Vollmer, T. R. (2002).
Punishment happens: Some comments on Lerman and Vorndran's review.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,
35, 469-473.
Some readers will view the article by Lerman and Vorndran as
controversial. It is a review of existing basic and applied
research on punishment and a call for additional research on
punishment. The thesis of my commentary is that the paper should
not be viewed as controversial. Punishment happens. To ignore a
natural phenomenon and its implications for a technology of
behavior is akin to ignoring the physical nature of the universe.
A science and a technology of behavior are incomplete without
research on punishment. Five reasons to pursue punishment
research are discussed, along with some caveats.
DESCRIPTORS: _punishment, commentary