Soundly Thumped

However, despite Mr Ivan Pavlov’s successful observations and accurate conclusions, learned behaviour can obviously be a direct result of many simple forms of Punishment. The first, to which I am referring, is Psychological. Which I consider one of the three forms. This is best defined as mental or emotional punishment. We are well aware of it. We hear about it on the news every day. On a global scale, it may be by way of the actions of war, the suffering of soldiers, civilians and the dispossessed. This may be including survivors, victims of torture, refugees, and especially long term trauma suffered by many. In recent times of natural disasters such as the Japanese Tsunami, or the Christchurch earthquakes for example, the ongoing issues of stress are founded greatly on the psychological effects of such events. It is the ability to use such psychological effects to produce specific results that can create specific behaviours. (‘Enforced’ learned behaviour?). Whether it is the actions of one or the actions of various areas of society. For example, in today’s high focus on incidents of domestic violence constantly raised in media. The news suddenly reports on an incident. Often, as the story unfolds, it comes to light that it was years of verbal (and often physical) abuse, which drove (insert name) to (insert act). Years of. Not just a one off incident. There might be a single culminating event that creates attention to a situation, but, more often than not, it is the ongoing mental anguish suffered by the victim, which caused the adoption of specific behaviour (learned behaviour) to minimise the risk for the victim of further abuse. Until eventually, unable to prevent that abuse, the victim breaks psychologically. In reality the victim was broken psychologically before the incident. The incident is in fact a change in that psychological behaviour they had adopted.

When it comes to learned behaviours, through psychological punishments, even as kids, we were aware of certain expected behaviours. Often learnt through simple errors of personal judgment. Something as simple as; ‘No elbows on the table’ while eating dinner, could result in the chant,

“Elbows on the table, thump, thump, thump!”

And of course, the ‘thump, thump, thump’ was done to the actual action of banging of the offenders elbows onto the flat surface of the table. Yes, usually by the father… or if nearer, the mother. Actually if it was noticed by either of the siblings on each side of you, there was a rush to grab the arm and do the ‘thump, thump, thump! Trust me. You didn’t do it more than twice. So, you wouldn’t put your elbows on the table, at least not on the edge. Effectively you learnt behaviour, as you ‘mentally’ feared the physical punishment (The second form). The concept of a promise is a form of psychological training. You expect something. You build your hopes up based on that promise. You may even alter your behaviour when you consider what the result may be. When it is a threat, then the adoption of appropriate behaviour becomes necessity (for survival) and this is a part of the kind of psychological punishment I am referring to.

(Continued tomorrow)