MANIPULATION

When I teach composition at the college level, I tell my students on the first day: 

“If you have failed this course once, stay after class so you can make an appointment with me.”

I hold office hours every day after all my classes for all my students. I give all my students 20 minutes per meeting. I listen to why they failed the first time, and then we make a contract, a plan, for how they will hopefully pass class this time. 

I tell all my students they can revise their essays as often as they want but with a final, non-negotiable deadline. I don’t re-write their essays. I give them feedback to help them succeed. They must hand in every revised copy when the paper is due.

One semester I tracked how many High Schools don’t really teach writing or ask students to write papers. The statistics in this country were eye-opening.

I graduated two renowned writing instruction institutions that taught writing this way. I got plenty of feedback, so I give my students the same helpful feedback. 

I stick to helpful feedback. The student doesn’t need to work any harder to gain my approval. 

I think EVERYONE should read this book, Who’s Pulling Your Strings, because it outlines what groups like MAGA and Dark Psychology salespeople are already doing. So are sick abusers. 

If you are a psychology major in College, you should cover this material. 

The author simplifies the manipulator’s motives:  

  1. They want to get you to do something.
  2. They want to get you to stop doing something.

There are five basic ways the manipulators control their victims: 

  1. Positive reinforcement.
  2. Negative reinforcement.
  3. Intermittent or partial reinforcement
  4. Punishment
  5. Traumatic one-trial learning [in other words, you need a second experience to learn what’s going on. “Did she just bump into me on purpose?”]

When you notice the hot (positive), cold (negative), hot (positive), and cold (negative) methods, all within a relatively short amount of time, you know the person you are dealing with has limited ways to solve your problem except by trying to manipulate you.

This book helps you become a hard-target for manipulation.

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