Post by letsconnect on Nov 29, 2004 6:29:53 GMT -5
An easy one for dentists reading this: instead of asking your patient to raise a hand if they'd like you to stop, you could ask them to raise both arms slowly.
Several psychological tricks involved here: the "slowly" bit subconsciously suggests that no sudden pain is involved (so don't use the word "slowly" if there may be sudden pain involved or it could backfire
). Also, it makes the experience different from previous experiences (thereby cutting down on the conditioned fear response/classical conditioning. Esp. useful considering that your patient may have had a bad experience with a dentist not stopping in the past despite giving a stop signal).
Several psychological tricks involved here: the "slowly" bit subconsciously suggests that no sudden pain is involved (so don't use the word "slowly" if there may be sudden pain involved or it could backfire
). Also, it makes the experience different from previous experiences (thereby cutting down on the conditioned fear response/classical conditioning. Esp. useful considering that your patient may have had a bad experience with a dentist not stopping in the past despite giving a stop signal).