Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Punishment Insensitivity and Parenting: Temperament and Learning as Interacting Risks for Antisocial Behavior

  • Published:
Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We review ideas about individual differences in sensitivity or responsiveness to common disciplinary behaviors parents use to correct aggressive and antisocial behavior in children. At extremes, children may be seen as “punishment-insensitive,” an heuristic with some value relevant to models of the development of antisocial and aggressive behavior disorders. Literature from diverse fields, such as psychopathy, child temperament, socialization and the development of moral conscience, conditioning theory, and personality theory, have all utilized the idea that humans differ in their sensitivity to aversive stimuli and the cues that signal their occurrence, as well as their ability to inhibit reward-driven behavior, in the presence of punishment cues. Contemporary thinking places these dispositions squarely as basic biological aspects of temperament that moderate the effects of the environment (e.g., parenting) on outcomes (e.g., mental health). We review a largely forgotten literature that shows clearly that sensitivity to punishment is also reliably influenced by the environment itself. An attempt is then made to model the interactional processes by which parenting and punishment sensitivities in children magnify or diminish each other's progress toward healthy or antisocial development. Implications for parenting of children with low responsiveness to punishment strategies are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • Allport, G. (1961). Pattern and growth in personality. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Avila, C. (2001). Distinguishing BIS-mediated and BAS-mediated disinhibition mechanisms: A comparison of disinhibition models of Gray and of Patterson and Newman. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 311-324.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barry, C. T., Frick, P. J., DeShazo, T. M., McCoy, M. G., Ellis, M., & Loney, B. R. (2000). The importance of callous–unemotional traits for extending the concept of psychopathy to children. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 109, 335-340.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bechara, A., Tranel, D., Damasio, H., & Adolphs, R. (1995). Double dissociation of conditioning and declarative knowledge relative to the amygdala and hippocampus in humans. Science, 269, 1115-1118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blair, R. J. R., Colledge, E., & Mitchell, D. G. V. (2001). Somatic markers and response reversal: Is there orbitofrontal cortex dysfunction in boys with psychopathic tendencies? Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 29, 499-511.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blair, R. J. R., Colledge, E., Murray, L., & Mitchell, D. G. V. (2001). A selective impairment in the processing of sad and fearful expressions in children with psychopathic tendencies. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 29, 491-498.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blair, R. J. R., Morris, J. S., Frith, C. D., Perrett, D. I., & Dolan, R. (1999). Dissociable neural responses to facial expressions of sadness and anger. Brain, 122, 883-893.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calder, A. J., Young, A. W., Rowland, D., & Perrett, D. I. (1996). Facial emotion recognition after bilateral amygdala damage: Differentially severe impairment of fear. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 13, 699-745.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caspi, A., McClay, J., Moffitt, T., Mill, J., Martin, J., Craig, I. W., et al. (2002). Role of genotype in the cycle of violence in maltreated children. Science, 297, 851-854.

    Google Scholar 

  • Church, R. M. (1969). Response suppression. In B. A. Campbell & R. M. Church (Eds.), Punishment and aversive behaviour. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cicchetti, D., & Lynch, M. (1995). Failures in the expectable environment and their impact on individual development: The case of child maltreatment. In D. Cicchetti & D. Cohen (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology: Vol. 2. Risk, disorder, and adaptation(pp. 32-71). New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cleckley, H. M. (1976). The mask of sanity; an attempt to clarify some issues about the so-called psychopathic personality (5th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Mosby.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cleverley, J., & Phillips, D. C. (1986). Visions of childhood: Influential models form Locke to Spock. New York: Columbia University Teacher's College Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dadds, M. R. (1994). Families, children, and the development of dysfunction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dadds, M. R., Fraser, J. A., & Frost, A. (submitted). Confirmed factor structure of the Antisocial Process Screening Device in young children.

