Logical Consequences

Logical consequences is a theory of classroom discipline rooted in Alfred Adler's individual psychology and developed for classroom and parenting practice chiefly by the psychiatrist Rudolf Dreikurs, most fully in his 1968 book Psychology in the Classroom and in Discipline Without Tears, co-written with Pearl Cassel. Dreikurs held that a child's misbehavior is a mistaken attempt to gain a sense of belonging and significance within the group, and identified four underlying goals of misbehavior: seeking attention, seeking power, seeking revenge, and displaying assumed inadequacy to avoid further failure. Rather than responding to misbehavior with arbitrary punishment, which Dreikurs saw as an assertion of adult power that provokes further conflict, the theory calls for teachers to apply logical consequences, outcomes that follow reasonably and directly from the misbehavior itself, decided with the student's participation where possible, and applied firmly but respectfully rather than punitively. Dreikurs distinguished logical consequences both from natural consequences, outcomes that occur on their own without any adult arranging them, and from punishment, which is typically unrelated to the misbehavior and imposed mainly to assert authority. The theory calls for a democratic classroom in which students help set rules and understand the reasoning behind them, with the aim of building internal responsibility and self-discipline rather than mere compliance with external control.