reverse psychology

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What is reverse psychology, and how is it used in every day life?

-- will kim (hungryhawn3@aol.com), August 25, 2001

Answers

Hi Will, of course reverse psychology is 180 degrees out from forward psychology, not to be confused with the history of psychology were looking backwards in time shouldn't be confused with going in reverse. Will, I'm afraid you're on a snipe hunt; you have encountered a myth. Several years now studying psychology, and I have never ran across the term in a text- which doesn't mean I don't know what you are talking about. I can think of two concepts in psychology that come close to what I think you mean. First look in a undergraduate Social Psychology text book for methods of persuation, the social maneuvers sales people use. Also, you might be interested in a similar phenomena (maybe it is similar) which is psychoanalytic concept called resistance. Look that up in a psychological dictionary and on Psych Lit at your local college libarary. Good hunting, David

-- david clark (doclark@yorku.ca), August 30, 2001.

People have different concepts with 'reverse psychology'. For me it is an art of studying human behavior - controlling, and manipulating it by using different approach...from negative to positive or vice versa.

As I have observed, people tend to react opposite to what you want to happen. There are times that people would display opposition to your ideas, because of their insecurities and they want to get the attention of the person who is close to you. They personally show that they don't like you by being sarcastic but if you show that you do appreciate them and that you do not 'extinguish fire with fire' -- you will see in the end that they will gradually learn to like you.

Of course, behavior and situation differs. So applying 'reverse psychology' must also change according to different circumstances.

-- myrrah barcelona (knowledge.life@eudoramail.com), October 31, 2001.


Reverse psychology is a tenique you use to get what you want. You can use it to pursuade someone to do something you want them to do. It is what i like to call doing the unexspected. When someone wants you to disagree you just simply agree with them and then that preson will be shocked so much that they will want to disagree with you then leading you to getting what you want.

-- Rusty Groves (RustyG2006@aol.com), April 13, 2002.

I think that reverse psychology is simply living being misdirecting another living being, or other thinking creatures, into doing what they desire. My definition of it would be: the power of one's mind using a phenominal force to control, or dictate, a thinking, living creature. In the broader sense, to take over reality while "under cover." What I mean by that is that others do not know how something happened(i.e. A person wanting to go to spot A, but without the person's consent, goes to spot B). I think the way people use it in every day life is to have more insight. A second way people can use it is to have greater authority, prior to spirituality, over society or the river of life. A third way is to test if they still have the ability to "reverse" another person. A forth way is to deceive a person into thinking wrongly agianst their beliefs. A fifth way is that they can have what they desire at the present time. A sixth way is to get the reversee to get confused.

-- Timothy Snowball, 16 yrs old (tinytimsnobal@yahoo.com), April 25, 2002.

Whoever Tim snowball is neads to realize reverse psychology has nothing to do with the river of life, or half the things he said. It is doing the opposite of what someone expects you to do in order to confuse that person into doing what you initially wanted them to do, but the opposite of what you told him. In another way, get your way by agreeing when they want you to disagree.

-- matt (ginthy77@yahoo.com), June 02, 2002.


As an avalangelitic reader of Anthony Robbins, I would like to add that reverse psychology would be another name for "mismatchers". Which Robbins categorizes as matches and mismatchers. If you were to say to a mismatcher "Work harder!!!" than they will inevitably slow down.... like telling a child to stop doing something.... they will act in reverse.. Brad

-- brad (coppermine2@bigpond.com), July 13, 2004.

Well what i think about reverse pyscology is pretty amazing. If someone masters it he is using a part of his brain that is normally not being used. Me for example is fascinated by it because you literally got control of the subject being person etc. People who us this wonderfully talent wrongly then makes everything chaos if you know what i mean

-- josh spence (fish_386@hotmail.com), July 19, 2004.

My oppinion on reverse phsycology would be using words to trick the minds of other people to get what information you want from them. almost using words instead of fists.

-- Jesse Preston (drunk_and_disorderly100@hotmail.com), July 22, 2004.