  • Derryberry, D., & Rothbart, M. K. (1997). Reactive and effortful processes in the organization of temperament. Development and Psychopathology, 9, 633-652.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dumas, J. E., & Wahler, R. G. (1985). Indiscriminate mothering as a contextual factor in aggressive–oppositional child behaviour: “Damned if you do and damned if you don't.” Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 13, 1-17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eron, L. D. (1987). The development of aggressive behaviour from the perspective of a developing behaviourism. American Psychologist, 42, 435-442.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eron, L. D. (1997). The development of antisocial behaviour from a learning perspective. In D. M. Stoff, J. Breiling, & J. D. Maser (Eds.), Handbook of antisocial behaviour. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eron, L. D., Walder, L. O., & Lefkowitz, M. M. (1971). The learning of aggression in children. Boston: Little Brown.

    Google Scholar 

  • Everitt, B. J., Cardinal, R. N., Hall, J., Parkinson, J. A., & Robbins, T. W. (2000). Differential involvement of the amygdala subsystems in appetitive conditioning and drug addiction. In J. P. Aggleton (Ed.), The amygdala: A functional analysis(pp. 289-310). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, L., & Blair, R. J. R. (1998). Cognitive impairment and its relationship to psychopathic tendencies in children with emotional and behavioural difficulties. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 26, 511-519.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fowles, D. C., & Kochanska, G. (2000). Temperament as a moderator of pathways to conscience in children: The contribution of electrodermal activity. Psychophysiology, 37, 788-795.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fowles, D. C., Kochanska, G., & Murray, K. (2000). Electrodermal activity and temperament in preschool children. Psychophysiology, 37, 777-787.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frick, P. J. (2002). Juvenile psychopathy from a developmental perspective: Implications for construct development and use in forensic assessments. Law and Human Behavior, 26, 247-253.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frick, P. J., & Hare, R. D. (2002). The Antisocial Process Screening Device. Mental Health Systems, Toronto.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frick, P. J., Lilienfeld, S. O., Edens, J. F., Poythress, N. G., & McBurnett, K. (2000). The association between anxiety and antisocial behaviour. Primary Psychiatry, 7, 52-57.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frick, P. J., Lilienfeld, S. O., Ellis, M., Loney, B., & Silverthorn, P. (1999). The association between anxiety and psychopathy dimensions in children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 27, 383-392.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frick, P. J., O'Brien, B. S., Wootton, J. M., & McBurnett, K. (1994). Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 103, 700-707.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gray, J. A. (1977). Drug effects on fear and frustration: Possible limbic site of action of minor tranquillisers. In L.L. Iversen, S.D. Iversen, & S.H. Snyder (Eds.), Handbook of psychopharmacology(Vol. 8, pp. 433-529). New York: Plenum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gray, J. A. (1978). The 1977 Myers lecture: The neuropsychology of anxiety. British Journal of Psychology, 69, 417-434.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gray, J. A. (1981). A critique of Eysenck's theory of personality. In H.J. Eysenck (Ed.), A model for personality(pp. 246-276). Berlin: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gray, J. A. (1982). The neuropsychology of anxiety: An enquiry into the functions of the septo-hippocampal system. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gray, J. A. (1987). The psychology of fear and stress. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gray, J. A. (1990). Brain systems that mediate both emotion and cognition. Cognition and Emotion, 4, 269-288.

