Views on the Efficacy and Ethics of Punishment: Results from a National Survey

Punishment-based interventions are among the most controversial treatments in the applied behavior analysis literature. The controversy concerns both the efficacy and the ethics of punishment. Five hundred randomly selected members of the Association for Behavior Analysis were sent a survey concerning their views on the efficacy and ethics of punishment. Respondents were asked to agree or disagree with statements about punishment using a six-point Likert-style scale, and to answer several open-ended questions. Respondents exhibited marked variability in their attitudes toward punishment, but on several points, opinions appeared to converge. Demographic variables were found to relate to attitudes, and views on the efficacy of punishment predicted views on its ethical status. Implications of these findings for future research and applied practice are discussed.