I think that reverse psychology is thinking strategically. Like a game of chess making the right moves and saying the right things depends how you read the situation on any given moment.

-- ula nejad (ulanejad@yahoo.com), August 16, 2004.

its a way your gonna reverse something the idea of some living, example like my classmate he is always getting to me closer and try to touch my hands trying to bluf at me but when i try the reverse psychology on him, this is what i do i try to do the things he's doing to me. then the result he just anoi me and i won hehehe

-- joshua gonzales (josh_ragna@yahoo.com), August 16, 2004.


Reverse Psychology

"As physics professor at Adelaide University in Australia, Sir Kerr Grant used to illustrate the time of descent of a free-falling body by allowing a heavy ball suspended from the lecture-theater roof trusses to fall some 30 feet and be caught in a sand bucket. "Each year the bucket was lined up meticulously to catch the ball — and each year students secretly moved the bucket to one side, so that the ball crashed thunderously to the floor. Tiring of this rather stale joke, the professor traced a chalk line around the bucket. The students moved the bucket as usual, traced a chalk mark around the new position, rubbed it out and replaced the bucket in its original spot.

"'Aha!' the professor explained, seeing the faint outline of the erased chalk mark. He moved the bucket over it and released the ball — which thundered to the floor as usual."

I believe "reverse psychology," as the term is applied, to be a form of manipulation in every day life. There are many examples of reverse psychology, such as the anectdote above. Another being to agree when one expects you to disagree, to do the unexpected, which may be in an effort to confuse, redirect, or change the mind of one.

A man said that with women, pushing when they said no got them to change their minds approximately 10%, while using reverse psychology got them to change their minds 75% of time. When a female would tell him, "You can't come in." He wouldn't "fight fire with fire" and try to push his way in, he'd merely agree. "Yes, you're right, I should be getting home anyway, it's really getting late." He's done the unexpected, and will most probably gain more respect and liking from said woman.

On the other hand there's the child version. If you tell a child, "You can't have that." What do they do? They try to get it. It sparks their imagination, it intrigues them. Curiosity being a very big part of the mind of a child. Many times if you do the opposite and say, "Alright, you can see it." It takes the fun out of it for them, there's no sense in trying to get it if one is not kept from it, and curiosity dwindles, and soon the child will tire of the object.

One last form of reverse psychology is something which a friend of mine does. He's somewhat overweight, but to take the sting out of abusive comments, he makes fun of himself. We were sitting in class, and he walked in front of the overhead, "Look everyone! Eclipse!" .. People don't find it any fun to make nasty commentation for their enjoyment if the victim does it as well, and finds it just as funny as them.

- Not a psyche major, just a seventeen year old kid.

-- Daniel Gray (siberian.-.tiger@sbcglobal.net), August 16, 2004.


In response to Daniel's last example of reverse psychology: your friend may have taken this act of reverse psychology from the movie _Roxanne_, in which Steve Martin (who, in the movie, sports an elephantine nose) tells 25 jokes about it in a bar-room challenge, completely reversing an otherwise embarrassing situation.

-- Casper Hulshof (no@nono.com), August 19, 2004.

And, of course, the movie "Roxanne" is nothing more than a remake, sanitized to suit American sensibilities, of the Edmond Rostand play "Cyrano de Bergerac" (1896) which is based, in turn, on the life of the eponymous 17th-century French satirist. The French movie "Cyrano" starring Gerard Depardieu is (IMHO) a much better film.

-- Christopher Green (cgreen@chass.utoronto.ca), August 19, 2004.

reverse psychology is what you use to get someone off your back.For example, say their is someone that will never leave you alone, after you finally crack, you ask your friend what to do, then they say,"Do reverse psychology.".Then you start doing what that one person does to you to them then eventually they'll start to leave you alone.

-- Jacob Hicks (diablofreak@msn.com), October 20, 2004.

I think reverse psychology is being able to trick people by saying something that is applying a different meaning. It is a little confusing but it helps people get a different answer or reaction then they would using normal psychology.

-- acacia (acaciarules1227@yahoo.ca), March 13, 2005.


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