Many people assume that punishment stops undesirable behavior. Is this always true? Psychologists have learned that the effect of punishment depends greatly on its timing, consistency, and intensity.
punishment suppresses behavior best when it occurs as the response is being made, or immediately afterward (timing), and when it is given each time a response occurs (consistency). Thus, a dog that has developed a habit of constantly barking can be effectively (and humanely) punished if water is sprayed on its nose each time it barks. Ten to fiften such treaments are usually enough to greatly reduce barking. This would not be the case if punishment were applied occasionally or long after the barking stopped. If you discover that your dog dug up your flower bed while you were gone, it wyll do little good to punish him hours later. Likewise, the commonly heard childhood threat, “wait till your father comes home, then you’ll be sorry,” does more to make father an ogre than it does to effectively punish undesirable response.
Severe punishment can be extremely effective in stopping behavior. If a child sticks a finger in a light socket and gets a shock, that may be the last time the child ever tries it. More often, howerver, punishment only temporary suppresses a response. If the response is still reinforced, punishment may by particularly ineffective. Response suppressed by mild punishment usually reappear later. If a child sneaks a snack from the refrigerator before dinner and is punished for it, the child may pass up snacks for a short time. But since snack sneaking was also rewarded by the sneaked snack, the child will probably try sneaky snacking again, sometime later.