Is there such a thing as "reverse psychology"?

Question

I am in Part 2 of a book I am reading known as/called The Child with Special Needs" ! I have even heard the term "reverse psychology" before but don't know what the definition of the term "reverse psychology"is! Can somebody please help me??

PS I am a special needs young man mysaelf with cerebral palsy on my right side! I just thought I'd put that in!

Answer 1

Can I assume that your book is advocating the use of reverse psychology to aid in the therapy of special needs children?
It is always manipulative to get someone to do something against their will. The redeeming features would be that it would benefit the child and that there is no other way.
"Allright, maybe you shouldn't try to attend college. It will be too hard for you to do it," said by someone who is trying to make you see that you can do it.
C. :)!!

Answer 2

I have this problam. I really don't like going back to the states. I would rather stay in Asia for my summer holidays, but my family expects me home, so I go, since it's the only time I see them. I think it was last summer when all the carb-lite stuff was on the shelves. I just kept thinking, "Has my country gone insane?". I think that a lot when I'm in America. At restaurants they would ask if I wanted the carb-lite drink or side item substitute. I just said, "No, I'll take all the carbs with that." It's also interesting to live in a so-called communist country where Big Brother is supposed to be constantly watching you and you have to be on your best behavior. HA! I feel freer here than in America. I don't censor what I say around Chinese people, but I do censor myself around Americans back home. Most of the people I end up being around stateside have never gone, and will never go, abroad so they really don't understand how our country is seen by the rest of the world. Try telling some people that China is safer and less scary to live in the America and they go nuts. They can't possibly see how that can be true. They talk about China's civil rights violations, like America isn't guilty of that too. Yeah, right! Can you say "Guantanamo Bay?"

Answer 3

Reverse psychology is used often and by almost everyone (my 11 year old son the other day suggested we use it on his special-needs dad!).

It's a maniuplative move that tricks the subject into doing what you want them to do by suggesting they do the opposite. The simplest example is probably something like standing in front of your defiant 8 year old and saying, "Don't you dare put those toys in that box!" Or "no matter what you do, I don't want you to come into the kitchen." Those in "defiant" mode will of course put the toys in the box, or come into the kitchen.

It's not always done out of a want to manipulate, of course; sometimes (as in the case with my hub) it was in an attempt to get him to do something that would benefit him and calm him down. His mind wasn't in that mode yet, so helped get him there.

Sometimes you use it on others by doing things yourself ("Well, if you're staying up for awhile... I'm heading to bed." Response? "Oh, well I'm not staying up too long-- stay with me!" or something like that.) that will prompt a reverse response.

If you're looking for references on TV, all you need to do is watch "Hogan's Heroes." Often, when Hogan's really playing the Kommandant of the camp, he will use reverse psychology. EG, when he needed the camp clear and the men expected to be out of sight: "Please, sir, don't take away our football game. The men couldn't stand being restricted to the barracks." "Hogan, you've just given me their punishment." "You're a hard man, sir."

Hope this helps!

Answer 4

Reverse psychology is the term that describes the outcome where advocacy of one course of action persuades another person to do the opposite. I often use this little technique when trying to get secrets outta people or when trying to catch them in a lie. For example i could say to my little sister ...o your boyfriend seems like a nice kid and she says yea he is..... but she never told me she had a boyfriend but because i said that now she isnt sure if she told me about him or not and i just got her little secret confirmed quite easily! enjoy your book!

Answer 5

I've done this before with my children many years ago....if they wanted something to eat close to dinnertime I'd say yes....go eat 1000 chocolate chips cookies....but I didn't mean it....we would laugh they got the message...and ate just 1 or 2....SEE...I planted a seed of advice in their minds....that dinnertime was near so they decided not to eat the bag of cookies but just take a couple so it didn't ruin their appetite. I hope this is makes sense....best wishes to you in your health and in all things...
Mama Jazzy Geri

Answer 6

Im sorry to hear about your ailment. Reverse psychology is the process where we encourage people to do the opposite of what we want them to do in order to get them to do what we secretly want them to do in the first place.

Answer 7

It is where you try to manipulate someone by saying the opposite of what you want them to do. For example, if you want your child to take a bath, you tell them "Whatever you do, don't take a bath." Then you hope the child will take a bath because he/she is in the stage where they want to do the opposite of what the parent tells them to do. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. It depends on the age of the child and how many times this technique has been used on him/her.

Answer 8

An example would be - sure little Johnny, you can eat as many twinkies as you like, matter of fact - I want you to eat at least six before you leave the table.

Johnny thinks he died and went to heaven but after eating four, he realizes he doesn't want to eat more because he's now sick to his stomach.

Lesson learned: eyes bigger than stomach, moderation's better than greed, and, listen to mother.

Answer 9

It's manipulating people who all they want to do is fight. Like if you want them to do A, then you tell then to do B, and since they want to fight, they'll automatically do A.

Answer 10

yes