Punishment vs Extinction Procedure
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Introduction
Punishment refers to the deliberate action of exposing a presumed or actual offender to some sort of suffering that is within the legal framework. This suffering inflicted on the offender by higher institutions in society is usually in many forms mostly with an aim of correction or getting rid of the offender in extreme cases. The amount of punishment inflicted is directly proportional to the wrong/crime committed-the wrong/crime determines the type of punishment (McGuire, 2015.). The offence can be categorised into two broad areas: Moral sin or legal sin. Moral sin is whereby the offence committed is found to be a deviation from the norm and culture of a society e.g. disrespect to the elderly. Legal sin is an offence against the rules of the state or institution of higher power e.g. murder. Most offences fall under both categories.
A personal situation in which punishment could be used can be, for instance, when a child curses or throws an abuse at another child or an adult. In traditional African society, corporal punishment was the order of the day. There was even a saying to its effect-spare the rod, spoil the child. The first reaction an African parent or adult would do is to hit or cane the child. This sounds crude and extreme but was and still is effective when it came to behaviour change. The pain inflicted will evoke a response from the child, he/she will have the fear factor and stop abusing/cursing. This is because the each time the child will think of abusing someone in future, he/she will remember the stroke of cane and avoid it.
However, the possible areas of concern when it comes to caning the child is: First, caning the child can inflict bodily harm and result to injuries or death in extreme cases. This will in turn create another problem to the parent either a health problem or a brush of shoulders with the law. Second, the...