Reverse Phsycology (sp?)

Factual Questions
1

“…when im older I am going to become a great phsycologist…”

Reverse phsycology is where it’s at… i believe this. and have thought about it for many years… rebelion (sp?) is natural for teenages as I am one… so if there is nothing to rebel against?? you wont rebel… and that is the sum for happiness…

Heres an example… A rule for dress at school is to have your shirt tucked in 24/7, and suprisingly no one has their shirt tucked in… you rebel against the rules… BECAUSE YOU WANT THE POWER!

If you have the power to do it, you will most likely not do it… because you never know what youve got until it’s gone… the message that ‘you are allowed to have your shirt untucked’, makes it that you are breaking no rule when it happnes to be untucked, the stress on teachers who reinforce the rule would dissapear as the ned to reinorce it is abolished…

This brings up tonnes of other issues…
If I wrote 10 pages on other examples and theorys I would only be scratching the serface… but one last one which i was involved in last year…

My english teacher was a true model for the point im trying to make…
Her rules were, I dont care if you do your homework or not, it is your problem if you dont learn, and I am simply here for help, advice, and to be a friend… Of coarse i did my homework… haha. suprise… it worked!!!WOW because i had the power to learn…

Notice the results are all positive,
What a nice place earth could be if there was more positiveness :smiley:

Thanks,
Russell

2

Reverse psychology works a lot better than the reverse physiology I thought this thread was about !

3

IYO. I’m not that far from my teenage years, so I can say with certainty that I wasn’t rebellious. Neither were a lot, if not all, of my friends.

If no one’s tucked their shirt in, then it’s not about the power you or your fellow students have to be untucked. You just have a very poorly enforced school dress code.

Even if you were the only one with an untucked shirt, it doesn’t say anything good about you to ignore the rules. People won’t think “Now there goes an empowerd young individual!” They’ll more likely think, “That kid has no respect for rules or authority.”

So… if I have the power to cancel my psych classes (which I do, probably), then chances are, I won’t cancel them… because one day that power will be taken away and I’ll miss the rush that power brings? Oh boy. I don’t think so. Lemme tellya, if doing so didn’t mean a hassle for me and all my students, I’d have cancelled the entire semester… which leads me to my point:

In the situations you describe, “power” has little to do with it, at least from your side of things. The authority figures are the ones with the power-- the power over you. For you, it’s a matter of weighing the consequences of your actions.

Your school has a dress code. You can either decide to follow it, or you can decide to not follow it. If you don’t follow it, there will be consequences: you may get a stern talking-to, expelled, caned, whatever. Most people don’t want those things, so they follow the dress code.

Your teacher assigns you homework. You can choose to do it, or you can choose to not do it. If you don’t do your homework, you’ll get poor grades, not get promoted to the next grade level, flunk out of school, etc. Most people don’t want those things, so they do their work.

And I hate to break it to you, but none of these situations have much to do with reverse psychology. If you were told “Go ahead, untuck those shirts! See if we care!” and “You don’t have to do any of that stupid homework anyway; who really wants to get an education?”, then yeah, it would be… but as you describe them, no, that’s not reverse psychology.

4

HHAHAHhahhah…

And you spent all that time dissaproving of my comments…

In fact,
My point wasnt on what you make it out to be, which was primarily on the “poorly enforced” rules at school…
But was on the fact that a positive thinking atmosphere creates worthy trust… you arent far away from your teenage years? I am in them now… i know what im talking about… you have forgotten the feeling as you have changed psycologically and physically…

About the homework, I said that I did it, I did it all… and I have gained very good school results thankyou very much… I am comparing my subjects to the teaching methods of each of them…
Whether or not I like that particular subject has nothing to do to it… the best i can be is me. I didnt wish to do my homework for science, although i could just contain myself… and i pulled through… the feeling I had when i was doing it was that of rebelling, i dont want to do my homework, As for english, i felt good about doing my homework because i felt it was my choice and I was doing something good for myself…
That is all…
I hope you will find this post a little more towards my point.
…
Russell

5

IMATION, I really don’t understand your point . . .
Are you saying that it’s human nature for teenagers to rebel? Uh-huh . . . Sure some do, but so do lots of adults and small children. I’m a teenager myself and don’t feel the need to rebel.
Your thoughts seem rather mixed up.

6

:rolleyes:

7

IMATION, this forum is called General Questions. You don’t really have a question in your OP. Next time, post stuff like this in MPSIMS, okay? Thanks.
[sub]In all honesty, I’d rather see this thread locked than sent off to MPSIMS.

8

IMATION, you sure you did that English HW?:rolleyes:

9
  • Sure thing … I am all innocent honesty *

:wink:

10

Welcome, IMATION, to the Straight Dope Message Board.

Please take some time to read the forum descriptions and lurking some old threads to see what our message board is all about.

You seem like a good chap who could have a lot of fun an learn a lot here.

But you ain’t going to make no friends by posting stuff in the wrong forum or by trying to take your fellow members for a ride.

This thread is closed.