Should parents discipline their children by hitting them?

[S200]

I'm in support here.
Watching my nephew grow up, (he's just over two now), and watching my sister try to discipline him...
Sometimes it just makes laugh... 
The kid would go and use the printer as a trampoline, and the only punishment for potentially costing ~$250 in about 5 seconds was two minutes in the 'Naughty Corner', which the kid just ducked out of anyway...

I personally think that corporal punishment is something that does help a child. Obviously, using your kid as a punching bag is not the right type of punishment.
Personally, I think that a mix of psychological and physical disciplines is effective.
Like, one day I did something wrong, and Mum hit me three times with a wooden spoon, and then tied me to a chair with stockings...
I just realised... That actually sounds like it would cause psychological damage.... But no, it was actually bloody perfect.
The idea is that you get immediate punishment, then are restrained for 5 minutes to think about what you did wrong...

Personally, I now have much greater respect for my mum than I do for my dad.
Dads discipline was his belt, which wasn't really ideal.

I don't think there are lasting effects, except the lack of respect for figures in authority, but that is certainly not principally due to the punishment.
I think that it certainly benefited me, and 'toughened me up', as cliché as that sounds... 
The wooden-spoon gig stopped when my hand-eye coordination got good enough for me to grab the utensil before it hit me and run away with it....
So I can thank my mum for my proficiency in sport...

Although, there is a kid in my class that is the perfect anti-thesis.
The thought of punishment led him to perfect the art of lying, and he never kicked the nasty habits of theft etc. He was just generally one of those snivelling guys that you want to kick down the stairs.
The thing is, he wasn't ever hit with anything heavier than a wooden spoon - and that scared the shit out of him.
He wouldn't even be with the class in getting a whole class detention, because he would get hit with the wooden spoon; and this was in year 8! 
The disrespect thing is evident with him as well, but for him it's his mum that he doesn't respect.
Nowadays, the rough and tumble of school has kinda rubbed off on him...
But yeah, it's taken a while...

But I think that definitely, corporal punishment is beneficial to the child, but the measure has to be exact.
Spare the rod and spoil the child etc.

[Calebark]

^^ Do you think the difference in outcome of corporal punishment depends on the punishment given or on the person? Should all children receive such punishments, or only certain kids?

To counter your anecdote, I was both hit and restrained (locked in a closet), and it just made me more careful with hiding my bad behaviour, rather than stopping said behavior. I think there are better ways to 'toughen up' than physical and psychological punishments.

[S200]

off topic response to Calebark

^^ Do you think the difference in outcome of corporal punishment depends on the punishment given or on the person? Should all children receive such punishments, or only certain kids?

To counter your anecdote, I was both hit and restrained (locked in a closet), and it just made me more careful with hiding my bad behaviour, rather than stopping said behavior. I think there are better ways to 'toughen up' than physical and psychological punishments.

I think it depends on the kid.
If he already has confidence, should be fine.
Corporal Punishment to a kid that is already shy isn't a good plan tho.
Mental toughness has to be learned young tho, i recon...

[Calebark]

It's not really off-topic, haha, don't worry about that

It's this bit about mental toughness that really gets me. Thiss study investigated the possible link between harsh physical punishment (ie, pushing, grabbing, shoving, slapping, hitting) in the absence of more severe child maltreatment (ie, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, physical neglect, emotional neglect, exposure to intimate partner violence), and found that harsh physical punishment was associated with increased odds of mood disorders, anxiety disorders, alcohol and drug abuse/dependence. This seems to have the opposite effect of 'mental toughness'.

A stoic individual is not necessarily a mentally healthy individual.