Reward or punishment

Rewarding them how? Like heres a new Playstation for cleaning your room? Thats stupid.

Alright. Fair enough. Point taken.

I wasn't beaten as a child and most people would probably say I turned out pretty well. A parent spanking a child may see it as teaching their child that poor behavior has undesirable consequences so if they don't want a spanking they should behave. However, that's simply from the parent's perspective. The child may interpret it differently. They may learn from it that physical violence is how we respond to people not doing what we want. At this point, the parent may argue with me that they're making sure the child understands that it's punishment for misbehaving, but again the child may view it differently. In particular, many parents are bad about "because I said so" as their reason or answer for their child, and even a child can understand that "say so" isn't a legitimate reason, casting doubt on what their parent says. If "I say so" already raises doubts about the parents reasons, that further undermines the intended lesson of misbehavior resulting in spanking. Teaching somebody, anybody, of any age, is most efficient at their level, in a way they can understand it. This means the child's perception is key.