What exactly does Dr. Phil mean when he says "we teach people how to treat us"? And do you agree with this?

Question

If so, why?

Answer 1

He means that if you leave it as acceptable and do not object, when someone is mean to you, humiliates you, takes advantage of you, teases you unmercifully and that sort of thing you are "teaching" them to do that to you again. Take advantage of me once, shame on you. Take advantage of me twice, shame on me. If you play the doormat, folks will walk on you (at least some will).

Answer 2

What hes saying stems from the saying "treat others how you would like to be treated yourselves" . The way hes putting it is saying to set the example to others. Be a roll model etc. Yes I do sincerely agree with this. If I was to set the example of being mean to someone I cant really expect them to treat me nicely can I ? We set examples all the time to people all around us and what we give out we will get back. The question is what do you want people to think of you and what would you like them to learn from you.

Answer 3

If you're in an abusive relationship, you're telling the abuser that it's okay, obviously, because you're still there. We teach people what's okay with us by not getting mad, by pretending we aren't hurt, and by letting things build up but hiding them. Yes, I agree. I think that we should all try to be more frank about things instead of pretending everything's okay until people walk all over us, then we blow up.

Answer 4

It means that how we respond either gives positive or negative reinforcement on how someone treats us. It's true. For instance, if you refuse to move when someone asks something without saying "please" they will learn to use that phrase much quicker. You just changed how they treated you.

Answer 5

that guy is an idiot