. (Author/JW)