Annotated Bibliography

Running Head: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 1

Topic

Name

Institution

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 2

Hyman, I. A. (1997). The Case against Spanking: How to Discipline Your Child without Hitting.

The Jossey-Bass Psychology Series. Jossey-Bass Inc., Publishers, 350 Sansome St., San

Francisco, CA 94104.

Every parent does what they believe is best for their children. However, when it comes to

discipline matters, the same parents are stuck on the best way to ensure that their children behave

in a socially acceptable way, all the times. However, the wish of the parents is not always

achieved since children tend to behave negatively, especially when they are with their peers at

school. Teachers and care givers are in a dilemma on how they should take care of discipline

among the young children they take care of everyday. Their method of discipline may not be

acceptable by the parent concerned which further complicates the issue. Particularly, the

discipline issue among children normally revolves around when and how it should be

administered. Irwin Hyman, a specialist in the field of home and school discipline explains clearly in his

text, The Case against Spanking: How to Discipline Your Child without Hitting why hitting or

spanking children is abusive, counterproductive and destructive.

Hayman’s text is a resourceful text since it focuses on negative reinforcement, especially

corporal punishment. Since time immemorial, negative behaviors among children have mainly

been reinforced using negative methods. It is through this existing knowledge that Hayman

explores the connection between spanking, beating, and hitting and child abuse. These actions

are common especially among parents and sometimes teachers but unfortunately, they are not

aware of the negative effects that they may have towards the children. Hayman’s text is therefore

relevant to the chosen topic since it expounds more on the common negative behavior correction

methods among young children that are more or less like corporal punishment.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 3

In the first chapter of the text titled ‘An Alien Point of View’, Hayman examines various

popular opinions on discipline among children. He focuses on the opinion of parents, educators

and therapists. However, though the discussion about disciplining children is always on the air,

Hayman reveals that Americans lose interest about the subject very fast slowing down the

discussion since most of them hit their children anyway. In fact, Hayman argues that more than

70% of Americans feel that it is necessary to discipline a child sometimes with a good hard

spanking. Therapists on the other hand argue that when a parent hits a child, regardless of the

euphemism used; smack, pop or spank, the main objective is to cause physical pain. Notably,

therapists argue that causing physical pain is an effective short term method of behavior

correction. However, the question on long term effect of the method is what Hayman tries to

emphasize on his text.

In the second chapter of the text titled ‘Abuse or Discipline’, Hayman concludes that

effective discipline assists young children to have control of their behavior particularly acting on

the idea of whether a certain behavior is wrong or right, but not because they fear punishment.

For instance, Hayman gives an example of a young child being honest, not because they fear

being apprehended but because they think it is wrong. The objective of punishment is to

discourage a child from doing what the parents or teachers do not want them to do and as

Hayman argues, an unpleasant or painful method is mainly applied. It is from this argument that

Hayman comes up with the four main types of punishment:

 Verbal punishment which involves ridiculing, shaming and using cruel words such as “I

don’t love you.”

 Physical punishment such as spanking, slapping, paddling, switching and using a hair

brush or a belt.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 4

 Penalties such as surcharging them money for damages done in the house. If they are too

young to have some money, then some activities that involve giving them some money

are withdrawn.

 Withholding rewards like stopping them from watching favorite television programs till

they do a certain task such as homework.

Hayman further explains that the first two kinds of punishment; verbal and physical, are not

effective discipline methods. However, the other two; giving penalties and withholding rewards

are effective either as discipline methods or punishments depending with how the parent or

teacher administers them.

The third chapter, ‘Why We hit and what it does to Kids’, explores the question of

positive parenting alternatives by discouraging hitting children. The basis of his argument is

from a research study that argues that children who are spanked frequently are at a higher risk of

developing mental problems that may range from depression and anxiety to alcohol and drug

abuse. Also, there are higher chances that the relationship between the parents and the affected

children may deteriorate in future. A meta-analysis that was conducted across time period,

countries and ages also revealed that there is an increased incidence of aggression among

children who are constantly hit, both when they are young and when adults. In this chapter,

Hayman explains that many parents hit their children to immediately correct a bad behavior.

However, he argues that the children, being on the receiving end, learn to associate violence with

power or even using it to get their own way. Hayman retaliates that most children with

aggressive behavior are victims of spanking and when they are accused of violence, it mostly

involves situations where they desired power such as bullying, abusing their partners and so on.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 5

In an effort to discourage use of physical punishments, Hayman writes the fourth chapter,

‘Back to Basics: What You Need to Know about Effective Discipline’. In this chapter, Hyman

explores the alternative methods of disciplining children. He explains that when a teacher feels

that punishment is necessary, then they should withdraw the favored objects or make

consequences that relate to the undesired behavior. He encourages both parents and teachers to

teach their children acceptable behavior instead of punishing them. For the infants and toddlers,

they should be redirected from the behavior since they do not yet understand what is wrong or

right.

In conclusion, Hyman’s text is a very resourceful text to not only the essay that I will

write but to also the parents and teachers who spend a lot of time with young children. The text

deeply examines the constructive methods of discipline that are applied in everyday situations

and reveals the negative long term effects of spanking. Spanking or hitting children is brutal and

encourages a culture of violence among adults. Hyman concludes by giving common sense

advice on other forms of discipline. These alternative methods of punishment will go a long way

in producing happy and emotionally stable children and adults in their future life.

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