Reverse Psychology!

Reverse psychology may be defined as a phenomenon in which; we make the other person to do something that is opposite to what is actually he wishes to do.

The phenomenon of Reverse Psychology is based on the phenomenon of reactance, which means that the person does something which he actually didn’t wanted to do, but other person wished him to do the same thing.

Discovery of Reverse Psychology

Reverse psychology was first discovered by Scientists, ‘Adorno’ and ‘Horkhiemer’. They developed the theory of reverse psychology in which people responds to reverse of what actually they want to do.

Ardono and Horkhiemer developed a theory named as “Psychoanalysis in Reverse”.

An example for better explanation of reverse psychology

In order to define the concept of reverse psychology in a better way, we should take the following example. In the following picture, it is written, “Never LOOK HERE’.

Suppose, this arrow has been marked and it has been written because, the person or the group, actually wants people to look there.

In a real situation if people would see the same statement written, with an arrow marking the direction, there would be a tendency urging in people’s minds, so as to, ‘Why is it written not to look here’ or ‘There must be something, strange there, that’s why it is written not to look here’ or instead ‘There might be a treasure, stored, that’s why it is written not to look here’, and most of the people would try to look , that what actually is there at that place.

This is known as reverse psychology, tendency to act in a reverse manner.

Examples of Reverse Psychology

Reverse psychology can be widely used in a general day to day routine, many times, unknowingly or knowingly. There are many statements that we use on normal basis to get our work done. For example:

1. Don’t try for that, because you will lose.
2. I am sure that you can’t do this.
3. I hate you.
4. Do not go ahead, you will fall.
5. Do not even think that I love you.

People against whom Reverse Psychology can be effectively used:

1. Narcissists: Narcissists are the people who actually just think about their own self and do not care about others. In the context of thinking about their own self, they get isolated from the society and the world and their life gets engrossed in an environment where there is just loneliness. They are thus deprived of love, care that actually, they must get and this in turn leads them to lose their confidence. Reverse psychology can be effectively used against these people, this is because, they gets easily agitated and tend to work in an opposite way.
2. The people who are Overconfident: These kinds of people have so much self belief that they think that they are ultimately the best and whatever they do is accurate. They, find it useless to take suggestions and advices from others. Such people are actually intelligent fools and by using the technique of reverse psychology any one might easily use them to their advantage.
3. Stubborn people: A stubborn person is one, who do not change his ideas or thoughts according to someone else and tries to prove himself, correct all the time. Reverse psychology can be used against these kind of people, because they think themselves the correct and rest of the world wrong. If you want to get your job done, from a stubborn person, you can do it by, supporting their views and using them to get your job done.
4. The people who have less will power: Those people who have less will power get nervous easily and they completely believe on what is told to them, they take advices from many people before approaching any decision. In this contrast they get confused and commit wrong decisions. Thus they can also be used by reverse psychology.
5. Under confident people: There are people who have a negative mindset towards certain things, also they lack confidence. These kinds of people are easily vulnerable to reverse psychology.

Using the reverse psychology among children

Reverse psychology can be effectively used against children. Parents can try their children to do exactly opposite of what actually the child wishes to do.

The technique of reverse psychology is used by most of the parents but they are unaware of it.

For example: For instance, if you want your child to study and he does not want to do the same. You can ask your child,” Do not study, it’s bad to study, and it’s good to fail in exam.’

This would get a tendency in the child, that, he should study so that he should not fail in the examination.

Or else, if we wish the child to stop playing, we can use the following statement:

“Give me that, because you do not know, how to put it away from you.”

Sometimes, the child tend not to hold your hand while on street and try to run here and there, you may say to your child, “Go and move on the road, a truck would come up and hit you.”

Situations in which Reverse Psychology can be useful:

Reverse psychology can be extremely useful in some of the situations, such as:

1. Dating: Reverse psychology is extremely beneficial and widely useful in dating and can be used to a big advantage.
2. At work: The technique of reverse psychology is of great help and is extremely beneficial at office. You can very well use the techniques of reverse psychology and it can be used for our benefit in many ways such as to increase salary or to get a promotion.
3. In marketing: The technique of Reverse Psychology is useful in marketing. The salesman uses this method to sell their product, by convincing the user that they are badly in the need of a product, in spite they do not need that at all.
4. Teenage: The method of reverse psychology can be well used by teenagers, to get money from their parents for partying or trips.

How to use Reverse psychology?

Few basic steps:

1. Get aware of the person: Each and every person do not responds to reverse psychology, so before using this technique on anyone you must be well aware of the kind of person against whom you are using the technique of reverse psychology.
2. Wait for the right situation: Reverse psychology is most useful when the person is in the over excited or an emotional state.
3. React in the opposite to what you are actually arguing
4. Be ready to take action: Do not threaten someone unless you think that you can take effective action against him/her.

Negative effects of Reverse Psychology

Since reverse psychology is a technique related to the use of brain and psychology, so it must be used with extreme care, otherwise it may also have negative effects:

• Should be used against the right person: The technique of reverse psychology should be used against the right person. If it is used against the wrong person it might be extremely harmful.
• Overuse might be harmful: Overusing of reverse psychology might be harmful, because it may get the other person to know that, you are using reverse psychology against him/her. In such a situation the person would start affecting opposite to what is actually

Thus, if reverse psychology is used in a proper way, it can be used widely in day to day life and a vital and a wide spread of reverse psychology is largely beneficial to the Human society.