Using the statements of 352 14-year-old early adolescents, 183 boys and 154 girls, with no history of conduct disorder, we surveyed the implications of how the behavior modification modes of our middle class will affect the future behavior of the subjects. Severe reprimand (53%), privilege removal (31%) and intense painful stimuli (12%) were the behavior managing modes used by the mother (53%), father (25%) or tutor (12%). The punishing effect (a decrease in the future frequency of the target behavior) of the above worsening conditions was only 8%, whereas the reinforcing effect (an increase in the future frequency of the target behavior) was 53%. This high reinforcing effect was believed to be due in part to the operant conditioning of emotional predisposition elicited by the worsening condition. The indirect methodology of the study was also considered to play a role in the results.

Using the statements of 352 14-year-old early adolescents, 183 boys and 154 girls, with no history of conduct disorder, we surveyed the implications of how the behavior modification modes of our middle class will affect the future behavior of the subjects. Severe reprimand (53%), privilege removal (31%) and intense painful stimuli (12%) were the behavior managing modes used by the mother (53%), father (25%) or tutor (12%). The punishing effect (a decrease in the future frequency of the target behavior) of the above worsening conditions was only 8%, whereas the reinforcing effect (an increase in the future frequency of the target behavior) was 53%. This high reinforcing effect was believed to be due in part to the operant conditioning of emotional predisposition elicited by the worsening condition. The indirect methodology of the study was also considered to play a role in the results.