Spanking

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Let’s suppose that you are in line to order food. There are a couple of people in front of you in line. Just before you get to order the person in front of you has their food order messed up by the cashier. The cashier made an honest mistake; maybe because the cashier is inexperienced or just is having a long day. However, instead of waiting for the cashier to correct the order, the person who ordered reached over the counter and strikes the employee for not getting the order correct. What would be your reaction to this? How would others react to this? Most likely everyone, including yourself, would be shocked and surprised. Probably someone would stop the customer form hitting the employee, or even call the police. If the cops were involved charges most likely would be pressed and the customer would be charged with assault and battery on the employee. The customer, depending on the severity, could get fines or even jail time.
Now, how would you react if you saw a mother spanking her child for doing something wrong? Assume that it was a child and his mother in front of you and the child was asking for a kid’s meal. No matter how many times the mother says that he can’t have it, the child keeps begging and finally starts to cry. Maybe, the child has had a long day or to inexperienced to know he is driving his mother’s patience. To discipline him, his mother spanks him once or twice. What is everyone’s reaction now? Most people would think the child deserved it for being rowdy and loud. Nobody would restrain the mom or even call the police. Why do people see this as so different, when if fact they are very similar in nature? Striking anyone for no apparent reason, except maybe that they accidentally did somethin...

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...upport for hypothesis (a) and support for hypothesis (b). (Gromoske & Maguire-Jack, 2012) In this study they found a link between spanking and externalizing behavior just like the first study. Although, they share that similarity they however disagree when it come to internalizing behaviors. The first paper found that spanking corresponds to internalizing behaviors, while the second said that it doesn’t. The second paper discusses the fact that externalizing behavior is very hard to study, so hard that most evidence obtained is very inconclusive. The only data that is conclusive with the fact that spanking has positive associations with internalizing behavior is when the child is subjected to frequent and abusive spanking. This is why internal behavior is hard to study in this circumstance. No one wants to subject children to frequent and abusive spanking.

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