Dorr, Darwin, Melvin Zax, and Jack W. Bonner. The Psychology of Discipline.

New York,

NY: International Universities, 1986. 185-214. Print.

The source seems to be quite reputable due to the fact that both of the authors,

Charles Madsen Jr., Ph.D. and Jane Stephens, Ph.D., are physicians in psychology and

have many positive reviews of their practices. Stephens even has clients in

organizations such as Capital One, Coca Cola, and Skype. Madsen is also a

Psychology teacher at Florida State university and is well regarded by his students.

Chapter 7 Behavioral Discipline outlines successful ways to discipline a child and

how to implement these ways. This chapter covers three main ideas, the different types

of contingencies, the how and when of these contingencies, and the behavior analysis

of the child in question. The first point discussed was that of contingencies, reactions to

a childs behavior. Contingencies have five general types, approval, withholding

approval, disapproval, threat of disapproval, and ignoring. Each one requiring their own

form of use, but should be used in a positive manner as stated by the book, positive

techniques should be used whenever possible. Positive techniques are at least as

effective as negative techniques, sometimes more so, and they promote pleasant

interactions and attitudes. (193) One example that the book used on how to be positive

in discipline is the Dead Man Test. A disciplinary figure should never tell a child to do

what a dead man could do because this is likely to fail due to lack of specificity. Instead

of telling a child a child to not talk, because dead men are capable of not talking as well,

tell them to be quieter or possibly just whisper if the situation allows for it. Another

important thing to remember when implementing these contingencies is how often to do

them. For approval, it need to be every time the child does something right to establish
the reward while slowly giving the reward less and less frequent so that the child will

learn to work to get the next reward. This will be continued until the child internalizes the

reward. The same is true for disapproval methods as well, the child must be disciplined

every time they do something bad and the disciplinarian must not become lax or else

the behavior could worsen.

The final point is to realize what works for the child being disciplined. One child

might be well satisfied with a hug or a high-five as a sign of approval while others might

need something more tangible such as sweets or a sticker. As the book states, the

main thing is to use contingencies that the child finds reinforcing, not ones that the

teacher thinks may be rewarding. (202) A child might not find incentive to do good

when promised ice cream if the child doesnt like ice cream or is allergic to it. Another

important aspect was to keep in mind the capabilities of the child. If a child is promised

a reward for doing something, but is too young to grasp the concept of long term

rewards, then the goal will most likely not be reached.

Belief that elimination of bad behavior or symptom merely leads to replacement

by another bad one can become a reality if we focus only on eliminating

inappropriate behavior. (210)

 The chapter was very well written and easy to understand. Sometimes

unfamiliar words were used, but they were always explained or had enough

information around them to use context clues to figure them out. Due to the

nature of the chapter, it feels to be directed more towards the disciplinarian such

as a teacher or parent rather than other colleges in the field of behavioral

psychology. It is written with many examples to help explain the authors point

and is written to really help those who read it with the behavioral discipline of

children.