I personally think that physical punishment is the lazy way to discipline. It is easy to hit a child, but a lot more difficult to try to explain to them why it is wrong in a manner that will encourage them not to do it again.
By the time a kid is two and starts working out their independence, and start misbehaving as such, they are old enough to understand what you are saying to them and can be reasoned with.
This has been my experience with my son too. He has almost never been bad on purpose. I have rarely had to punish him. When they are little they usually need to be redirected from the behavior, if its getting into something they shouldn't or fighting over a toy. If you remove them from the situation then its usually cleared up. And now that he is almost 2 we have started doing time outs in his playpen for 1 or 2 minutes. He will test the boundary a few times but then we put him in time out and he cries but usually stops his behavior. The only time he has acted up is when he is really tired or teething. When he gets older we are going to use more logical and natural consequences for bad behavior. Children do not enjoy being humiliated and it really f***s with your self esteem. Spanking at the meeting is the ultimate humiliation.
Now lets compare my JW nephews and niece. They have been spanked since they were 6 months old (yes, swatted at 6 months old!) Spanking does NOT equal good discipline. The kids are bored, unruly and the youngest one has NO respect for his parents AT ALL. Not an ounce. Spanking no longer works on him and hes only 5. He doesn't care if he gets spanked, it becomes a challenge to show that it doesn't effect him. Also he has a lot of anger already and I know that the poor kid is going to have a hell of a time.
Here is another relevant study:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1983895,00.html