    Google Scholar 

  • Green, R. W., & Doyle, A. E. (1999). Toward a transactional conceptualization of oppositional defiant disorder: Implications for assessment and treatment. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 2, 129-148.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hare, R. D. (1985). Comparison of procedures for the assessment of psychopathy. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 53, 7-16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hare, R. D. (1998). Psychopaths and their nature: Implications for the mental health and criminal justice systems. In T. Millon & E. Simonsen (Eds.), Psychopathy: Antisocial, criminal, and violent behavior(pp. 188-212). New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hare, R. D., Hart, S. D., & Harpur, T. J. (1991). Psychopathy and the DSM-IV criteria for antisocial personality disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 100, 391-398.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holz, W. C., & Azrin, N. H. (1961). Discriminative properties of punishment. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behaviour, 4, 225-232.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelleher, R. T., Riddle, W. C., & Cook, L. (1963). Persistent behaviour maintained by unavoidable shocks. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behaviour, 6, 507-517.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kochanska, G. (1993). Toward a synthesis of parental socialisation and child temperament in early development of conscience. Child Development, 64, 325-347.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kochanska, G. (1994). Beyond cognition: Expanding the search for the early roots of internalization and conscience. Developmental Psychology, 30, 20-22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kochanska, G. (1995). Children's temperament, mother's discipline, and security of attachment: Multiple pathways to emerging internalization. Child Development, 66, 597-615.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kochanska, G. (1997). Multiple pathways to conscience for children with different temperaments: From toddlerhood to age 5. Developmental Psychology, 33, 228-240.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kochanska, G., DeVet, K., Goldman, M., Murray, K., & Putnam, S. P. (1994). Maternal reports of conscience development and temperament in young children. Child Development, 65, 852-868.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kochanska, G., Murray, K., & Coy, K. C. (1997). Inhibitory control as a contributor to conscience in childhood: From toddler to early school age. Child Development, 68, 263-277.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kochanska, G., Murray, K., Jacques, T. Y., & Koenig, A. L. (1996). Inhibitory control in young children and its role in emerging internalization. Child Development, 67, 490-507.

    Google Scholar 

  • Larzelere, R. E. (2000). Child outcomes of nonabusive and customary physical punishment by parents: An updated literature review. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 3, 199-221.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loeber, R., & Farrington, D. P. (2000). Young children who commit crime: Epidemiology, developmental origins, risk factors, early interventions, and policy implications. Development and Psychopathology, 12, 737-762.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loney, B. R., Frick, P. J., Clements, C. B., Ellis, M. L., & Kerlin, K. (2003). Callous-unemotional traits, impulsivity, and emotional processing in antisocial adolescents. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 32, 66-80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lykken, D. T. (1957). A study of anxiety in the sociopathic personality. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 55, 6-10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lynam, D. R. (1996). Early identification of chronic offenders: Who is the fledgling psychopath? Psychological Bulletin, 120, 209-234.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lynam, D. R. (1998). Early identification of the fledgling psychopath: Locating the psychopathic child in the current nomenclature. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 107, 566-575.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGivern, R. F., Andersen, J., Byrd, D., Mutter, K. L., & Reilly, J. (2002). Cognitive efficiency on a match to sample task decreases at the onset of puberty in children. Brain and Cognition, 50, 73-89.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKearney, J. W. (1969). Fixed-interval schedules of electric shock presentation: Extinction and recovery of performance under different shock intensities and fixed-interval durations. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behaviour, 12, 301-313.

    Google Scholar 

  • Melzack, R., & Scott, T. H. (1957). The effects of early experience on the response to pain. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 50, 155-161.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, N. E. (1960). Learning resistance to pain and fear: Effects of overlearning, exposure and rewarded exposure in context. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 60, 137-145.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morris, J. S., Frith, C. D., Perrett, D. I., Rowland, D., Young, A. W., Calder, A. J., et al. (1996). A differential response in the human amygdala to fearful and happy facial expressions. Nature, 383, 812-815.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morse, W. H., Mead, R. N., & Kelleher, R. T. (1967). Modulation of elicited behaviour by a fixed-interval schedule of electric shock presentation. Science (New York, 157, 215-217.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murray, K. T., & Kochanska, G. (2002). Effortful control: Factor structure and relation to externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 30, 503-514.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newman, J. P. (1998). Psychopathic behavior: An information processing perspective. In D. J. Cook et al. (Eds.), Psychopathy: Theory, research and implications for society(pp. 81-104). The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newman, J. P., Kosson, D. S., & Patterson, C. M. (1992). Delay of gratification in psychopathic and nonpsychopathic offenders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 101, 630-636.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newman, J. P., Patterson, C. M., Howland, E. W., & Nichols, S. L. (1990). Passive avoidance in psychopaths: The effects of reward. Personality and Individual Differences, 11, 1101-1114.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nissen, H. W., Chow, K. L., & Semmes, J. (1951). Effects of restricted opportunity for tactile, kinesthetic, and manipulative experience on the behavior of a chimpanzee. American Journal of Psychology, 64, 485-507.

