Reverse psychology
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[edit] Children
Reverse psychology is often used on children due to their high tendency to respond with reactance, a desire to restore threatened freedom of action. Some parents feel that the best strategy is sometimes "reverse psychology": telling children to stay in the house when you really want them to choose to go outside and play'.[1]
Questions have however been raised about such an approach when it is more than merely instrumental, in the sense that 'reverse psychology implies a clever manipulation of the misbehaving child'[2] and nothing more. With respect to '"emotional intelligence"...[&] successful fathering', the advice has been given: 'don't try to use reverse psychology....such strategies are confusing, manipulative, dishonest, and they rarely work'.[3] In addition, consistently allowing a child to do the opposite of what he/she is being advised, undermines the authority of the parent.
[edit] The paradoxical intervention
Closely associated with reverse psychology in psychotherapy is the technique of 'the Paradoxical intervention....This technique has also been called "prescribing the symptom" and "antisuggestion"'.[4] Here the technique employed is to frame the therapist's 'message so that resistance to it promotes change (i.e. paradoxical prescriptions, reverse psychology)'.[5]
Such interventions 'can have a similar impact as humor in helping clients cast their problems in a new light....By going with, not against, the client's resistance, the therapist makes the behavior less attractive'.[6]
[edit] Paradoxical marketing
'In a world where it is expected that all things should be available...less availability' has emerged as a new selling point: 'by engaging in such a restricted anti-marketing ploy the brand has won kudos'[7] - reverse psychology. The result can be 'what the Japanese call a secret brand...no regular retail outlets, no catalog, no web presence apart from a few cryptic mentions...people like it because it's almost impossible to find'.[8]
[edit] Manipulation
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Reverse psychology can also prey on a person's ego, as when it is used, it can make the target feel incompetent; effectively persuading the person to perform the desired action[citation needed]. When this psychology is used in limit its going to give best results. But when used invariably its going to be a very bad hit on the potential of the child/individual. Whenever this psychology is used the brain triggers on the questioning of the opponent and forces and believes that it has the individual to work on the act. The main reason is there will be a minor hit on the ego of the individual.
[edit] Examples
[edit] In popular culture
Classic examples of reverse psychology in popular culture include a large, bright red button with a sign next to it saying "do not push", or a sign saying "jump at your own risk", such as in the computer game Neverhood, where a large drain is accompanied by signs that say "Do not jump in!" and "You will die!", although jumping in the pipe is the only way to achieve game over in the whole game without finishing it. The Looney Tunes are also well known for using such "bright red button" gags. A well-known example of reverse psychology is the Looney Tunes cartoon Rabbit Fire, where Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck are trying to convince Elmer Fudd it's the hunting season for the other species and not their own. After a back-and-forth with Bugs proclaiming "Duck season!" and Daffy "Wabbit [sick] season!", Bugs switches to say "Rabbit season!", to which Daffy begins saying "Duck season!"- even going so far as to exclaim "I say it's duck season, and I say, FIRE!" Daffy is promptly shot and is quite annoyed after noticing he was tricked.Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal Astral uses reverse psychology to get Yuma to XYZ summon his best monster, Number 39: Utopia.
Occasionally, humor is derived from reverse psychology backfiring, as in a FoxTrot strip when Jason, faced with punishment, begs his mom to take away his computer rather than make him eat a whole box of Ho-Hos, and she agrees. A similar example appears in Narbonic.
[edit] In plays and fiction
There are numerous examples of reverse psychology in fiction, cinema, and cartoons, including William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar where Mark Antony uses reverse psychology to get the town's people to cause a riot.
In one of Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus stories, Br'er Rabbit escapes from Br'er Fox by repeatedly pleading "Please, Br'er Fox, don't fling me in that briar patch." The fox does so, allowing the rabbit to escape: 'the Rabbit uses "reverse psychology" to outsmart the Fox'.[9]
Reverse psychology occurs several times on The Simpsons. In the third season episode "Saturdays of Thunder", Homer has a conversation with his brain after reading a passage in Bill Cosby's parental-advice book Fatherhood:
- Homer's Brain: Don't you get it? You've gotta use reverse psychology.
- Homer: That sounds too complicated.
- Homer's Brain: OK, don't use reverse psychology.
- Homer: All right, I will!
'In The Ghost Writer (1979), the Master - E. E. Lonoff - is "countersuggestible"; one manipulates him via reverse psychology in much the same manner as, say, Poe's cerebral detectives match their wits against master criminals'.[10] Similarly in Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado", Montresor uses reverse psychology to persuade Fortunato to enter his vaults. He says that Fortunato is too tired and should get some rest, and that he should find someone else to help him with his problem. Montresor knew that Fortunato would disagree and insist on entering the vault.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Eliot R. Smith/Diane M.Mackie, Social Psychology (Hove 2007) p. 380
- ^ R. J. Delaney/K. R Kunstal, Troubled Transplants (2000) p. 81
- ^ John Gottman, The Heart of Parenting (London 1997) p. 21, p. 179 and p. 212
- ^ Gerald Corey, Theory and Practice of Counselling and Psychotherapy (1991) p. 155
- ^ R. F. Baumeister/B. J. Bushman, Social Psychology and Human Nature <2007) p. 467
- ^ Corey, p. 385 and p. 155
- ^ Indrajit Sinha/Thomas Foscht, Reverse Psychology Marketing (2007) p. 156
- ^ William Gibson, Zero History 9London 2010) p. 45-6 and p 72
- ^ Madelyn Jablon, Black Metafiction (1999) p. 100
- ^ Sanford Pinsker, Bearing the Bad News (1990) p. 141
[edit] Further reading
- Gerald R. Weeks, Promoting Change through Paradoxical Therapy (1991)
