Punishment: Does it Really Work?

Learning and behavioral psychologists have constantly been debating whether punishment is effective in learning behavior. Reinforcement seems to work perfectly fine, but what about the incorporation of punishment? For instance, positive punishment (although never actually "positive" in any sense of the word) is the presentation of a stimulus following a response, which then leads to a decrease in the future strength of that response; it is usually unpleasant or adverse. If a child takes a cookie before dinner after being told "no," and a parent makes them do all of the dishes after dinner, this is an example of positive punishment. By adding the chore, the intended effect is that the child will not take a cookie anymore. But does this really work? What if the child doesn't mind doing the dishes, and will happily do them if that means that they can have a cookie? A negative punishment could be that the parents stop buying cookies, which completely removes the intended item for the child. There is no right or wrong way to punish/reinforce one's child, but clearly some methods may work better for all different types of children.