    Google Scholar 

  • O'Brien, B. S., & Frick, P. J. (1996). Reward dominance: Associations with anxiety, conduct problems and psychopathy in children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 24, 223-240.

    Google Scholar 

  • O'Brien, B. S., Frick, P. J., & Lyman, R. D. (1994). Reward dominance among children with disruptive behavior disorders. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 16, 131-145.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ollendick, T. H., Seligman, L. D., & Butcher, A. T. (1999). Does anxiety mitigate the behavioral expression of severe conduct disorder in delinquent youths? Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 13, 565-574.

    Google Scholar 

  • Patrick, C. J., Bradley, M. M., & Lang, P. J. (1993). Emotion in the criminal psychopath: Startle reflex modulation. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 102, 82-92.

    Google Scholar 

  • Patterson, G. R. (1976). The aggressive child: Victim and architect of a coercive system. In E. Marsh, A. Hamerlynck, & L. Handy (Eds.), Behaviour modification and families: Theory and research. New York: Brunner/Mazel.

    Google Scholar 

  • Patterson, G. R. (1982). Coercive family process. Eugene, OR: Castalia Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, M. L., Young, A. W., Senior, C., Brammer, M., Andrews, C., Calder, A. J., et al. (1997). A specified neural substrate for perceiving facial expressions of disgust. Nature, 389, 495-498.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothbart, M. K., Ahadi, S. A., & Evans, D. E. (2000). Temperament and personality: Origins and outcomes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 122-135.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothbart, M. K., Ahadi, S. A., & Hershey, K. L. (1994). Temperament and social behavior in childhood. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 40, 21-39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothbart, M., & Bates, J. (1998). Temperament. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & N. Eisenberg (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3. Social, emotional, and personality development(5th ed., pp. 105-176). New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothbart, M. K., Posner, M. I., & Hershey, K. L. (1995). Temperament, attention, and developmental psychopathology. In C. Cicchetti & D. Cohen (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology: Vol. 1. Theory and methods(pp. 315-340). New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seguin, J. R., Pihl, R. O., Boulerice, B., Tremblay, R. E., & Harden, P. (1996). Pain sensitivity and stability in physical aggression in boys. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 37, 823-834.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strand, P. S., Wahler, R. G., & Herring, M. (2001). The impact of behavior-specific and behavior-nonspecific reinforcement on child compliance to mother directives. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 39, 1085-1097.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stretch, R., Orloff, E. R., & Dalrymple, S. D. (1968). Maintenance of responding by a fixed-interval schedule of electric shock presentation in squirrel monkeys. Science, (New York), 162, 583-585.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tapscott, M., Frick, P. J., Wootton, J., & Kruh, I. (1996). The intergenerational link to antisocial behavior: Effects of paternal contact. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 5, 229-240.

    Google Scholar 

  • van Ijzendoorn (1997). Attachment, emergent morality, and aggression: Toward a developmental socioemotional model of antisocial behavior. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 21, 703-727.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson, D., & Clark, L. A. (1984). Negative affectivity: The disposition to experience aversive emotional states. Psychological Bulletin, 98, 219-235.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williamson, S., Harpur, T. J., & Hare, R. D. (1991). Abnormal processing of affective words by psychopaths. Psychophysiology, 28, 260-273.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wootton, J. M., Frick, P. J., Shelton, K. K., & Silverthorn, P. (1997). Ineffective parenting and childhood conduct problems: The moderating role of callous-unemotional traits. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 65, 301-308.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

    Mark R. Dadds & Karen Salmon

Authors
  1. Mark R. Dadds
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Karen Salmon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Dadds, M.R., Salmon, K. Punishment Insensitivity and Parenting: Temperament and Learning as Interacting Risks for Antisocial Behavior. Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev 6, 69–86 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023762009877

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023762009877

Search

Navigation